CN113554379A

CN113554379A - Warehousing operation system and method

Info

Publication number: CN113554379A
Application number: CN202010337602.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 不公告发明人
Original assignee: Hangzhou Yiwu Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Hangzhou Yiwu Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2020-04-26
Filing date: 2020-04-26
Publication date: 2021-10-26

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention relates to the field of warehousing equipment, and discloses a warehousing operation system and a warehousing operation method. In the present invention, the warehousing operation system comprises: the order form sorting device comprises a prompting device, a plurality of order form carrying trolleys and a receiving device, wherein the prompting device is used for receiving real-time order form information and prompting a worker or a sorting device so that the worker or the sorting device can sort articles according to the order form information, the order form carrying trolleys are used for sowing the articles sorted by the worker or the sorting device into corresponding order form boxes or carrying the order form boxes to carry the articles sorted by the worker or the sorting device, the receiving device is used for receiving the corresponding relation between the order form carrying trolleys and the articles on the order form carrying trolleys, and the order form carrying trolleys are provided with a communication device used for receiving sowing strategies obtained according to the corresponding relation. The warehousing operation system and the warehousing operation method provided by the invention can improve the commodity sorting efficiency.

Description

Warehousing operation system and method

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the field of warehousing equipment, in particular to a warehousing operation system and a warehousing operation method.

Background

In the existing warehousing operation system, a mobile robot is used for jacking and transporting a movable goods shelf to a corresponding sorting station. Because there are multiple shelves on one side of a movable shelf and different products may be stored in the shelves, in the picking process of multiple orders, the mobile robot first needs to transport the movable shelf to a picking station, then the system prompts the picker to pick the corresponding product from the movable shelf, then the mobile robot transports the movable shelf to the next picking station, and the system prompts the picker to pick the next order, and the mode is repeated until the order picking is completely finished.

The inventor finds that at least the following problems exist in the prior art: when the exploded goods appear, it can be required by many orders, and the goods shelves that the exploded goods place this moment can be by a plurality of picking station demands, and this goods shelves need visit each picking station according to certain order, consequently cause waiting each other between the different picking stations for the efficiency of picking of goods is lower.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of embodiments of the present invention is to provide a warehousing operation system and method capable of improving the commodity sorting efficiency.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention provides a warehousing operation system, including: the order form sorting device comprises a prompting device, a plurality of order form carrying trolleys and a receiving device, wherein the prompting device is used for receiving real-time order form information and prompting a worker or a sorting device so that the worker or the sorting device can sort articles according to the order form information, the order form carrying trolleys are used for sowing the articles sorted by the worker or the sorting device into corresponding order form boxes or carrying the order form boxes to carry the articles sorted by the worker or the sorting device, the receiving device is used for receiving the corresponding relation between the order form carrying trolleys and the articles on the order form carrying trolleys, and the order form carrying trolleys are provided with a communication device used for receiving sowing strategies obtained according to the corresponding relation.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a warehousing operation method, which comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that real-time order information is received by utilizing prompting devices, and workers or picking equipment are prompted, so that the workers or the picking equipment can pick items according to the order information, wherein each prompting device preferentially receives order information of orders containing the same items; receiving the corresponding relation between the order carrying trolley and the articles on the order carrying trolley by using a receiving device; receiving the seeding strategy which is sent by the receiving device and obtained according to the corresponding relation by utilizing a communication device on the order carrying trolley; and utilizing the order carrying trolleys to sow the items sorted by the staff or the picking equipment into the corresponding order boxes according to the sowing strategy, or utilizing the order boxes carried by the staff or the picking equipment to carry the items sorted by the staff or the picking equipment.

Compared with the prior art, the embodiment of the invention has the advantages that through the prompting device for receiving the real-time order information and prompting the staff or the picking equipment to pick the items according to the order information, the staff or the picking equipment can pick the items according to the real-time order information, through the order carrying trolleys for sowing the items picked by the staff or the picking equipment into the corresponding order boxes or carrying the order boxes to carry the items picked by the staff or the picking equipment, and the receiving device for receiving the corresponding relation between the order carrying trolleys and the items on the order carrying trolleys, the order carrying trolleys are provided with the communication device for receiving the sowing strategies obtained according to the corresponding relation, namely, the staff or the picking equipment can put the picked items on the order carrying trolleys after picking the items, the order transfer trolley is used for order distribution, so that the limitation of the number of orders stored in an order rack in a sorting station is avoided, each worker or sorting device can process a large number of dynamic orders at the same time, a plurality of orders for the exploded commodities can be distributed to one sorting station as intensively as possible, the workers or the sorting devices of the sorting station can process the sorting operation of the exploded commodities through one continuous sorting operation, the problem that orders containing the exploded commodities need to be scattered in a plurality of sorting stations for sorting, and shelves where the exploded commodities are located need to visit the sorting stations according to a certain sequence to cause mutual waiting among different sorting stations is solved, and the commodity sorting efficiency is improved.

