14.July 2026
SYSTRAPLAN systems built to last for decades
Longevity starts with the system design
Throughput, availability and floor space are quickly defined. The decisive question is how the company will develop and what the system will have to deliver twenty years from now. Wherever requirements are likely to grow, we build reserves into the mechanics and work with modular concepts and adaptable control systems. Additional storage aisles or picking stations can then be retrofitted later instead of requiring a completely new investment.Understanding the goods themselves matters just as much. Large panels in the wood industry, elastic treads in the tire industry, heavy big bags and bulk material all place their own demands on gripper technology, storage principle and transport routes. The more precisely we meet these demands, the lower the wear will be later on.
Practical examples from decades of operation
Together with the operators, we have repeatedly modernised components of various systems over the years, replaced drives and adapted safety measures. The basic function is retained while everything that made sense to renew has been renewed.
This also applies to our tread booking systems in the tire industry, which we have been supplying since the late 1970s. They have been continuously developed further in technical terms, while the proven basic principle has remained. Treads are handled gently, positioned precisely and stored in a way that preserves their quality. Here, too, it becomes clear that a sound basic concept combined with continuous improvement leads to systems that contribute to value creation for decades.Numerous horizontal storage systems, high bay storage systems and picking systems, for example in the wood and furniture industry, confirm this experience. Where necessary at all, they have been adapted over time to new products and production structures, and they still form the backbone of the in-house material flow. For the Dutch wood-based panel wholesaler LEEUWERIK, we built a fully automatic picking warehouse around twelve years ago, in which storage and retrieval machines pick up the panels with vacuum technology and without causing any damage. By the end of 2023, the system had retrieved two million panels, the first million of them within its first five years of operation.
Adaptable technology pays off
Longevity does not mean standing still. In many projects we modernise existing systems in a targeted way instead of replacing them completely. Typical measures are new control and drive technology, modern safety technology, integration with ERP and MES systems, or robots that take over the loading. The mechanics keep working while the intelligence of the system increases.This pays off twice over. Availability, energy consumption and maintenance effort add up over decades, and every system that stays in operation saves the resources of a completely new installation.
