Airbus Defence and Space has opened a new logistics centre in Bremen’s Lloyd Industriepark, close to its base by the airport. The centre, established in cooperation with Kühne + Nagel’s contract logistics division, is designed to meet increasing demand in military and civil fields.

Kuehne + Nagel manages production logistics in France, Germany, Spain, the UK and China for all Airbus aircraft programmes.

The new Materials Management Centre (MMC), which was officially opened on 6th September, will initially be used mainly for A400M production and, in future, also for space applications. The MMC has a wide range of storage areas covering all required storage structures – from small parts, pallet and cantilever rack storage facilities to large components in floor/block storage areas.

The new facility replaces three old warehouses and will harmonise and streamline processes. It is designed to enable Airbus Defence and Space to meet increasingly complex requirements for punctual and continual delivery to production lines.

An important element of the project was the two-month move, which has now been completed, since the consolidation of several warehouses into the new MMC had to take place without affecting the supply of production materials. A further key element of the new centre is the adaptation during the first three years of operation to an optimised supply of production materials, with the aim being to steadily reduce the warehouse and logistics area.