In addition, the warehousing operation system further comprises: a rack for storing bins loaded with articles, and a fork carriage for removing the bin from which the article required for the order is located from the rack fork for the purpose of picking the article in the bin by a worker or a picking apparatus. The material box of the article needed by the order is taken off from the goods shelf fork by the forking trolley so that the worker or the picking equipment can pick the article in the material box, the article picked by the worker or the picking equipment is sown into the corresponding order box by the order carrying trolley or the order box is carried to carry the article picked by the worker or the picking equipment, namely, different operations are disassembled and are completed by different trolleys, so that the function needed to be realized by each trolley is more single, the structure is simpler, the equipment cost is reduced, the system robustness is improved, meanwhile, the center of gravity is lower because the order carrying trolley does not need to take the material box off from the goods shelf fork, compared with the prior art that the same trolley is used for simultaneously realizing the taking off of the material box from the goods shelf fork and the allocation of the order, the running speed of the order carrying trolley in the embodiment can be adjusted to be faster, the efficiency of transport is higher to need not too many order floor truck, reduced the demand quantity of dolly, further reduced the cost.

In addition, the goods shelf comprises a material box storage device and a material box temporary placing device positioned below the material box storage device, and the forking trolley is used for forking the material box in which the articles required by the order are located from the material box storage device and placing the material box temporary placing device.

In addition, the warehousing operation system further comprises: the work bin conveying trolley is used for conveying the work bin in which the articles required by the order in the work bin temporary placing device are located.

In addition, the warehousing operation system further comprises: the bin conveying trolley is used for conveying the bins from the bin temporary storage device to the bin storage device or the position adjacent to the prompting device according to the sorting priority of the articles in the bins.

In addition, the forking trolley comprises a movable chassis, a lifting device arranged on the chassis, and a forking structure arranged on the lifting device, wherein the forking structure comprises a sliding groove which is telescopic in the lifting direction vertical to the lifting device, and a limiting device arranged on the sliding groove.

In addition, before the receiving real-time order information and prompting staff or picking equipment by using the prompting device so that the staff or the picking equipment picks the item according to the order information, the method further comprises the following steps: the fork carriage is used to remove the bin from which the item required for the order is located from the rack fork so that the worker or the picking device can pick the item in the bin.

In addition, the step of taking off the bin in which the article required by the order is located from the shelf fork by using the fork-taking trolley so that a worker or a picking device can pick the article in the bin includes: the material box of the article needed by the order is taken down from the material box storage device on the high layer of the goods shelf and placed on the material box temporary storage device on the bottom layer of the goods shelf; after the material box with the article needed by the order is taken off from the shelf fork by the fork-taking trolley so that a worker or a picking device picks the article in the material box, the method further comprises the following steps: and the work bin carrying trolley is used for carrying the work bin in which the articles required by the order in the work bin temporary placing device are located. The material box of the article needed by the order is forked from the material box storage device at the high layer of the goods shelf by the forking trolley and is placed on the material box temporary placing device at the bottom layer of the goods shelf, the material box of the article needed by the order in the material box temporary placing device is moved by the material box carrying trolley, namely, the operation of the material box to the picking station is further disassembled and is respectively completed by the forking trolley and the material box carrying trolley, so that the function needed by each trolley is more single, the structure is simpler, the equipment cost is reduced, the system robustness is improved, meanwhile, the material box does not need to be forked from the goods shelf by the material box carrying trolley, the gravity center is lower, compared with the mode that the forking and the carrying of the material box to the picking station are directly realized by one trolley, the running speed of the material box carrying trolley in the embodiment can be adjusted to be faster, the efficiency of carrying the workbin is higher to need not too many workbin floor truck, reduced the demand quantity of dolly, further the cost is reduced.

In addition, before the items sorted by the staff or the picking device are sown in the corresponding order boxes by using the order carrying trolleys or the items sorted by the staff or the picking device are carried by the order carrying trolleys, the method further comprises the following steps: acquiring an empty order box from an order box injection port by using the order carrying trolley; binding an order and the order box according to the order information; judging whether the picking station where the prompting device is located has the bound items required by the order or not; if yes, driving the order carrying trolley to move to the sorting station; if not, the bound order boxes are placed on an order temporary storage rack by using the order carrying trolley, and an injection opening of the order box is removed to take another order box.

Drawings

One or more embodiments are illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, which correspond to the figures in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and which are not to scale unless otherwise specified.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a warehousing operation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing the structure of a shelf according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural view of a forking cart according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural view of an order trolley according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a layout view of the inside of a warehouse in the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the interior of a fixed shelf section in a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of the interior of the temporary storage area of the bin in the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of the interior of a picking and planting zone in a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a warehouse-out area of a quality inspection package according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of a warehousing operation method according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of order picking provided by the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic view of a second embodiment of the present invention with the fork carriage having the bin removed from the rack;

FIG. 13 is a schematic view of a fork lift truck placing bins in a bin staging device in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a schematic illustration of an order handling cart according to a second embodiment of the present invention removing bins from a bin storage device;

