TGW Pocket Sorters for German Booksellers Libri and BoD

The intralogistics provider TGW Logistics Group is installing a highly automated system for the German book wholesaler Libri and the publishing service provider BoD. This will enable accelerated deliveries and extremely fast processing times of an average of just 20 minutes.

(Marchtrenk) Within the corporate group, Libri and BoD rely on the innovative pocket sorter OmniPick® from TGW. The German bookseller benefits from extremely fast processing times for express orders: From the production of the books to unloading into the order container, an average of only 20 minutes elapse. The go-live of the highly automated system in Bad Hersfeld, Hesse, is already planned for autumn 2021.

Intralogistics Facing New Challenges

Libri (Latin for books) has been an innovative partner in the book trade for over 90 years. The sister company of the German media service provider is the European market leader in digital book publishing with BoD (Books on Demand). The print-on-demand specialist is a production and distribution service provider for publishers and authors in self-publishing. The books are produced at BoD using digital printing – starting from a print run of one piece. Unlike traditional print runs, this method is very flexible but presents new challenges for intralogistics.

OmniPick® Accelerates Deliveries

The BoD range currently includes over four million digitized titles, which are printed and subsequently shipped within 24 to 48 hours. However, the books must be transported from the BoD production near Hamburg to the Libri logistics center in Bad Hersfeld, which is about 400 kilometers away. To speed up the process, BoD and Libri are therefore establishing a new print-on-demand and logistics center in Bad Hersfeld under the name PLUREOS. “I am very pleased that we were able to convince Libri and BoD of the advantages of our technology,” emphasizes Christoph Wolkerstorfer, CSO of TGW Logistics Group. “OmniPick® is the smart solution for omni-channel business models. The special advantages lie in high flexibility and low total cost of ownership.”

Unique Offering

“With our new print-on-demand and logistics center PLUREOS, we are creating a unique offering for the book market in Europe,” report Yogesh Torani, Managing Director of BoD, and Jörg Paul, COO of Libri, “OmniPick® contributes to the automatic processing of individual books, allowing us to produce books overnight and deliver them to the book trade. There will be no time difference in delivery between stocked and newly printed books anymore.”

This is How the System Works

The printed books are taken over at the end of the production line and handed over to a loading station that automatically fills the hanging bags with one book each. In the next step, the bags with the BoD books enter the dynamic buffer, which has space for 19,000 bags. A presort buffer initially groups them into sorting runs before the final sequencing is carried out in the matrix sorter. Subsequently, the transport to the packing workstations and repacking of the books into Libri shipping bins takes place. The highly automated system was planned together with Dr. Markus Nave from MALORG Consulting. After a classic warehouse system for the BoD business model was technically and economically unfeasible, Libri opted for a flexible solution with OmniPick®.

Efficient Central Order Consolidation

From book production to unloading into the order container, an average of only 20 minutes elapse: OmniPick® enables efficient central order consolidation. Regardless of whether the items come from automatic or manual picking areas or whether they were already stored in OmniPick® upon receipt of goods (e.g., returns or fast movers): all are sorted, prepared, and packed together.
Photo: © TGW
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