In 1985, the first Jula department store, with combined head office and warehouse, opened in Skara, Sweden. The business expanded rapidly, and with that, its need for warehousing space and storage.
Today, Jula’s huge central warehouse is among the largest of its kind in the world, covering an area of 150,000 m2, with storage capacity for around 220,000 pallets.
The challenge was to fit out this vast space with the most suitable pallet racking for the business’s needs.
The solution
We worked closely with the warehouse construction company to agree the most suitable warehouse solution: mobile pallet racks (MOVO).
MOVO offers the fastest possible filling rate, plus it can be linked to the existing warehouse management system (WMS).
The MOVO system is electrically controlled and consists of pallet racks mounted on wagons, running on rails immersed in the floor. Indeed, installation involved 7,500 meters of rail being cast into the floor.
Each carriage section handles loads of up to 24 tons, with capacity to take wagons of any length. The wagons themselves are controlled by a Siemens system, whose technicians developed the software to link the system to Jula’s WMS.
Jula’s warehouse almost doubles the number of pallet spaces compared to standard pallet rack, and thanks to the roof height of 10.3m, there is room for six carrier layers in most places.
The result
“A very important part of this project has been the fact that GMH Constructor Sweden has been involved from the very beginning of the construction project. They have worked closely with the contractor, Peab, when it comes to quality assurance. The floor quality is incredibly important in a MOVO installation and we spent a lot of time on that.
“The basic work has been good and the focus has been on keeping a flow. We have been able to put the system into operation on an ongoing basis, which means that we have been able to handle all the teething problems along the way. It has felt very stable and safe that Constructor has been on site,” Lennart Karlsson, Logistics Manager, Jula.
About Jula
Jula is an fast-growing, family-owned business, retailing DIY products for the home user and craftspeople.
Founded in 1979, on Jultorp farm in Västergötland, Sweden, the enterprise was born out of the oil crisis, when demand grew for firewood for fuel. Jula began production with the first Jula saw (a combined saw and log-splitter), and the business grew.
Today, Jula employs some 3,000 people, has 90 department stores and generates turnover in the region of SEK 6 billion. For more about Jula, visit www.jula.se.