FIG. 15 is a schematic view of an order handling cart for picking and placing work bins from a fixed shelf area in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a schematic view showing a worker sowing articles on the article sowing device of the order carrying cart according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a schematic illustration of a worker seeding an item into an order box carried by an order handling cart in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a schematic view showing a worker directly picking and sowing corresponding goods from a bin carried by an order carrying cart according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 19 is a schematic illustration of an order handling cart seeding articles into order boxes on a bin storage device according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 20 is a schematic illustration of the order transport cart seeding an item into an order box on another order transport cart in a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 21 is a schematic illustration of the entry of a new empty order box in a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 22 is a schematic view of order boxes being pushed to a conveyor for picking in a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 23 is a flowchart of replenishment in the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 24 is a schematic illustration of the restocking zone operation in a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 25 is a flowchart of the inventorying in the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 26 is a schematic view of an order handling cart carrying a bin to be inventoried to an automated weighing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 27 is a schematic view of an order handling cart transporting bins to be inventoried to a gantry of an automated inventory station in a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 28 is a flowchart of the return racking of the second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 29 is a flowchart of inventory consolidation in the second embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention more apparent, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that numerous technical details are set forth in order to provide a better understanding of the present application in various embodiments of the present invention. However, the technical solution claimed in the present application can be implemented without these technical details and various changes and modifications based on the following embodiments.

A first embodiment of the present invention relates to a warehousing operation system, as shown in fig. 1, including: the order carrying trolley comprises a prompting device 11 for receiving real-time order information and prompting a worker or a picking device so that the worker or the picking device can pick items according to the order information, a plurality of order carrying trolleys 12 for sowing the items picked by the worker or the picking device into corresponding order boxes or carrying the order boxes to carry the items picked by the worker or the picking device, and a receiving device 13 for receiving the corresponding relation between the order carrying trolleys 12 and the items on the order carrying trolleys 12, wherein a communication device 121 for receiving sowing strategies obtained according to the corresponding relation is arranged on the order carrying trolleys 12.

Through a prompting device 11 for receiving real-time order information and prompting a worker or a picking device so that the worker or the picking device picks items according to the order information, the worker or the picking device can pick items according to the real-time order information, through a plurality of order carrying trolleys 12 for sowing the items picked by the worker or the picking device into corresponding order boxes or carrying the order boxes to carry the items picked by the worker or the picking device, and a receiving device 13 for receiving the corresponding relation between the order carrying trolleys and the items on the order carrying trolleys, the order carrying trolleys 12 are provided with a communication device 121 for receiving the sowing strategies obtained according to the corresponding relation, namely, the worker or the picking device can put the picked items on the order carrying trolleys after picking the items, the order transfer trolley is used for order distribution, so that the limitation of the number of orders stored in an order rack in a sorting station is avoided, each worker or sorting device can process a large number of dynamic orders at the same time, a plurality of orders for the exploded commodities can be distributed to one sorting station as intensively as possible, the workers or the sorting devices of the sorting station can process the sorting operation of the exploded commodities through one continuous sorting operation, the problem that orders containing the exploded commodities need to be scattered in a plurality of sorting stations for sorting, and shelves where the exploded commodities are located need to visit the sorting stations according to a certain sequence to cause mutual waiting among different sorting stations is solved, and the commodity sorting efficiency is improved.

Preferably, the warehousing operation system further comprises: a rack 14 for storing bins loaded with articles, and an forking cart 15 for forking off the bin where the article required for the order is located from the rack 14 so as to allow a worker or a picking apparatus to sort the article in the bin, the forking cart 15 is connected with the receiving device 12 in communication, so that the corresponding bin is carried according to the order information, the bin where the article required for the order is located is forked off the rack 14 through the forking cart 15 so as to allow the worker or the picking apparatus to sort the article in the bin, the article sorted by the worker or the picking apparatus is sown into the corresponding order bin through the order carrying cart 12 or the order box is carried to carry the article sorted by the worker or the picking apparatus, i.e. different operations are disassembled, and are completed by different carts, so that each cart has a single function and a simpler structure, the equipment cost is reduced, the system robustness is improved, and meanwhile, the order carrying trolley 12 does not need to take the bin off the goods shelf 14, so that the gravity center is lower, compared with the prior art that the bin is taken off the goods shelf 14 and the order is allocated by using the same trolley, the order carrying trolley 12 in the embodiment can be adjusted to be faster in running speed and higher in carrying efficiency, so that too many order carrying trolleys 12 are not needed, the required number of trolleys is reduced, and the cost is further reduced.

In the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 2, the shelf 14 includes a bin storage device 141, and a bin temporary placement device 142 located below the bin storage device 141, and the forking trolley 15 is used for forking the bin in which the item required for the order is located from the bin storage device 141 and placing the bin in the bin temporary placement device 142. The temporary magazine discharging device 142 includes a plurality of fork tines parallel to each other and a support structure supporting the fork tines.

It should be noted that the warehousing operation system may further include: a bin transfer trolley 16 for transferring the bin of the bin staging device 142 in which the item required for the order is located. By using the fork carriage 15 to fork the bin of the article required for the order from the bin stocker at the upper level of the rack 14 and place the fork carriage on the bin stocker 142 at the bottom level of the rack 14, and using the bin transporting carriage 16 to transport the bin of the article required for the order from the bin stocker 142, i.e., further transport the bin to the picking station, and using the fork carriage 15 and the bin transporting carriage 16 to complete the operation, each carriage needs to have a single function and a simpler structure, thereby reducing the cost of equipment, improving the robustness of the system, and simultaneously, since the bin transporting carriage 16 does not need to fork the bin from the rack, the center of gravity is lower, and compared with the case where the fork of the bin is directly carried out by one carriage and transported to the picking station, the traveling speed of the bin transporting carriage 16 in this embodiment can be adjusted to be faster, the efficiency of carrying the workbin is higher, thereby not needing too many workbin carrying trolleys 16, reducing the required number of trolleys and further reducing the cost.

