IN Brief:
- Project NOVA will add automated high bay storage for more than 50,000 pallets at Feldschlösschen's Rheinfelden headquarters.
- A one kilometre monorail will connect the new warehouse with production, rail loading, empties handling, picking, and customer loading.
- Ten Vectura S32 and four Vectura S12 stacker cranes will operate within an SAP EWM based material flow system.
Swisslog and Swiss brewer Feldschlösschen have started construction of an automated logistics centre at the brewer’s Rheinfelden headquarters, combining new high density pallet storage with established production, rail loading, picking, and dispatch operations.
The project, named NOVA, broke ground on 23 September and represents an investment in the tens of millions. Its central element is a new high bay warehouse providing capacity for more than 50,000 pallets beside a bottling plant dating from the 1970s.
A one kilometre monorail system will connect the warehouse directly with existing operating areas. Production, rail loading, empties handling, customer loading, and picking will form a connected material flow rather than leaving the automated store as a separate block requiring additional transfer operations.
The high bay installation will use ten Swisslog Vectura S32 stacker cranes. A separate dispatch buffer providing 972 storage locations will absorb peaks in outbound demand and will be served by another four Vectura S12 cranes.
A material flow system based on SAP Extended Warehouse Management will coordinate manual, partly automated, and fully automated processes across the site. The software is intended to provide one view of goods movements from receipt through storage, production interfaces, picking, and shipping.
Thomas Amstutz, CEO of Feldschlösschen, said: “This groundbreaking marks the starting point for infrastructure that will equip us for the coming decades.” The investment addresses rising volumes, restricted space, and ageing logistics infrastructure without replacing the brewery’s established production complex.
That brownfield approach creates a more difficult engineering task than equipping an empty warehouse. New cranes, conveyors, control systems, structural work, and transfer equipment have to be commissioned around existing material flows, while the brewery and distribution operation continue supplying customers.
The kilometre-long monorail is therefore central to the integration strategy rather than an accessory to the high bay store. It provides the physical connection between production and logistics areas, allowing pallets to move between the new automated building and established processes without requiring every surrounding activity to be rebuilt.
The dispatch buffer performs a similar role at the outbound end. Adding tens of thousands of storage locations achieves little if orders cannot be sequenced and presented to loading areas at the rate required during peaks. The 972-position buffer creates an intermediate layer between high density storage and customer dispatch.
Feldschlösschen combines brewing with national beverage distribution, serving around 25,000 customers across hospitality, retail, and the drinks trade. Its own brands sit alongside mineral water, soft drinks, wine, and other beverages, creating different inventory profiles, picking patterns, and seasonal demands within the same network.
That product mix places particular importance on sequencing. Full pallets of fast moving products may pass through the operation differently from lower volume stock, mixed orders, returned empties, or products awaiting rail movement. The control system has to balance those flows without allowing automation to optimise one process at the expense of another.
Swisslog is applying a similar retrofit principle elsewhere. Coop Faghandel is expanding automated capacity at its Langhus distribution centre, integrating another roughly 50,000 pallet positions, stacker cranes, inbound automation, and conveyors with an existing live operation.
The two projects serve different sectors, but both illustrate the constraints of increasing automation without abandoning infrastructure that remains operationally useful. Brownfield projects must preserve service during installation and then make old and new systems behave as one facility after commissioning.
At Rheinfelden, SAP EWM becomes important at that interface. Mechanical equipment can move pallets only when the control layer knows where inventory is, where it needs to go, which process has priority, and whether the destination can receive it. As automation expands, software availability and data accuracy become as consequential as the cranes themselves.
The NOVA system has also been designed for later expansion. Swisslog says changes in production volume, product range, or customer requirements can be accommodated without another investment in the core infrastructure, while a service and operations agreement will support the installation after commissioning.
Lifecycle support is increasingly significant in highly automated warehouses because failures are rarely isolated to one piece of machinery. Communications, controls, software, sensors, and sequencing can stop material flow just as effectively as a mechanical fault, and recovery often depends on understanding the complete system rather than replacing one component.
Feldschlösschen is retaining the site’s established production footprint and historic castle ensemble while inserting a modern logistics layer around them. NOVA will be judged less by the height of the warehouse or the number of cranes installed than by whether those systems can increase capacity without turning integration with the existing brewery into the new constraint.
