Mahle opens automated warehouse in Mississippi

OLIVE BRANCH, Miss. — Mahle Aftermarket G.m.b.H. has opened a highly automated warehouse in Olive Branch that it expects will speed up parts deliveries to repair shops and distributors, reduce the frequency of returns and enable an order to be processed within 30 minutes.

Mahle invested about $6.4 million in the 12,900-sq.-ft. fully automated facility. Additional warehouse locations in Europe will be similarly outfitted beginning in 2023.

"Mahle Aftermarket has been operating digitally in many areas for a long time now. We're building upon that with automated order-picking to better serve our customers," said Olaf Henning, a member of the Mahle Management Committee and director of the aftermarket business unit.

Scalable, automated warehouses allow Mahle Aftermarket to react flexibly to fluctuating stock and shipments, ensuring reliability for its customers, the company said.

Highly automated warehouses are also more sustainable and resource-efficient, the company claims, as the system Mahle chose uses only about one-quarter of the area of a conventional warehouse. This reduces costs and decreases the amount of land needed for logistics locations.

The backbone of the automated warehouse is the "Autostore" system from integrator Kardex Group.

Mahle also claims the automated warehouse is extremely energy efficient, with 10 of its robotic shuttles using only as much electricity as a vacuum cleaner.

The Olive Branch location will stock 22,000 different filtration and thermal management products and engine components. The logistics center also serves as a flexible and scalable way to organize consumables for the on-site production of engine gaskets, the company said.

In 2023, the next logistics location to be converted will be in Décines, France, Mahle said.