It will be appreciated that the bin staging device 142 may be located elsewhere, such as, for example, the bin staging device 142 being located separately near the picking station and adjacent the notification device 11, and the bin transfer cart 16 need not be used, and is not limited thereto.

Specifically, the warehousing operation system further comprises: a bin temporary storage device 17 for temporarily storing bins, the bin transfer cart 16 being configured to transfer the bins from the bin temporary storage device 142 to the bin temporary storage device 17 or adjacent the cueing device 11 according to the picking priorities of the items in the bins. Further, if the bin is to be picked immediately, the bin transporting cart 16 transports the bin directly to the corresponding picking station, and if the bin is not to be picked immediately, the bin transporting cart 16 transports and places the bin onto the bin buffer 17 of the bin buffer, and after the condition that the bin is to be picked is triggered, the bin transporting cart 16 transports the bin to the corresponding picking station.

That is, the items stored in the warehouse are stored in bins, or other like containers, which are placed on fixed shelves 14, the shelves 14 themselves being arranged similarly to conventional manual warehouses. The picking of the entire warehouse is a goods-to-person model, with two different robots (i.e., the forking cart 15 and the bin-handling cart 16) being responsible for handling the goods bins to the picking station, the system prompting the worker to pick. The items that have been picked by the worker are placed in another robot (i.e., order trolley 12) that is responsible for placing the items in the corresponding order. The order which is picked completely can be automatically pushed to a quality inspection packaging area by the robot.

As shown in fig. 3, specifically, the forking cart 15 may include a movable chassis 151, a lifting device 152 disposed on the chassis, and a forking device 153 disposed on the lifting device, where the forking device 153 includes a sliding slot that is retractable in a direction perpendicular to a lifting direction of the lifting device, and a limiting device disposed on the sliding slot. The chassis 151 is responsible for the movement of the entire forking cart 15 in the warehouse, the navigation modes include, but are not limited to, various navigation or hybrid navigation modes such as laser, two-dimensional code, vision, magnetic stripe, track, etc., the lifting device 152 is responsible for the lifting of the bin forking device, and the forking device 153 is responsible for forking and placing bins from the bin staging device 142 or bin storage device 141 of the rack 14.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic view of order trolley 12. This figure shows two possible structural designs for order trolley 12. The order trolley 12 has a number of different functions: taking and placing of the material box, carrying of the material box and seeding of objects in the material box. The structure of the device comprises a moving chassis, a bin placing device, a bin limiting device and an article seeding device. The motion chassis is primarily responsible for the movement of the entire order handling cart 12, with the navigation modes including, but not limited to, laser, two-dimensional code, visual, magnetic stripe, track, and the like, or hybrid navigation modes. During the handling of the bins, the bins are placed on the bin placement device. The material box limiting device has multiple purposes, including taking and placing the material box, preventing the material box from shaking in the movement process, pushing the material box out of the temporary storage device of the material box and the like. The article sowing device is mainly used for conveying articles and sowing the articles into corresponding order boxes. The seeding device can be a flip cover or a belt with power.

For ease of understanding, the following is exemplified:

fig. 5 shows the layout of the interior of a warehouse in an embodiment of the invention. The entire warehouse may be divided into several areas of different functionality, including: a fixed shelf storage area 101, a bin buffer area 102, a picking and seeding area 103, and a quality inspection pack-out area 104. The fixed shelf storage area 101 is mainly responsible for long-term storage of commodities; the bin temporary storage area 102 is mainly responsible for temporary storage of bins to be sorted; the picking and seeding area 103 is mainly responsible for picking and seeding of orders; the quality control packaging ex-warehouse area 104 is mainly responsible for quality control, packaging and ex-warehouse of orders. In addition, according to the operation requirement of the warehouse, a replenishment station 106 and an inventory station 105 can be arranged in the warehouse, and are respectively responsible for replenishment and inventory in the warehouse.

Fig. 6 shows a detail inside the fixed shelf storage area 101. In this area, a fixed shelf 14 is placed, and the shelf 14 can be placed in a variety of different configurations, and the figure shows two rows of shelves 14 back-to-back. Each group of shelves 14 has a plurality of product spaces, i.e., bin storage 141, on which one or more bins may be placed. At the lowermost level of the rack 14 is a bin staging device 142 that houses bins. One or more fork carriages 15 are arranged in this region, the function of these fork carriages 15 being to fork a magazine from a high level of the rack 14 and to place it on the first level magazine deposit 142, or to fork a magazine from the deposit and to place it on the level of the high level of the rack 14. The forking cart 15 can be moved in lanes between the shelves 14, out of the shelves 14, and then to the side of a different shelf 14.

