JPH08217209A - Picking system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide space reduction for a device which carries designated loads from a warehouse per pallet by mounting a picking waiting buffer means which consists of a loop-shaped track carriage for controlling respective carriages independently. CONSTITUTION: When an indication of manufacture/wrapping is outputted, an external pallet where a target material is placed is carried from a warehouse 15 and is transferred onto a loop-shaped track carriage 16 through a conveyer. The external pallet on the track carriage 16 is then transferred onto a picking station 17 and the material on the external pallet is transferred onto an internal pallet. The external pallet which has completed picking work is placed on an empty track carriage 16 and returned to the warehouse. At this time, if any material is left on the external pallet and another re-loading is required immediately, the external pallet is made to circulate on the loop track, and the loop-shaped track carriage 16 is functioned as a buffer. On the other hand, the internal pallet is delivered to a manufacture/wrapping factory.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a picking system and a physical distribution system for transferring goods. In particular,
The present invention relates to a picking system and a physical distribution system in which an outer pallet (carrying-in side pallet) and an inner pallet (carrying-out side pallet) are separately carried in and out using a loop-shaped track carriage.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art If the number of items to be stored is small, the warehouse may have a simple structure and can be managed manually. However, in today's era of handling large quantities of various products, warehouses cannot be managed manually. Then, an automatic warehouse system managed by computer was introduced. An address is attached to the storage location, and the items are managed by the computer by the storage location address.

Items are taken out of the warehouse automatically according to a command from a computer. In the transportation business, there are those that are transshipped from the warehouse to transportation media such as trucks and shipped directly, but when production processing and sorting are necessary, the items taken out of the warehouse are transported to the sorting area by a conveyor, There, the luggage is sorted.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional transport system in which a series of products is drawn at the center of the flow (however, the transport unit is a pallet). The goods taken out from the warehouse 1 are conveyed by the conveyor 3 in units of pallets and placed on the loop-shaped carriage 4. In this case as well, the transport unit is a pallet. If the warehouse is large, it takes time to deliver the goods, so there are cases where a mini warehouse for buffer is provided between the large warehouse and the downstream equipment in order to quickly perform downstream work (picking and shipping).

When the pallet placed on the rail car arrives at the target picking station 5, it is stopped there, and is transferred to the conveyor 6 of the picking station. At the picking station, new pallets are transferred (picking) and shipped ( Be carried out). On the other hand, the pallets that have been transshipped are transferred to the adjacent conveyor 7 and returned to the mini warehouse 2 through the reverse route.

However, the pallet emptied at the picking station is stored in an empty pallet magazine (pallet storage) 8 installed in the loop track and is not returned to the warehouse. In FIG. 1, the picking station line has only one set of reciprocating lines, but in reality, a plurality of picking stations are often installed in order to improve work efficiency.

[0007]

The above is the outline of the conventional transfer system including picking. The problem with the conventional transport system here is that it is necessary to make strict adjustments with respect to time in order to ensure that there is no play in the work at the picking station, and a mini warehouse for buffers is installed along the way. Or, it must be a facility where multiple pallets can be placed on the picking station.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a conventional picking station using rollers. The line is long enough to hold several pallets and is ready for picking. Also, as a matter of course, a line for returning the picked pallets to the dolly is also required. For this reason, the conventional system requires a large space in the picking area.

To summarize the above-mentioned problems, the conventional transport system requires a structurally large space and requires facility cost. An object of the present invention is to provide a picking system separated into an outer pallet and an inner pallet,
The purpose is to build a system that can save space and to flexibly respond to changes in the picking amount.

[0010]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention utilizes a track carriage that is orbiting in a loop as a buffer. For that purpose, we assign numbers to orbital carriages and manage the carriages with a computer. The goods taken out from the warehouse are conveyed by a conveyor and transferred to a trolley. In that case, move the pallet from the empty trolley to the rank.

At this point, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the carriage and the pallet. If there is no request from the picking station, the dolly will continue on the track and wait until there is space available.

