German supermarket REWE Group’s full-range national warehouse covers 53,000 square metres and is situated in the north of Berlin. About 350 employees ensure that more than 355 REWE, nahkauf, Karstadt and Coop supermarkets — along with Hit self-service stores — are supplied with around 10,000 different items. The building is protected by a CLIQ® locking system which was planned and installed by the specialist security company Guett-Dern GmbH, based in Cologne.
Supermarkets between Sassnitz and Jüterborg will be supplied optimally with goods by the new logistics centre, in which REWE invested around €60 million. Six days a week approximately 100 trucks transport fruit and vegetables, frozen foods and fresh foods such as milk, as well as the entire range of dry goods. More than €600 million invested in optimising logistics, as part of a logistics offensive for the whole of Germany, made this expansion necessary. The goal is to make processes faster, more effective and more efficient and ecologically sustainable. The REWE Group was founded in 1927 and has built eleven new warehouses as part of this project, and has modernised three more. The Oranienburg location is viewed as the pilot project for all of REWE Group’s logistics centres.
REWE Group’s specifications in terms of security were defined accordingly: Entrances to the logistics centre’s buildings were to be equipped with electronic locks to enable them to be managed centrally and to integrate internal doors according to their requirements. A flexible locking system was to be incorporated to manage all access entitlements and locking hierarchies reliably according to individual responsibilities — meaning it must be tailored precisely to each individual.
The choice was made in favour of the mechatronic locking system CLIQ®, which was installed by security specialists and ASSA ABLOY partner Guett-Dern. The CLIQ® system integrates advanced microelectronics into locking cylinders and their programmable and battery-powered keys. Locking cylinders and keys can thus communicate with one another without the need for wiring or a network. This means that access and locking are doubly secured: via mechanical locking and electronic identity. The installation of the intelligent mechatronic CLIQ® locking system thus provides the building with an optimal level of protection.
The programmable keys and cylinders of the CLIQ® locking system from ASSA ABLOY not only fulfil REWE’s requirements, but also win thanks to their price–performance ratio.
“CLIQ® is easy to use and program,” says Dirk Müller-Steinhausen, Head of Technology and Sales at Guett-Dern GmbH. “For instance, because system administrators do not have to visit each locking cylinder separately in order to change the batteries.” Power is supplied exclusively via a standard battery in the keys and programming keys. Encrypted communication with the cylinder also takes place in this way.
Each CLIQ® key has an integrated chip inside, making it unique. Keys can be programmed individually for each user. “This means that we have control of our keys. With CLIQ®, we have great flexibility in the event that a key is lost or if we want to make any changes. We can revoke the key’s access entitlements by reprogramming individually the approximately 400 locking cylinders in use,” explains Marc Haverkamp, Project Manager for the REWE Logistics Centre in Oranienburg. At the same time, access authorizations can be enabled temporarily, including for workmen, cleaners and external service providers.
About CLIQ®: CLIQ® is a security locking system with high-end microelectronics, programmable keys and cylinders. The system offers a variety of combinations of mechanical and electronic systems to match different security and flexible access needs. Available on the global market place, it provides flexible access and key management solutions for all kinds of locking applications.
