Airbus Helicopters breaks new ground with efficient logistics

Every aspect of the design focuses on optimising quality control, reducing human error, maximizing safety and improving operator working conditions.

Airbus Helicopters has opened its new logistics hub at Albacete, Spain, which is equipped and operated by Daher as the lead logistics partner.

Located adjacent to the Airbus Helicopters production facility at Albacete, this 50,000 square metre warehouse will optimise operations and create several hundred new skilled jobs for the wider Castilla-La Mancha region. The inauguration was attended by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

During the design of all aspects for the new hub, Airbus Helicopters called on its logistics service provider, Daher, which equipped the new hub with a highly automated and robotised storage system. This is the first of its kind in the aeronautics industry, using cutting-edge technology from Exotec, a leading French warehouse automation systems specialist.

The hub’s ambitious and disruptive technologies reduce the total amount of storage space required, as well as delivering the specified levels of efficiency and responsiveness, while also significantly reducing the need for operators to move around the site. Every aspect of the design focuses on optimising quality control, reducing human error, maximizing safety and improving operator working conditions.

Inter-site transportation, also provided by Daher, will use biofuel-powered trucks that reduce CO2 emissions by 90% when compared to diesel fuel.

The new facility will eventually employ more than 300 people. Some 85 per cent will be operators recruited and trained by Daher in partnership with the Confederation of Employers of Albacete (FEDA) based on a strictly defined procedure to guarantee the long-term future of the jobs created.

“We’re proud to be putting our expertise and innovative capabilities to work for Airbus Helicopters, using technology that positions Daher firmly on the pathway toward Industry 4.0, and fully delivering on the goals of this project,” says Aymeric Daher, CEO of Daher’s Logistics division.