Fig. 7 shows details of the interior of the bin buffer 102. One or more magazine buffers 17 are arranged in this region. The magazine buffers 301 may be the same or different from the magazine buffer 142 of the fixed shelf area. The magazine buffer 17 can hold magazines in which different goods can be stored. The commodities stored in the area are mainly used for order picking, and commodities without order demands for a long time in the future are not expected to be placed in the area, so that the quick turnover of the commodities to be picked is facilitated.

Fig. 8 shows a picking and seeding zone 103. Within this area there may be one or more picking stations 1031, which picking stations 1031 may be equipped with a PC/PTL or like device to assist picking worker operations. On the side of the picking station 1031 there are one or more bin temporary storage devices 17 for temporarily storing bins to be picked by the picking station. During picking, a cart may be parked adjacent the picking station 1031, and a picker may pick a corresponding item from a bin and place it on the order cart 12, after which the order cart 12 may seed the item into a corresponding order box. Order boxes may be stored on a fixed order box buffer 17 or on the order trolley 12. After order picking is complete, the area may be transported by a conveyor to a quality control package delivery area 104.

Fig. 9 shows the quality control package ex-warehouse area 104. One or more quality control packing stations are located in the area where quality control and packing operations are performed by quality control packing workers. The order box and the goods in the order box can be conveyed to a quality inspection packing station from upstream by a conveying device, then a quality inspection packing worker can take the goods of the order out of the order box, perform quality inspection on the goods, then place the goods into an order packing box, and then perform packing operation. The packed order packages are transported to an ex-warehouse or an out-warehouse temporary storage area through a conveying device. After the quality inspection packing operation is finished, the empty order boxes are conveyed back to the picking and sowing area through another conveying device to become new order boxes.

Compared with the prior art, the method and the device have the advantages that the manual operation is only a goods picking link, the picked goods do not need to be judged, and the orders for sowing the goods do not need to be judged, so that the invalid operation of workers is reduced, and the operation efficiency of the workers can be greatly improved. Meanwhile, the fork trolley 15 and the order carrying trolley 12 in the system respectively perform the functions and only do the best work, the utilization rate of each robot is higher due to the responsibility division, the robustness of the whole system is higher, the cost is lower, the design of the system is extremely high in flexibility, the deployment cost of the whole system is low, the improvement on a warehouse is small, and the change of the business can be adapted through software level optimization. Under the condition that large-scale order peaks occur, orders can be processed in a manual and cooperative mode, and the whole system has great peak elasticity. In addition, in the invention, the system can effectively process a plurality of different order structures, including orders with high aging, money explosion and the like, through algorithm optimization.

A second embodiment of the present invention relates to a warehousing operation method, as shown in fig. 10, including the steps of:

s21: and receiving real-time order information by using the prompting device and prompting a worker or a picking device so that the worker or the picking device picks the item according to the order information.

Specifically, the prompting device 11 may be disposed at a picking station, and a worker or a picking device picks the items required for the order according to the order information displayed on the prompting device 11, or the prompting device 11 sends the order information to an automated picking device such as a mechanical arm, so that the automated picking device picks the items required for the order according to the received order information.

Preferably, the prompting device 11 preferably receives order information of orders containing the same items, so that more items in the order can be sorted in the bin which is transported at one time, and the commodity sorting efficiency is improved.

S22: and receiving the corresponding relation between the order carrying trolley and the articles on the order carrying trolley by using the receiving device.

The receiving device 13 may be a server or a local processor, and is configured to receive a corresponding relationship between the order carrying cart 12 and the items on the order carrying cart 12, specifically, the receiving device 13 receives a bin ID, a number of items placed in the bin, a storage address of the bin, and a picking record of a worker or a picking device, so as to obtain a corresponding relationship between the order carrying cart 12 and the items on the order carrying cart 12, and facilitate subsequent control of the order carrying cart 12 to carry the items required by the order to the corresponding packing area.

S23: and receiving the seeding strategy which is sent by the receiving device and obtained according to the corresponding relation by utilizing the communication device on the order carrying trolley.

Specifically, the communication device 121 is in communication connection with the receiving device 13, so as to obtain the seeding strategy sent by the receiving device 13 and obtained according to the correspondence, and the order carrying cart 12 moves to the correct position according to the seeding strategy to be packed and delivered.

S24: and (3) sowing the items sorted by the staff or the sorting equipment into the corresponding order boxes by using a plurality of order carrying trolleys according to a sowing strategy, or carrying the items sorted by the staff or the sorting equipment by using the order boxes carried by the staff or the sorting equipment.

Specifically, if the worker or the sorting equipment sorts an article to the seeding device of the order carrying trolley 12, the order carrying trolley 12 moves to the designated position according to the seeding strategy and then seeds the article on the seeding device to the corresponding order box, and if the worker or the sorting equipment sorts an article to the order box carried by the order carrying trolley 12, the order carrying trolley 12 moves to the designated position according to the seeding strategy and then the worker or the sorting equipment or the equipment directly packs the order box carried by the order carrying trolley 12.

Optionally, before step S21, the method may further include: the fork carriage 15 is used to fork the magazine in which the items required for the order are located from the rack 14 in order for the staff or the picking device to pick the items in the magazine.

