STILL and Dematic at LogiMAT 2023

Increasingly short handling times, increasingly high-end customer requirements, and a continuing noticeable lack of skilled workers. The LogiMAT specialist trade fair in Stuttgart will provide answers to these challenges. One key word that will be used a lot is automation. “More than half of our customers would like to automate processes that are currently still done by hand within the next three years,” says Frank Müller, Senior Vice President STILL Brand Management. Automation has therefore long been a strategic cornerstone for the development of the KION brand.

The trade fair stand in hall 10 is busy with sales advisors presenting new trucks, experts explaining the technology, and interested customers asking questions. “Making Intralogistics Smart. Together.” is STILL’s motto this year at LogiMAT. The “Together” represents the collaboration with our customers, and is also a play on the synergies that enhance potential within the KION Group and are unrivaled on the international market. When the fully-automated storage solutions of the sister company Dematic meet the smart, automated industrial trucks from STILL, it produces efficient solutions for all intralogistics challenges from a single source—from delivery to storage, order picking, and packing, right through to just-in-time supply of materials.

At the LogiMAT, the two KION brands are positioned right next to each other for the first time. This firstly demonstrates a communal spirit and secondly gives potential customers a tangible demonstration of how smoothly the two sister companies collaborate together. This is shown using an example work scenario in the warehouse, which involves passing pallets between the companies and the meshing of processes across the two trade fair stands. The automation showcase starts and ends at STILL. However, in the middle the goods are taken over to Dematic and there they go through a few partly physical and partly immersive work steps, which are the specialism of the KION sister company (which has the trade fair motto “Engaging the Future”).

The specific process is as follows: the STILL EXV iGo systems—an automated high lift pallet truck—accepts a pallet and takes it to the shape control in order to check whether a pallet is suitable for automated goods transport. If the pallet passes the test, the EXV iGo systems transports it to a drop-off station, and it is then accepted by an autonomous mobile robot (AMR), the STILL ACH, which takes it over to the Dematic trade fair stand. Here, the goods are repalletized and picked according to the customer order, before the ACH takes them back to the drop-off station and ultimately to outgoing goods—on the STILL trade fair stand. There is still space for the trade fair visitors in this fully automated material flow, as process steps can be tracked digitally in the virtual warehouse on the Dematic stand. High-resolution LED screens make it possible to keep an eye on the hotspots in the process chain, and it is even possible to control the AMR interactively via a gamepad.

“Colleagues from STILL and Dematic have been working together and developing joint solutions and technologies for years,” says STILL Brand Manager Frank Müller. He continues, “At LogiMAT, this trusting cooperation and the resulting synergy effect is now also visible to customers at first glance.” Müller goes on to say that there has been a lot of positive feedback about this from trade fair visitors, “Here at the trade fair, lots of people have understood everything that STILL can offer—right through to fully-automated and digitally controlled warehouses, which we can design, construct, and operate together with Dematic.”

There has been a very similar reaction at Dematic’s trade fair stand. “Previously, lots of customers saw us exclusively as a high-end solutions provider for major global customers,” says Andrea Campora, Senior Vice President & Managing Director of Dematic Southern Europe. The joint showcase with STILL is now showing that the Dematic range also includes smart solutions for more small and smaller-scale customers—and that to some extent systems can grow with the customers. According to Campora, “Sometimes when they first start working with us, a customer mainly needs flexible automation solutions from STILL. But as the customer’s business becomes more successful, Dematic’s role can become increasingly important.”

This is the first time in Europe that the two KION brands, Dematic and STILL, are appearing right next to each other at a specialist trade fair and highlighting the shared potential of the KION Group. “However, when I look at things here, I’m sure it will not be the last time,” says Frank Müller from STILL with a smile. “It is easy to see at first glance that the collaboration with Dematic offers our customers much more than just the sum of the individual parts.”