Besides regular offices , the Zürich Service Center has warehouse space – on the fifth floor of an office building in Oerlikon, a district of Zürich, Switzerland. Since November, the warehouse area at the Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) center has grown by 365 square meters.
Established in 1977, the Zürich Service Center has some well-known names from a wide range of industries on its list of customers. They include manufacturers active in microtechnology, electric tools and appliances, construction machinery, valves and pumps, mechanical engineering and solar power, not to mention timepieces. The Zürich staff provides these wide-ranging industries with sealing elements, O-rings, composite parts and diaphragms in miniature. The products are largely made by Freudenberg but include trade ware as well.
Revenue in Switzerland up 60 percent in three years
A number of FST Lead Centers deliver parts to Zürich. The service center has its own client-specific warehouse so it can respond to customers as quickly and flexibly as possible – and, in any case, deliver the products on time. The warehouse is on the fifth floor of an office building, just one level below FST’s offices in Oerlikon, a well-developed district of Zürich that is popular with employees. The warehouse guarantees an extraordinarily high availability of products, and the staff offers a wealth of logistical services, such as packaging, labeling, kitting, lubrication and naturally the required quality checks.
“By the end of 2022, 730 square meters (7,850 square feet) of warehouse space were available to us,” Managing Director Steve Barrot recalled. “We increased our revenues by 60 percent between 2019 and 2022. That naturally had an impact on our warehouse. It was literally bursting at the seams.” In November, the warehouse capacity was finally expanded by 365 square meters (3,900 square feet), and, conveniently enough, on the fifth floor of the high-rise as well.
Six employees make sure that the customers receive the desired products quickly and reliably. They handle everything manually “with Swiss precision” and can take satisfaction in their zero-error rate in logistics.
“Thanks to their availability on-site, we can offer most parts quickly, right from the warehouse, instead of having them manufactured first. Even small quantities can be delivered quickly, at a good price, and without complications,” Barrot said. Some customers need specific packaging and special labeling – for example, a CIIR sticker, to avoid confusion with similar products. As extreme cleanliness is very important for some products, a special clean room is available at the warehouse.
Advanced packaging systems round out the warehouse hardware, including flow wrapping machines and counting scales. Sustainability is not neglected either. Some customers are now getting their products in reusable small load carriers instead of cardboard packaging.