Further, the forking of the bin with the item required by the order from the shelf 14 by the forking cart 15 for the staff or the picking device to sort the item in the bin includes: the bin in which the item required for the order is located is taken off from the bin storing device 141 at the upper layer of the shelf 14 and placed on the bin temporary placing device 142 at the lower layer of the shelf 14; after the fork carriage 15 is used to fork the bin with the item required by the order from the shelf 14 so that the worker or the picking device picks the item in the bin, the method further includes: the bin transfer trolley 16 is used for transferring the bin in which the article required by the order in the bin temporary storage device 142 is located.

It should be noted that, before the items sorted by the staff or the picking device are sown in the corresponding order boxes by using the order carrying carts 12 or are carried by themselves to carry the items sorted by the staff or the picking device, the method further includes: acquiring an empty order box from an order box injection port by using the order carrying trolley 12; binding an order and the order box according to the order information; judging whether the picking station where the prompting device 11 is located has the bound items required by the order; if yes, driving the order carrying trolley 12 to move to the sorting station; if not, the bound order boxes are placed on an order temporary storage rack by using the order carrying trolley 12, and an injection opening of the order box is removed to take another order box. Since the order cannot be picked immediately when no bound article is present at the picking station, the order case is placed on the order temporary storage rack by using the order trolley 12, and another order case is taken out from the order case filling opening, which can avoid the problem of low efficiency caused by waiting for the order to be picked.

FIG. 11 shows the order picking process of the system of the present invention. This order picking process can be divided into three large modular processes: 1. a material box carrying process; 2. carrying the order box; 3. and (5) a picking process. The bin handling process describes the process by which the system handles bins to be picked to the picking station. The order box handling process describes the process by which the system picks order boxes or totes for transport to a picking station. The picking process describes the picking of an order and the following order seeding process.

Fig. 12 shows a schematic view of the process of the fork carriage 15 for removing the magazine from the cargo space of the fixed shelf 14. The fork-taking trolley 15 runs beside the corresponding cargo space according to the instructions of the system, and the fork-taking device is adjusted to the corresponding height by using the lifting device, and then the material box is taken out from the cargo space. The height of the material box forking device can be adjusted in advance by the lifting device in the no-load walking process of the forking trolley 15.

Fig. 13 shows a schematic diagram of the work bin placement device 142 for the forklift truck 15 to place work bins on the bottom of the fixed shelf 14 area. As shown in fig. 12, after the fork carriage 15 has taken the bin off the fixed shelf 14 from the upper level, the bin is placed on the bottom bin staging device 142. The forklift 15 has removed the bin and then uses the lifting device to adjust the height of the forklift to the bottom bin staging device 142 and places the bin on the bin staging device 142. Under the condition that the forking trolley 15 has a load (a material box is stored in the forking device), the chassis of the trolley can keep static in the height adjusting process of the lifting device, so that the condition that the trolley shakes due to the height adjustment in the advancing process can be prevented. Since the forklift truck 15 will not travel too far when placing the bins in most cases, such a restriction will not reduce the efficiency of the forklift truck 15 too much.

Fig. 14 shows a schematic diagram of the process of order trolley 12 retrieving a cassette from the magazine staging device 142. The bin is originally placed above the bin staging device 142. The order trolley 12 is first in an unlimited state, and then runs under the temporary bin placement device 142, and then the limit device is in a limited state, and then runs out, and the bin is taken down from the temporary bin placement device 142 and placed on the bin placement device of the order trolley 12. The mechanism needing power is only a limiting device in the material taking box process, so that the robustness in the whole process is high, and the fault is not easy to occur. The reverse of the bin picking process may be used to place bins on the bin stocker 141 by the order carrier 12 and will not be described further herein.

Fig. 15 shows a schematic view of order carrying cart 12 picking and placing bins from a fixed shelf area. The specific process is similar to that of fig. 14, and is not described in detail here.

Fig. 16 and 17 both illustrate the picking process by a picking station worker. These are two different picking and seeding modes, and fig. 16 shows that the picker seeds the item onto the item seeding device of the order trolley 12 after picking is completed; FIG. 17 illustrates an order picker seeding items into order boxes carried by order transport cart 12.

FIG. 16 illustrates the flow of picking station workers picking seeds. The picked bins have been previously transported by order trolley 12 and placed on bin storage 141 at the picking station. The picker will pick the corresponding item and the corresponding quantity from the bin according to the reminder device 11 and then place this item on the item planting device of the order trolley 12. Thereafter, the order trolley 12 leaves the picking station, travels to the corresponding order box, and seeds the item to the corresponding order box. If the items stored in the bin are no longer needed after the picking operation is complete, additional order transport carts 12 may be provided to transport the bin away from the picking station. In the picking process, the picking workers do not need to judge the order of the picked commodity and the sowed commodity, so that the picking efficiency can be greatly improved.

Fig. 17 shows the process of picking and sowing seeds by workers at the picking station. Unlike FIG. 16, in this case, order trolley 12 has transported the corresponding order box to the picking station. Thus, after picking the item, the picker seeds the item directly into the order box carried by order trolley 12. In the process of sowing by the order picker, the article sowing device of the order carrying trolley 12 is in an open state, so that the order picker can conveniently sow articles.

