Rhenus

Rhenus, a global 3PL operating across 1,330 sites in more than 70 countries, was hitting the ceiling of manual warehousing operations at its facility serving Thalia — the leading omni-channel bookseller across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. After more than 20 years managing Thalia's distribution to hundreds of physical stores, surging e-commerce order volumes pushed throughput requirements beyond what manual processes could sustain. The existing footprint offered no room to expand, seasonal workforce variability created recurring onboarding bottlenecks, and fulfillment accuracy and speed were increasingly at risk. Without a step-change in automation, Rhenus faced eroding service levels and no path to scaling Thalia's omni-channel growth.

Rhenus implemented an AutoStore automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) — a cube-based robotic fulfillment platform — across an 8,000 m² brownfield footprint at its Hörselgau facility, with Kardex serving as the integration partner. The deployment included 530 R5 Robots traversing an aluminum Grid structure, 94 CarouselPort workstations, 240,000 storage Bins, and a 2.5 km conveyor system. Robots autonomously retrieve Bins from the stacked Grid and deliver them to ergonomic workstations, where operators pick or replenish with guided assistance from the IPA Picking Assistant. The full system integrates with Rhenus's existing warehouse management system via KCC Software, requiring no warehouse expansion — a critical constraint given the brownfield implementation context.

The AutoStore installation delivers 13,100 Bin presentations per hour, ranking it among the highest-throughput AutoStore systems ever built globally. Key outcomes include:

• 100% productivity increase — Rhenus now processes significantly higher order volumes within the same physical footprint and workforce
• 75% reduction in training time — guided workstation interfaces compress onboarding for new and seasonal staff, directly addressing peak-period capacity risk
• 99.8% system uptime — sustained reliability supports continuous omni-channel fulfillment without service interruptions
• 240,000 Bins in 8,000 m² — dense cube storage eliminates the need for facility expansion despite sustained volume growth

The operation now supports Thalia's full omni-channel network without adding warehouse square footage.

• Cube-based AS/RS systems can double productivity within an unchanged physical footprint, making them particularly compelling for 3PLs operating under lease or space constraints.
• Simplified, guided picking interfaces are a measurable lever for workforce agility — a 75% cut in training time directly reduces seasonal labor risk.
• Brownfield deployments are viable at scale; integrating AutoStore with existing WMS and conveyor infrastructure avoided a full facility rebuild.
• Throughput benchmarks (Bin presentations per hour) should anchor system-sizing decisions — Rhenus's 13,100/hour figure reflects both robot count and port configuration working in concert.
• Long-term 3PL partnerships benefit from automation designed to scale with customer growth, not just current demand.