JPH05201503A - Storehousing and delivery management method for automatic storehouse - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the work efficiency at the time of storehousing and delivering articles and to effectively use a crane. CONSTITUTION:The respective articles stored in each storing areas 2 of racks 3 of an automatic storehouse 1 are sequentially checked to decide the order according to the data showing the previously stored past storehousing and delivery frequency of each article. While the storehousing and delivery work is not conducted, a stacker crane is driven, whereby according to the order of priority, the articles are stored in such a manner that the higher the past storehousing and delivery frequency of the article is, the nearer to the home station 4 the storing area 2 therefor is. Accordingly, at the time of storehousing and delivering the articles, the higher the storehousing and delivery frequency of the article is, the shorter the distance for transporting the article from the home station 4 to the storing area 2 is.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a storage management method for an automatic warehouse, and more particularly to a storage management method for an automatic warehouse, which controls a crane and manages storage operations by a computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of automatic warehouse is constructed as follows, for example. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the automated warehouse 1 is erected in the front and rear, and the length direction (the left and right direction in the figure)
And a pair of shelves 3 having a plurality of storage sections 2 in the height direction (however, only the lowermost shelf of the front shelf is shown). Of the storage units 2 of the pair of shelves 3, one of the lowermost end portions of the front shelves 3 serves as a home station 4 as a loading / unloading port for loading and unloading articles.

A stacker crane 5 as a crane is provided between the pair of front and rear shelves 3.
This stacker crane 5 has rails 6 laid on the ground.
The traveling platform 7 traveling above, a pair of masts 8 provided upright from both ends of the traveling platform 7, a carriage 9 arranged between the masts 8 so as to be vertically movable, and the like. Further, the carriage 9 has a fork 10 movable in the front-rear direction.
Is provided.

At the time of storing the articles, a computer (not shown) for inventory management installed at a position separated from the shelves 3 stores the articles to be stored in which shelf 3 and in which series (lengthwise storage). The arithmetic processing is performed on which stage (indicating the position of the unit 2) (indicating the position of the accommodating unit 2 in the height direction) to be accommodated in the accommodating unit 2. Subsequently, the computer outputs a command signal for guiding the carriage 9 of the stacker crane 5 to the storage unit 2 obtained by calculation, that is, a travel control command signal for the traveling platform 7 and a lift control command signal for the carriage 9 (position information). Etc., and each of the created control command signals is output to the crane controller 11 installed on the mast 8 of the stacker crane 5. Based on the traveling control command signal, the crane control device 11 drives a traveling motor (not shown) built in the stacker crane 5 to cause the traveling platform 7 to travel up to the target storage section 2 and to move the elevator control command signal. Based on the above, a not-shown lifting motor incorporated in the stacker crane 5 is driven to raise the carriage 9 to the step of the target storage section 2 and the articles placed on the carriage 9 to the target storage section 2 are driven. invite. Then, the fork 10 is extended into the storage portion 2 to store the article.

On the other hand, when the article is to be unloaded, the crane control device 11 extends the fork 10 to pull out the article from the storage section 2 based on the signal from the computer.
An article is placed on the carriage 9. Then, the carriage 9 is moved to the home station 4, and the article placed on the carriage 9 is placed on the home station 4.

[0006]

However, the above-mentioned conventional techniques have the following problems. That is, in general, each storage unit 2 of the shelf 3 is given a step number in order from the lowest number of steps in the height direction, and is given a serial number in order from the home station 4 in the length direction. Then, when the articles are stored, the vacant storage sections 2 are stored in order from the storage section 2 having a smaller row number and serial number. That is, the priorities such as the loading and unloading frequency of the articles in the past are ignored, and the article to be prioritized, for example, the article having a high loading and unloading frequency may be stored in the storage unit 2 located far from the home station 4. ..

Therefore, when articles are conveyed to the storage section 2 which is located far from the home station 4 despite frequent arrivals and departures, it takes a long time to convey the articles and the time required for entering and leaving the articles is reduced. There is a risk that the work efficiency will be increased and the work efficiency will be lowered.

On the other hand, when the warehousing / unloading operation is not performed,
The stacker crane 5 was not driven, and the stacker crane 5 was not effectively used. The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an automatic warehouse warehousing and management method capable of improving work efficiency when warehousing and unloading goods and effectively utilizing a crane. To provide.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a shelf having a plurality of storage sections arranged at least in the length direction and the height direction for storing the article, and an article. A crane for transporting, a storage opening for storing articles, a storage opening for storing articles, and a computer for controlling the movement of the crane, and storing storage articles from the storage opening to the storage section. In an automated warehouse configured to convey or deliver goods from the storage section to the delivery port, while the goods are not being put in or taken out, based on a predetermined priority order of the articles, the The gist is an entry / exit management method of an automatic warehouse in which items having higher priorities are stored in a storage section located in a zone closer to the entry port or the exit port.