In the actual picking process, both the seeding modes of fig. 16 and 17 may exist, or only one of them may be used. The mode of fig. 17 is used as much as possible when the corresponding order box can be transported to the sorting station in a short time; however, the mode of fig. 16 is used when the order box cannot be transported to the sorting station in a short time. Therefore, the corresponding bin and the order box do not need to wait to reach the picking station in the order picking and sowing process, so that the waiting time of picking workers can be greatly reduced, and the picking efficiency is improved.

Figure 18 illustrates another manner of picking at the picking station. In this manner, the bin is transported from the order trolley 12 directly to the picking station without placing the bin on the bin storage 141 of the picking station. The picker picks the corresponding item directly from the bin carried by the order trolley 12 and seeds it. In the picking process, the item seeding device of the order carrying trolley 12 is in an open state, so that the operation of a picker is facilitated. After picking is complete, the order trolley 12 moves the items in the bin out of the picking station if they are no longer needed by the station. The sorting mode is suitable for sorting the bins with low demand quantity, and the time for placing and taking the bins is saved.

If an item is placed on the item planting device of the order truck 12 after operation at the picking station, the order truck 12 then needs to seed the item into the corresponding order box.

Fig. 19 and 20 show two ways of automatically seeding the order trolley 12.

FIG. 19 illustrates one manner in which the order transport cart 12 seeds items into order boxes. In this manner, the order box has been previously placed on the bin storage 141, the order trolley 12 travels to the vicinity of the order box with the item to be seeded, the item seeding device is then activated to seed the item into the order box, and the order trolley 12 is then driven out of the order box area.

Fig. 20 shows another seeding method with dynamic movement. In this manner, the corresponding order box is placed on one order trolley 12, rather than on the bin storage device 141. The system can dispatch the floor truck carrying the article and the floor truck carrying the order box to meet in a place, the article seeding device of the floor truck carrying the order box can be in an open state, the floor truck carrying the article conveniently starts the article seeding device of the floor truck to seed the article into the corresponding order box. After the seeding operation is completed, both order carriers 12 are driven away from the site and the subsequent operations are continued.

The procedure of order box handling is described below.

The order box pick-and-place process is similar to that of fig. 14 and will not be described herein.

FIG. 21 illustrates the process of entering a new empty order box. Empty order boxes are transported from the quality control packing out-of-stock area to the picking and seeding area by the conveyor and placed on the bin storage 141 at the entry of the empty order box. The system will dispatch order tote cart 12 to the empty order box entrance and take the order box away for subsequent picking and seeding operations.

Figure 22 shows a schematic view of order boxes that have been picked being pushed to the conveyor 18. When the order corresponding to the order box is selected and sown, the system dispatches the carrier to the side of the bin storage device 141 where the order box is placed, and then the order carrier 12 places the limiting device in a limiting state and walks towards the inside of the bin storage device 141. The stop device thus comes into contact with the order box and pushes it onto the conveyor 18. The transport device 18 then transports the order box to a quality control package delivery area.

The order picking process in the system is efficient and low in error rate for picking workers. The carrying of all the material boxes, the carrying of the order boxes and the sowing of the orders are all operations, and the personnel requirements of the warehouse are greatly reduced. Bins and order boxes may be ordered into the picking station by algorithmic optimization for different order structures, maximizing picking efficiency, reducing waiting and inefficient bin handling for picking workers.

Besides order picking, the system also makes intelligent upgrade in the operations of replenishment, inventory checking, returned goods loading, stock arrangement and the like of the warehouse.

Fig. 23 shows a flow chart of replenishment in the system of the invention. The replenishment process is divided into a manual operation part and an operation part. In the flow of the manual operation section, first, a restocker will put goods to be restocked into a bin, and record the bin ID, the number of putting, and the bin ID put in by a PC, RF, or the like. This operation can be done at any site. The restocker then carries the bins with the good stored therein to the restocking area, and then places the bins one by one on the bin stocker 141 of the restocking area, and records the binding relationship between the bin ID and the buffer ID by means of a PC (i.e., a computer), an RF (i.e., a hand-held terminal device), or the like. After receiving the binding relationship, the system will start the operation process and schedule the order-carrying cart 12 to carry the bins to be shelved. The system will determine the bin transport and storage destinations based on the picking priorities of the bins. For bins that need to be picked immediately, the order trolley 12 will transport them directly to the picking station for picking; for bins that the system determines will need to pick at some future time, the order trolley 12 will carry and place on the bin storage device 141 of the bin staging area; for bins that the system determines are not required to be picked for a long period of time, the order trolley 12 will transport them to the area of the fixed shelf 14 and then the fork trolley 15 will place them on the level of the fixed shelf 14 for storage.

FIG. 24 shows a schematic view of the restocking zone operation. The replenishment worker carries the bin with the article to be replenished to the replenishment area, and the carrying process does not need to be dispatched by the system and can be carried by a trailer or other transport means such as a forklift, a conveyor belt and the like as shown in the figure. The restocker then places the bin to be restocked on the bin stocker 141 of the restocking area and records the binding relationship. The system will dispatch order-carrying carts 12 to carry these bins and store to the corresponding cargo space.

