Dematic, a global leader in supply chain automation, is supplying Belgian general contractor Alheembouw with a high bay warehouse and an AutoStore™ system for a new logistics centre for customer NMBS, Belgium’s national railway company.
NMBS plans to use the new warehouse, now under construction, as a storage facility for a wide range of components and spare parts necessary for maintaining, repairing and modernising its railway fleet. The new logistics centre is being built on a brownfield site owned by NMBS in the city of Mechelen supporting the reuse of existing land.
With a goal of updating operations — its current facility dates back to World War II — and keeping its primary train depot viable, NMBS signed with Alheembouw after a public tender process in early 2025. Alheembouw involved Dematic in the earliest phases of the tender due to its expertise in the integration of AutoStore™ systems and its many installations of high-bay warehouses.
“Thanks to Dematic’s creative and compact solution, we were able to transform the design of both the new office building and the manual warehouse, which was also part of the public tender, allowing us to clearly stand out among all other bidders for the project,” explained Egon Braem, the Director of Industry at Alheembouw adding, “and ultimately, this is what led to NMBS selecting Alheembouw and Dematic as the preferred supplier team.”
The new warehouse consists of two integrated solutions. The first one is a high-bay warehouse equipped with six stacker cranes operating at 45 metres high and 120 meters long. Its double-deep storage configuration provides more than 48,000 pallet locations, ensuring space-efficient bulk storage, which maximises capacity within a compact footprint. Three pick stations are directly connected to the high-bay warehouse, allowing for a highly efficient picking process for spare parts.
The other solution is an AutoStore™ installation positioned on a mezzanine adjacent to the high-bay. The compact, high-density system allows NMBS to store more inventory within a smaller physical footprint, reducing unnecessary space, internal travel, and material handling, while it provides a safer work environment and operational flexibility for the rest of its warehouse. The system accommodates more than 17,000 totes and is equipped with four SwingPort™ workstations for inbound and outbound operations supported by six robots. Together, these technologies operate as a single unified system through Dematic’s warehouse control system, ensuring seamless material flow, real-time coordination, and optimal performance across the entire warehouse.
The automation of the warehouse is well underway and the entire project, including the addition of a new office building, is scheduled for completion in 2027. Meanwhile, Alheembouw, a specialist in both new construction and renovation of public, residential, and commercial buildings as well as industrial complexes and major infrastructure projects, has been tasked with the overall construction of the facilities.
“This project is setting a new standard for railway logistics. By integrating a high bay warehouse with an AutoStore™ system, we are providing NMBS with a spare parts operation that boosts availability and reliability. Designed for higher storage density and smarter material flow, the solution also supports a more feasible use of space and resources over the system’s lifecycle,” notes Farly Orie, Head of the BeNeLux market for Dematic, adding, “as for Dematic, it underscores our role as a key automation partner in mission critical infrastructures.”