KNAPP will promote its expertise in the design, installation and maintenance of automated warehouse solutions.
Headquartered in Hart bei Graz, Austria, KNAPP has a sales and service network that features 18 subsidiaries and 14 representatives worldwide. The group has more than 1,800 employees and sales turnover in the year 2010/11 was over 272 million Euros.
There are over 1,400 active KNAPP logistics systems worldwide and the group’s clients include famous brands such as AAH, Alliance Boots, Avon, Cinram, DHL, Muller, Ocado, Office Depot, Phoenix, QVC, Schenker, Siemens, SPAR, Tiffany, Universal, Wella and Yves Rocher. In the UK, KNAPP has implemented some major projects recently, including systems for John Lewis, British Gas, Boots, Clarks and The Co-operative Pharmacy, all five of which have contracted KNAPP to supply resident customer support teams. Although regularly supplying large projects, KNAPP is also keen to make its expertise available to SMEs.
Specialising in automated order picking, KNAPP’s solutions feature intelligent conveyors, automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), sorters, A-frame dispensers and free-roaming shuttles. Paperless fulfilment – including RF, pick-by-light, voice picking and now optically guided picking with KiSoft Vision – is a particular specialism. The company’s customer support division maintains and repairs equipment of almost any manufacture, offering tailored service programmes to suit clients’ precise needs. KNAPP has recently launched its KiSoft Web Eye service – available as an addition to any customer support contract – which uses live, bi-directional video and voice transmission to identify and resolve service issues at the customer’s site. Wearing the fully mobile KiSoft Web Eye kit, a client employee or KNAPP engineer can transmit live images and sound from the actual location of any problem to the service experts at KNAPP’s headquarters in Austria.
KNAPP offers its own powerful WMS and also integrates its handling equipment with WMS products from other suppliers. On its stand, KNAPP will be promoting its powerful software solutions, including its award-winning KiSoft Mobile Warehousing.
The company will also be highlighting the benefits of its proven OSR Shuttle™ range, which combines shuttle-based storage with pick-to-light stations. The OSR ShuttleTM not only achieves up to six times the rate of totes in/out than a traditional ASRS, but it also has about 20% less footprint and uses only some 5% of the energy consumed by an equivalent ASRS. KNAPP recently received the order for its 10,000th shuttle and OSR ShuttleTM systems are installed at more than 150 sites worldwide, accounting for a massive 80% of shuttle storage systems in operation today. The largest of these to date is the OSR ShuttleTM supplied to Hermes Fulfilment in Germany, which features over 800 shuttles. Other customers include John Lewis, Alliance Boots, Ocado, British Gas, CooperVision, Centaur Services and AAH Pharmaceuticals in the UK; SPAR in Austria; Würth in Germany; Office Depot in France; Bausch + Lomb in the Netherlands; CIBA Vision in the USA; and AVON Products at several locations worldwide.