[0010]

According to the above construction, the priority order of the articles is predetermined. Then, while the articles are not stored and unloaded, the articles having higher priorities are stored in the storage section located in the zone closer to the storage port or the storage port based on the priority order. Therefore, when goods are loaded or unloaded, the transport distance from the storage section for articles having a high priority to the loading port or the exit is shorter than that for articles having a low priority.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the method for managing the entry and exit of an automated warehouse according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In addition,
In this embodiment, the construction itself of the automated warehouse, such as shelves and cranes, is the same as that of the prior art described in FIG. 5, so the same reference numerals are used here and the description thereof is omitted.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view schematically showing one shelf 3 of the automated warehouse 1. As shown in the figure, 6 in the height direction
A shelf 3 having four storage units 2 in a tier and a length direction is erected. A number F is attached to each of the storage sections 2 in order from the bottom, and a serial number C is given from the left end in the figure toward the right.
Is attached.

In the storage section 2, the serial number C is "1",
Storage section 2 where the step number F is "1" {Hereafter, this is (C, F)
Indicate. Therefore, in this case, it is (1, 1). }
In the vicinity of the home station 4, there is provided a home station 4 having both an entrance and an exit for entering and exiting goods.

1 and 2, a computer 13 for inventory management is installed at a position separated from the automated warehouse 1. The memory (not shown) of the computer 13 stores the column number F and the serial number C of each storage unit 2, and the data of each item stored in each storage unit 2, such as the product name, the product number, and the quantity, The storage location is stored.

Further, in the memory of the computer 13,
Data indicating the number of times goods have been put in and taken out in the past is stored in advance as shown in Table 1 below, for example.

[0016]

[Table 1]

Then, the computer 13 stores and retrieves each of the articles stored in the storage section 2 when the operator pushes the replacement switch of the storage section 2 while the articles are not stored and stored. On the basis of the number-of-times data, articles having a larger number of times of loading and unloading in the past are stored in the storage section 2 in the zone closer to the home station 4.
That is, at present, as shown in FIG.
It is assumed that various items are stored in the. Therefore, the computer 13 moves from the (1,1) storage section to (1,2),
(1,3), ..., (2,1), (2,2), ...,
In the order of (6, 6), the articles stored in the respective storage sections 2 are individually examined, and the articles are listed in the following Table 2 in descending order of loading and unloading frequency.
It is designed to be sorted as shown in.

[0018]

[Table 2]

After the sorting process is completed, the computer 13 creates a virtual shelf 3a as shown in FIG. 3 based on the result. That is, for example, in the storage unit 2 closest to the home station 4 (1,1), the mandarin orange with the highest storage frequency (currently stored in (1,3)).
And then close to the home station 4 (1,
2) and (2,1) are stored in the storage section 2 which stores the second highest storage frequency of apples (currently stored in (3,2) and (4,6)).

Then, the computer 13 uses the virtual shelf 3
A new storage location (storage section 2) for each article is searched based on the storage data of a, the carriage 9 is guided to the specified storage section (target storage section) 2 searched, and the carriage 9 A travel control command signal for the travel platform 7 and a lift control command signal (position information) for the carriage 9 for guiding the storage unit 2 to the home station 4 are created.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a screen 14 is provided above the computer 13. And
When carrying out a warehousing operation, a "warehousing" mode is displayed on the screen 14, and an operator inputs a designated article such as a product name via the keyboard 15 and the computer 13 responds to the input. Then, an operation signal for operating the stacker crane 5 is output.

Optical space transmission means 16 and 17 are provided on the traveling base 7 of the computer 13 and the stacker crane 5, respectively. Then, the traveling control command signal and the elevating control command signal for entering and exiting the computer created by the computer 13 are converted into optical signals by the optical space transmitting means 16, and the optical signals are transmitted in the optical space on the stacker crane 5 side. The light is received by the means 17. Optical space transmission means 1
Reference numeral 7 converts the received optical signal into an electric signal (travel control command signal and lift control command signal), and the electric signal is input to the crane controller 11. Then, the crane control device 11 to which the traveling control command signal and the lifting control command signal are input
Drives the traveling motor and the elevating motor based on these control signals as in the conventional case, and guides the carriage 9 to the target storage section 2.

Further, the optical space transmitting means 16 and 17 are bidirectional optical space transmitting means, and control the signals of the state of the stacker crane 5 detected by the crane controller 11 and the presence / absence of completion of the loading / unloading work. The device 11 has an optical space transmission means 17
And the signal is output to the computer 13 via the optical space transmitting means 16.

Next, the processing operation for carrying out the work of exchanging articles will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG. It should be noted that the flowchart shown in FIG. 4 is a processing routine for article replacement management control among the processing executed by the computer 13.

When the processing shifts to this routine, first, at step 101, it is determined whether or not the replacement processing mode is currently set, that is, whether the loading / unloading is not performed and the replacement mode is selected by the operator. To judge. Then, when the exchange processing mode is not set, a series of processing is ended. Further, in the case of the exchange processing mode, in the next step 102, as shown in Table 1 above, the loading / unloading frequency ranking of all articles that have been loaded / unloaded in the past is determined.

