Above: The Fehr Honeycomb ASRS works according to the principle of exchangeable cassettes and can be operated fully automatically and networked
August, 2025- The Fehr Honeycomb automated storage and retrieval warehousing system is a wellestablished material handling technology, with the first installation occurring at a Swiss company in 1974, but the system’s adoption in the U.S. has been slower because land is more plentiful, according to David Veldung, president of Fehr Warehouse Solutions Inc. in Charlotte, North Carolina.
He adds that is primarily because a steel service center, for example, could be built in the U.S. a sizable distance from a city center and not worry about being landlocked whereas similar European facilities have long been built vertically rather than horizontally. e company can build a system more than 100- feet tall. “You can go from 200,000 to less than 20,000 square feet with a very high system and have the same capacity in the system as you had before with 200,000 square feet.”
Nonetheless, Fehr installed a Honeycomb ASRS for a U.S. customer in 1976 and it is still running, Veldung says. “In Europe, a small service center will not be competitive and survive without the ASRS. Having that mindset here in the U.S. still needs to change a little bit, then even smaller companies will understand that it is a must-have and not a nice-to have.”
Veldung says the return on investment, even for very large systems, takes from two to five years.
The company, which Hans Fehr founded in 1949 as an engineering office focusing on logistics solutions for long, flat goods, has installed nearly 500 automated storage and retrieval warehousing systems globally, says Thomas Lehner, CEO of Fehr Lagerlogistik AG in Winterthur, Switzerland. The vast majority of customers are service centers, but Fehr also installs systems at steel mills, tube producers and similar metals operations.
Unlike a mill, a service center typically has customers who, say, order three of this, five of that and eight of something else, Veldung says. It’s necessary to put all these pieces together and ship them to the customer. “That’s really where our Honeycomb system comes into play because, with its access speed, you can do 40, 50, 60 picks an hour."
Fehr says its Honeycomb ASRS makes optimal use of available space.
ALWAYS ACCURATE
Because the ASRS is computer driven, there is always a process in place to make sure that the correct material is shipped to every customer. “It’s pretty much impossible to deliver the wrong material; you just need to pick what the system is telling you to pick,” says Veldung.
Depending on the size of the warehousing system, an installation may take four to eight months once the ground is ready, Lehner notes, but from signing the order to completing the system can take up to two years.
When assessing the appropriate size that a customer requires, Veldung explains that Fehr comes onsite and does an analysis of how much storage capacity the customer currently needs and predicts future requirements while optimizing the entire material flow throughout the system and not just the storage system.
“What most of our customers don’t really take into consideration is the significant growth potential once they have installed a system.” Although it is possible for Fehr to build a Honeycomb system on a greenfield site, Veldung says most are built within an existing facility. “In Europe, where land is very rare, a greenfield site is mostly not possible. Here in the U.S. if you have an established facility, you don’t want to move.”
In addition to the Honeycomb warehousing system for large material quantities and high access speeds, Fehr offers other handling systems that allow direct access to inventories with no waiting times. For example, performing the removal and storage process directly from a forklift truck is also possible.
“We have other system developments for specialized products and markets like storing lightweight material, such as aluminum extrusions,” Veldung says.
Robots can be incorporated into a Fehr Honeycomb ASRS.
Fehr offers storage systems for a wide variety of long products.
A COMBINED APPROACH
A solution that is becoming more popular in the U.S. is the Honeycomb Combo-system, Lehner says, which combines bar and sheet stock systems into a single system. “Then there’s the combination between our Honeycomb systems and an automatic crane, which then can also handle structural steel.”
The Honeycomb warehousing system works according to the principle of exchangeable cassettes that are operated automatically and networked to provide absolute consistency and easy handling, according to the manufacturer.
Fehr also builds automatic systems that don’t need a cassette. “This ASRS is specifically designed for mills and production facilities where you have full bundles in and out of the storage system,” Lehner says.
He cites a coil service center with a fully integrated cut-to-length line that stores the steel bundles onto a wood pallet and into the system without a separate cassette or load carrier. “The benefit there is you don’t need a separate load carriage to put your material in. You can grab that pallet and put it directly onto the rack in the system.”
Regardless of the type of ASRS employed, the process is in contrast to using a sideloader where the operator goes to the material and takes it, Veldung explains. With the Honeycomb ASRS, the material is always delivered. “It’s always the goods-to-man principle, which means that the cassette with the material inside is delivered to the workstation, so you don’t have to go anywhere. The operator has one station where he’s always stationary.”
Lehner recommends end users perform preventive maintenance annually to ensure a system continues operating for many years. Maintenance includes inspecting the cables and all hardware parts. If a spare part is needed, Veldung notes that the company’s warehouse in Charlotte can quickly provide it. “Throughout the country, we have placed our service technicians strategically for immediate access to customers.”
The return on investment, even for very large Honeycomb systems, takes from two to five years, according to the company.
With its VPN connection to every system, Fehr can remotely troubleshoot and correct 95 to 98 percent of the occurring errors. “Our customers are part of the Fehr family, and every Fehr system is a reference system for us,” Lehner says.
Fehr Warehouse Solutions Inc., 704/666-8448, http://fehr.net/