On the other hand, the outer pallet that has been picked (reloaded) from the outer pallet to the inner pallet is returned to the loop track. However, in the conventional system, the external pallet with the remaining goods was immediately returned to the warehouse.However, according to the present invention, the external pallet that is already scheduled to be picked by another order can be transferred to the next picking opportunity. Leave on loop orbit to wait for. This eliminates pallet loading and unloading from waste warehouses.

Further, in the present invention, since the loop track carriage is used as a buffer, the number of pallets that can be placed in one picking station can be one. There will be some waiting until the pallets come around, but installing multiple picking stations will prevent a drop in picking work efficiency.

In this system, a mini-warehouse is not provided, but a rail car is used as a substitute for the mini-warehouse. Therefore, it is not always necessary to carry out the pallets from the warehouse exactly in the order of warehousing, and the pallets can be taken out in the order in which the pallets can be easily taken out. If it is necessary to ship the internal pallets in order, the adjustment shall be performed on the unloading side reciprocating track carriage. The management and scheduling of the above pallets are all performed by the program installed in the computer.

Further, according to the present invention, in order to improve the work efficiency, when all or most of the items on the pallet are moved from the outer pallet to the inner pallet, the items are not picked and transferred one by one, but pushed by the pusher. All the items are transferred to the inner pallet by pushing, etc., and returned to the outer pallet by picking as many as necessary. Therefore, the pick-up station on the carry-in side (external pallet side) and the carry-out side (internal pallet side) are arranged close to each other.

When manually picking, it is desirable to secure a space for humans to enter.
Furthermore, it is effective to combine the pusher method and manual picking.

[0017]

EXAMPLE As an example of the present invention, an example of a picking system designed for chemical production will be described. In this system, manufacturing raw materials and packaging materials are placed on pallets and stored in a warehouse. Raw materials and packaging materials contained in metal drums, paper bags, cardboard, etc. are placed on pallets and stored in a warehouse. This pallet is called an external pallet or a non-clean pallet because it is dirty after being used many times.

When a manufacturing / packing instruction is issued, the external pallet on which the desired material is placed is taken out from the warehouse, placed on a conveyor and conveyed, and transferred to a loop rail carriage.

The external pallet on the rail car stops when there is an instruction from the picking station, and then the pallet is transferred to the picking station. At the picking station, the cardboard on the outer pallet is immediately picked and transferred to the inner pallet. The outer pallet after picking work is placed on an empty loop rail trolley and returned to the warehouse. However, if the material on the external pallet is left over here, and if another transshipment is required immediately, the external pallet will continue to run on the loop track,
Wait for the next picking opportunity.

On the other hand, the picked inner pallet waits for the shipping order while reciprocating on the reciprocating track carriage, and is conveyed to the manufacturing / packing factory by the belt conveyor according to the shipping order. However, the outer pallet and the inner pallet do not always have a one-to-one correspondence. Generally, in order to improve the operating efficiency of the internal pallet, the correspondence is n: 1 (n is a natural number). When the internal pallet has reached the proper capacity, it is moved to the reciprocating track carriage. FIG. 3 shows a conceptual diagram thereof.

Since hygiene is considered first in the production area, the inner pallet is called a clean pallet, while the outer pallet is called a non-clean pallet, and the use is divided. An example picking system is shown in FIG. The drawing shows only two picking stations, but in reality, multiple lines are installed.
One person is in charge of 2 or 3 lines.

Comparing the conventional system of FIG. 1 with the system of the present invention of FIG. 4, there is no mini-warehouse, the picking area line is short (the size of one pallet can be placed), and one line is available. It is only that (it has become a set of picking stations in the round trip in the past) and that the picking stations on the carry-in side (non-clean area) and the carry-out side (clean area) are close to each other. This saves space. The reason why the picking stations in the non-clean area and the clean area are located close to each other is that space can be saved, but the material can be moved not only by picking but also by pushing.

For example, when transferring all the materials (corrugated board) from the outer pallet to the inner pallet, all the materials on the outer pallet are moved to the inner pallet by pushing as shown in FIG. Even if a large number of materials are on the external pallet and some of them (for example, 1 box or 2 boxes) are all transferred to the internal pallet, first push all the materials to the internal pallet, and then use picking to remove excess material. Perform the operation to return the material to the external pallet. As a result, the material can be transferred much more effectively than transferring the materials one by one by picking, and the work efficiency is improved.

