They are impressive figures: 131 meters long, 30 meters deep and 8 meters high - the new warehouse on the Fliegl factory premises in Triptis is huge. The new building had become necessary because Fliegl increased the production capacities and offers a particularly large variety of products: Whether curtainsiders or tipping semitrailers, low-loaders or tandem trailers, sliding floor trailers or container chassis - in order to be able to manufacture each ordered vehicle for its customers quickly and deliver it on time, Fliegl needs a lot of storage space. "We start production immediately when the order is received. Therefore, we must always have the corresponding parts in stock," reports mechatronics engineer Maximilian Fliegl.
Almost everything that is needed in trailer production is now ready on 5000 storage locations: Axles, rims, roof bows, wooden panels and small parts. Three logistics employees supply their colleagues in production with the necessary material. The highlight of the new warehouse is the mobile storage racks that can be moved sideways. "There are only two companies in Europe that build something like this. We decided on the supplier from Italy," says Fliegl. Like in an archive, the 31 storage racks can be pushed together without any space in between, thus creating about two thirds more storage space on the same footprint. Nevertheless, there is still five to seven metres of space where a part is to be taken from the shelves in order to manoeuvre it safely with a forklift truck. The hall is divided into three sectors so that the employees can work in parallel, even if the shelves are pushed together in one sector.
Matching the new warehouse, Fliegl invested in new floor conveyor vehicles, colloquially known as forklifts. 12 of them, with payloads of three and five tons, now transport the heavy loads between the warehouse and the production hall. At Fliegl, sustainability and environmental protection are writ large; since 2020, the vehicle manufacturer has been a member of the Initiative Klimaschutz-Unternehmen e.V. Therefore, the new forklifts are not operated with fossil fuels such as gas or diesel - but electrically and thus emission-free. And not only locally emission-free, but completely, because the electricity comes from the roof, reports Maximilian Fliegl: "Large-scale photovoltaic systems are installed on the factory halls, which supply significantly more electricity than the factory consumes. The new warehouse is also currently being fitted with solar modules."
With a construction period of one and a half years, the planning was almost adhered to; due to Corona, there were slight delays. On the other hand, Fliegl remained fully on schedule with the investment sum: 5.5 million euros are a promise for the future of the location.