Then, in the next step 103, it is checked what the article currently stored in the storage section 2 of (1, 1) is. Next, in step 104,
The articles stored in the storage section 2 are sorted based on the loading / unloading frequency ranking determined in step 102. Of course, at the stage of sorting the articles stored in the storage unit 2 of (1, 1), other articles have not been checked yet, so this article is sorted first.

Then, in the next step 105, it is checked what the article stored in the next storage section 2 is. In the next step 106, all the storage units 2
Whether or not the sorting process of is completed, that is, the current (1,
It is determined whether the items stored in the storage unit 2 in 1) have been sorted. Then, if the sorting process of all the storage units 2 is not completed yet, the process proceeds to step 104, and the sorting process of the articles stored in each storage unit 2 is repeated. That is, starting from the storage unit 2 of (1,1), the above operation is repeated until the sorting of the storage units 2 of (1,2), (1,3), ..., (6,6) is completed. ..

When the sorting process for all the storage units 2 is completed, the process proceeds to step 107. In step 107, the virtual shelf 3a described with reference to FIG. 3 is created based on the result of the sorting process previously performed. That is, the storage data of the virtual shelf 3a in a state where the articles arranged after the replacement process are stored is created.

Then, in step 108, the stacker crane 5 is driven based on the storage data of the virtual shelves 3a created in step 107, and the articles are stored in the storage section 2 in which the articles are currently stored in the virtual shelves 3a. The paper is conveyed to the storage unit 2, and then the series of processes is ended. In addition, it is desirable that the transportation at this time is performed by the most efficient method based on a known technique.

In this way, while the loading and unloading work is not performed, articles having a high loading and unloading frequency are far from the storage section 2 near the home station 4, and articles having a low loading and unloading frequency are far from the home station 4. Each is stored in the storage unit 2.

As described above in detail, according to the storage / receipt management method of the automatic warehouse in this embodiment, the storage / receipt frequency is high based on the predetermined frequency order while the storage / receipt work is not performed. The articles are stored in the storage section 2 near the home station 4, and the articles having a low loading / unloading frequency are stored in the storage section 2 distant from the home station 4.
Therefore, there is no risk that articles having a high loading / unloading frequency will be stored in the storage section 2 separated from the home station 4, and the time for storing articles having a high loading / unloading frequency in the storage section 2 can be shortened. Therefore, when the warehousing is actually performed, the working time required for warehousing can be shortened as a whole, and the working efficiency can be improved.

Further, in this embodiment, the stacker crane 5 is driven while the loading / unloading work is not performed, so that the stacker crane 5 which has been conventionally used only during the loading / unloading work can be effectively used. Can be planned.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, but may be implemented as follows with a part of the structure appropriately changed without departing from the spirit of the invention. (1) In the above-described embodiment, the articles having a higher loading / unloading frequency are stored in the storage section 2 closer to the home station 4. However, only the loading frequency is prioritized, and the articles having a higher loading frequency are stored in the home station. It may be stored in the storage portion 2 close to 4. On the contrary, items having a higher shipping frequency may be stored in the storage unit 2 closer to the home station 4.

(2) In the above-mentioned embodiment, the loading / unloading frequency is adopted as one priority pattern, but the next sunrise storage schedule information is also known in advance as a priority pattern. In this case, the priority may be determined based on the information.

(3) In the above embodiment, the warehousing frequency ranking is determined for the articles warehousing and unloading in the past.
It may be configured such that the priority order can be appropriately changed separately by hand. In this case, when articles that are not included in the entry / exit count data are stored, it is possible to prevent the rank from being lowered despite the high priority.

(4) In the above embodiment, the loading / unloading is not performed and the operator selects the swapping mode, so that the swapping mode is established. However, the swapping mode is set by the operator. Even if not selected
The replacement work may be automatically performed at a regular time or a fixed time.

[0037]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION According to the method for managing entry and exit of an automated warehouse according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the work efficiency when articles are loaded and unloaded, and to effectively utilize the crane. Play.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view showing a shelf and a computer of an automated warehouse in an embodiment embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a communication transfer state between a computer and an automated warehouse in one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a virtual shelf in one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing operation performed by the computer when the article is stored in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an automatic warehouse in a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Automatic warehouse, 2 ... Storage part, 3 ... Shelf, 4 ... Home station as an entrance and exit, 5 ... Stacker crane as a crane, 13 ... Computer.

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] July 22, 1992

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be corrected] Drawing

[Name of item to be corrected] Figure 5

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Figure 5]

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A shelf having a plurality of storage sections arranged at least in a length direction and a height direction for storing articles, a crane for conveying the articles, and a storage port for storing the articles. And a delivery opening for delivering the article, and a computer for controlling the movement of the crane,
Carrying goods in storage from the storage opening to the storage section,
In an automated warehouse configured to convey an article to be delivered from the storage section to the delivery port, while the article is not being put in or taken out, the priority of the article is high based on a predetermined priority of the article. An article storage / management method for an automatic warehouse, characterized in that articles are stored in a storage section located in a zone closer to the entrance or exit.