A computer manages the above-mentioned picking system. FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the transport management seen only for one external pallet, and shows the movement from the delivery of the warehouse to the return to the warehouse. The actual program has more complicated logic because it is entangled with other external pallets and entangled with internal pallets, but the physical distribution of the external pallets of the present invention can be basically represented by this flowchart. Particularly important in this flow chart is that the outer pallet waiting for picking keeps on the loop orbit. That is, the loop track carriage plays the role of a buffer.

[0025]

The greatest effect of the system of the present invention is that space saving can be realized. Specifically, it uses a loop-shaped track truck instead of a buffer, so there is no need for a mini warehouse and the picking station can be kept to a minimum space.

Since the picking station is a space in which one pallet can be placed, the conventional system requires two lines, a line for carrying the pallet before picking and a line for carrying the pallet after picking. Then only one line is required. Therefore, the equipment has a simple structure.

On the other hand, when viewed from the control side of the pallet, the loop-shaped orbital carriage has a function as a buffer, so that it is possible to give a certain degree of flexibility to the order of the goods to be taken out from the warehouse, and to put it out efficiently Can be done without a mini warehouse.

For this reason, it is possible to carry out efficient warehouse placement and efficient picking. However, since a mini warehouse is not used, a slight decrease in efficiency cannot be avoided, but the drawbacks can be sufficiently compensated for by the effects of space saving and buffering of the rail car. From another point of view, it can be expected that the efficiency can be further improved by combining the mini-warehouse and the present invention (however, the use of the mini-warehouse is contrary to the gist of the present invention). In particular, in the present invention, the efficiency reduction caused by not providing the mini-warehouse is compensated by combining picking and pushing. The above effects are summarized as follows.

(1) This system enables simple and flexible picking, and the system space can be significantly reduced.

(2) It is possible to relax restrictions on the order of supplying components to the system, and reduce the number of times the system is carried out of the system and carried into the system. Along with this, it is possible to reduce the equipment cost of the equipment on the supply side. Further, the shipping system at the supply warehouse can be simplified.

(3) Picking system Since the work points are integrated, the automation is significantly facilitated, and the worker can be properly arranged even if the picking amount changes.

(4) By bringing the external pallet side picking station and the internal pallet side picking station close to each other, it becomes possible to collectively transfer the goods, the working efficiency is further improved, and the installation space can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional transfer system.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional picking station using rollers.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of picking at a picking station.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of a picking system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of pallet movement by pushing using a pusher or the like.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of transport management seen only for one external pallet in the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Warehouse 2 Mini Warehouse 3 Conveyor 4 Loop Track Vehicle 5 Picking Station 6 Picking Station Conveyor 7 Conveyor 8 Empty Pallet Magazine 9 Reciprocating Track Truck 10 Items 11 Pallet 12 Roller 13 Truck 14 Picking Station 15 Warehouse 16 Loop Track Truck 17 Picking station 18 Reciprocating track carriage 19 Empty pallet magazine 20 Picking station C 21 Picking station E 22 Internal pallet 23 External pallet

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── --- Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Terunobu Iio 1-1-507 Keyakidaira, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture (72) Inventor Motofumi Yukawa 654-55 Suenaga, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture (72) Inventor Sanji Kato 29-6 Honmokuwada, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A system for individually controlling each trolley between the warehouse and the picking station in a system in which a designated item is taken out in pallet units from a warehouse in which the pallets are stored and conveyed to a picking station. A picking device comprising buffer means for waiting for picking, which is formed of a circular track vehicle. 2. In a system for picking up designated items in pallet units from a warehouse that stores items on pallets and transporting them to a picking station, a loop that individually manages each trolley between the warehouse and the picking station. A picking system comprising: a buffer means for waiting for picking, which is formed of a rail-shaped carriage, and a picking station in which the carry-in side and the carry-out side are in proximity.