The somewhat different cloud solution
io is involved with the Lufthansa Cargo Center modernization
Europe’s Air Freight Hub in Transition
Valuable originals by old masters, urgent medicines, human organs, automobile prototypes for testing in the desert or the Arctic, semiconductors as the backbone of modern technologies: these and many more all go around the world with Lufthansa Cargo. The Lufthansa Cargo Center (LCC) has been in operation for 43 years, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It has played a central role in global air freight traffic since 1982. Around 1.4 million[DC1] tonnes of freight are handled each year – which accounts for around 80 percent of the company’s global volume.
Now this is being modernized. The LCC is set to become Europe's most modern airfreight hub and Lufthansa Cargo's largest infrastructure project with an investment of around €600 million. “The work is being carried out in stages so that all processes on site can continue running as usual, around the clock,” explains Nils Franz, Project Manager at io. “Up to 250 specialists will work in parallel on construction, with site managers and engineers working in the background – and with us as logistics planners.”
Planning partner since day one
io has been involved in this major project as logistics planner since the initial concept phase. “Air freight is time-critical and often involves important cargo. Comprehensive modernization is therefore imperative,” Franz continues. All building and logistics systems have been maintained and kept running for decades. “They are still certainly robust, but by no means up to date any more. The IT landscape also needs to be modernized with a future-proof warehouse management system and material flow controls.”
The go-ahead was given in 2019. Two years later, construction work began. A modular structure and clustering of the project into four main construction phases ensure that ongoing operations are maintained without disruption – which is quite some challenge, Franz admits. “The constantly shifting security boundary between airside and landside is equally challenging.”
Phase Zero has already been completed. This included clearing and demolition of the eastern construction site, adjusting the supply line, building a construction site access road and initial modernization of the handling system for the road feeder service, in other words, air freight replacement transport by road. “Phase Alpha means all that has been completed, and that is where we are right now. For example, we are planning a roof renovation, an expansion of the hall capacity and a new MLP warehouse – a small but special all-purpose warehouse for Euro pallets. This will be a little like an LCC Swiss army knife, with around 1,200 pallet spaces, a temperature-controlled pharmaceutical warehouse, a 5°C refrigerated area connected to the conveyor system, a workstation connection for packing freight in lean lifts and a maintenance platform for the technical building equipment installations under the hall ceiling.”
LCC in figures:
Planned project duration: 13 years
From 2017 through 2030
Investment amount: 600 million euros
Equivalent to around 120 kilometers of freeway
Construction site floor area: 80.000 m²
Equivalent to eleven soccer fields
GLP high-bay warehouse base plate thickness: 1,35 meters
Took 28 days to dry
Steel installed in the GLP high-bay warehouse: 3.545 tonnes
Including 715 tonnes for the conveyor technology
The MLP warehouse will be a little like an LCC Swiss army knife, with around 1,200 pallet spaces, a pharmaceutical warehouse, a 5°C refrigerated area connected to the conveyor system, a connection for packing freight in lean lifts and a maintenance platform for the technical building equipment installations.
From Zero to Charlie
The heart of the new Cargo Center, however, will be a new shuttle warehouse for 2.1 x 2.1-meter steel load carriers. Its dimensions: 42 meters high, 35 meters wide and 95 meters long. It spans 13 levels. Four lanes, each equipped with two lifts and a total of 52 shuttles, facilitate the highly dynamic freight handling. The storage system represents a special global solution, combining the diversity of air freight loading units with high-speed storage and retrieval. The design of this extraordinary system is the product of intensive planning workshops.
Phase Alpha activities will be completed in 2027. Phase Bravo will then begin, including demolition work, construction of a new building module and extension of the new central material flow axis, with conveyor technology tracks spanning several levels. Finally, in Phase Charlie, the structural and technical infrastructure of the northern building modules will be brought up to date by 2030 – the crowning glory of this immense project. Meaning that urgent deliveries continue to reach their destination reliably.