Avnet: Early AutoStore client

Founded in 1921 by Charles Avnet in New York City, Avnet is a 100-year-old company with a rich history.

Avnet started off buying and selling surplus radio parts and then moved into selling radio parts and kits to manufacturers and dealers. After making antennas for the armed forces during World War II, the forward-thinking company expanded into selling capacitors, fasteners, and switches aimed at the aircraft industry. It also moved into audio equipment and electrical components and acquired nine other companies between 1960 and 1970.

In 1964, Lester Avnet, the founder’s son, became the president and chairman.

Avnet has always been a company that moves with the times. And so, in the 1970s, they also moved into the field of computers. Then, in 1998, Roy Vallee became the CEO and shifted the company headquarters to Phoenix, Arizona.

Several more acquisitions followed, making Avnet the international company it is today — a leader in the field of distribution and supply chain management in the electronics sector.

By 2019, the company had over 15,000 employees and generated over $20 billion per year. During this year, Avnet processed 6.7 million orders and shipped 99 billion separate units.

Listed on the stock exchange since the mid-1950s, they now have over 300 franchises worldwide.

AutoStore and Avnet partner in 2010

Avnet’s primary location in Poing, Bavaria, stretches over an area of 27,500 square meters (296,007 square feet). In 2010, the company decided to install an AutoStore system, empowered by Swisslog, at its new distribution center in this location. Construction started in September 2010.

The AutoStore system, which has now been in operation for more than a decade, maximizes storage space and circumvents the need for time-consuming, labor-intensive manual picking.

“AutoStore not only impresses with its high level of efficiency, but can also be perfectly adapted to the structural conditions so that storage space can be optimally used,” says Ludger Tillmann, Managing Director at Avnet Logistics.

Avnet was one of the first companies worldwide to install an AutoStore system in a distribution warehouse.

The AutoStore system at Avnet

The AutoStore specifications at this Avnet distribution warehouse are as follows:

Products are stored in an aluminum grid that stretches over 1,100 square meters (11,840 square feet).

The automatic container system comprises 16 levels. The most frequently ordered goods are kept near the top of the grid for easy retrieval.

38 Robots glide across the top of the grid, using long grippers to pull up the requested Bins from below. Once a Robot has retrieved the right Bin, another Robot moves any displaced Bins from the digging process Bins back to their original location on the grid.

The grid stores a total of 45,000 Bins.

There are 16 ConveyorPorts to which the Robots bring Bins for processing.

The Robots can bring 680 Bins to the operators in a single hour.

How Avnet benefits from AutoStore

Installing AutoStore has benefited the Avnet in various ways. Some of the advantages include:

• Maximum use of storage space.
• No more costly manual picking.
• Energy savings
• Efficient order fulfillment.
• Increased customer satisfaction.
• Maximum efficiency.
• A less arduous working environment for the employees.

The team can also expand the system without interrupting order fulfillment — a key advantage for the business, according to Tillmann. “It was crucial for us that the capacities can be expanded without interrupting ongoing operations.”

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