Seat to build tallest automated warehouse in Spain

Automaker Seat says it is continuing with its commitment to making its Martorell, Spain factory “a benchmark of Industry 4.0”.

Seat, part of the Volkswagen Group, is going ahead with the construction of a new, automated logistics centre.

The facility will provide storage for parts and components and will be equipped with “smart technology to make its operation completely automated”, says Seat. 

The company currently uses at least 125 automated guided vehicles as part of the operation.

The logistics robotic technology used at the Martorell plant include machines supplied by companies such as Kivnon, Aristeril and Rari.

With a total capacity for 119,000 boxes and a maximum height of almost 44 metres, it is claimed that Martorell will be the tallest logistics warehouse in Spain.

Construction work on this facility, which will become the pillar of Seat’s Logistics Centre at the Martorell factory, is scheduled to conclude in the last quarter of 2018.

Dr Andreas Tostmann, Seat vice-president for production, says: “The creation of this wholly automated logistics centre once again demonstrates that Seat is a benchmark company in every area of Industry 4.0.

“With this project we are taking a qualitative leap forward in our service capacity and our vision of achieving logistics management excellence by increasing efficiency in the manufacturing process of our vehicles.”

Seat’s new warehouse will have a total surface area of 5,700 sq m divided into two facilities.

In the first one, with a height of 43.7 metres, up to 500 containers will be shifted every hour.

It will have a capacity for 24,000 containers stored in seven aisles.

The second, at 21 metres high, will feature five aisles for storing more than 95,000 boxes, where 1,100 will get shifted every hour.

This new facility represents another breakthrough in the logistics processes at the Martorell factory, which in recent months have received several awards.

Seat recently won the Manufacturing Excellence 2017 award in the category of Logistics and Logistics Network Management.

The judging panel of this award, which is considered one of the major events in the industrial sector, was particularly impressed by the factory’s excellent performance in supplier management and internal logistics.

Last June, the Barcelona International Logistics Exhibition recognised Seat for the efficiency and technological innovation of the Seat Easy Smart Logistics project.