In the replenishment process, the manual operation is mainly to place the commodities into the material box, and the operation can be decoupled with other processes of replenishment and sorting, so that the manual operation efficiency is high. After manually placing the bin on the bin storage 141 of the restocking area, the storage location of the bin is determined entirely by the system via an algorithm that optimizes the inventory distribution throughout the warehouse while reducing manual labor.

Fig. 25 shows a flow chart of the inventorying in the system of the present invention. First the system will calculate which bins need to be inventoried based on the most recently picked or restocked bins. Since the nodes of the system inventory and manual interaction only have several operations of picking, replenishing and the like, bins which do not pass through the operations can be free from inventory. The system can comprehensively calculate the bin to be checked by considering factors such as sales attribute, physical attribute, stock depth and the like of the bin through an algorithm. Some of these bins may be stored on fixed racks 14, some may be placed on bin staging positions, and some may be in the picking sequence. The system will schedule the fork lift trucks 15 to handle the bins to the inventory station based on these different inventory conditions. Some bins can be checked and conveyed to an automatic checking station; the other bins are then transported to a manual inventory station for manual inventory. After the inventory is completed, the system will determine the subsequent destination and storage point of the bin based on the picking priority of the bin, which is similar to the racking process of replenishment.

Fig. 26 and 27 show schematic views of the inventory station.

In FIG. 26, the order handling cart 12 carries the bin to be inventoried onto the automated weighing device 19. The system records the whole weight and calculates the number of articles in the discharging box according to the self weight of the feeding box recorded by the system so as to achieve the purpose of checking. The automatic checking mode is suitable for checking the articles with the weight which is larger than the difference between other bins in the warehouse.

In fig. 27, order trolley 12 transports the bin to be inventoried to below gantry 20 of the automated inventory station, which mounts an RFID reader to automatically read the number of items in the bin to complete the inventory. This automatic inventory operation is applicable to RFID-mounted items.

FIG. 28 shows a flow chart of the return racking of the system of the present invention. In the return goods shelf loading process, the manual work only needs to carry out the quality inspection processing of the return goods and the scanning operation of the return goods, and the sorting and shelf loading operation of the return goods can be automatically completed through the system. Firstly, the quality of returned articles needs to be manually checked, the articles to be placed on shelves with qualified quality are selected, and then the articles are conveyed to a return processing station. The return station workers scan the returned items piece by piece and place them on the seed planting device of the order trolley 12. The order-carrying carts 12 seed the item to the corresponding bin. If the bin of this bin is already stored in the bin buffer, the order trolley 12 will directly seed the item into this bin; otherwise, order trolley 12 will seed the item into a new empty bin and the system will record the bin-to-bin binding. After the return sort operation is completed, the system will then dispatch order trolley 12 for restocking of the bins.

After picking, restocking, returning, etc., operations may result in a fragmentation of the stock distribution of some bins, such as a bin having a total of 3 items, but placed in three different bins. The situation of fragmentation of the warehouse can reduce the bin capacity utilization rate of the whole warehouse, so that the fragmented warehouse can be rearranged in an inventory arrangement mode, and the bin capacity utilization rate of the warehouse is improved.

Fig. 29 shows a flow chart of inventory consolidation in the system of the present invention. The system calculates the bins that need to be sorted based on the real-time stock conditions and schedules the order trolley 12 to transport the bins to the corresponding stock sorting stations. When multiple bins that store the same bin reach the inventory station, the system directs the worker to remove items from one bin and place items in another bin. The number of workers can be required to be counted in the taking and placing process, and the counting operation is performed incidentally. When the inventory consolidation operation is complete, the system will schedule order trolley 12 to move the bins off of the inventory consolidation station and to be handled and stored in corresponding storage locations according to the bin's own picking priority. After the inventory preparation operation is completed, the empty bin can be used as a new bin and restocked. The inventory finishing station may be shared with the inventory or picking station.

Compared with the prior art, the embodiment of the invention utilizes the prompting devices 11 to receive real-time order information and prompt workers or picking equipment so that the workers or the picking equipment can pick items according to the order information, wherein each prompting device 11 preferentially receives order information of orders containing the same items; receiving the corresponding relationship between the order carrying trolley 12 and the articles on the order carrying trolley 12 by using a receiving device 13; receiving the seeding strategy which is sent by the receiving device 13 and obtained according to the corresponding relation by utilizing the communication device 121 on the order carrying trolley 12; the order carrying trolleys 12 are used for carrying the items picked by the staff or the picking equipment into corresponding order boxes according to the sowing strategy or carrying the items picked by the staff or the picking equipment by using the order boxes carried by the staff or the picking equipment, namely, after the staff or the picking equipment picks the items, the picked items are put on the order carrying trolleys 12, the order carrying trolleys 12 are used for allocating orders, so that the limitation of the number of the orders stored in the order racks in the picking station is avoided, each staff or the picking equipment can simultaneously process a large number of dynamic orders, a plurality of orders ordering the popcorn items can be intensively distributed to one picking station as much as possible, the staff or the picking equipment of the picking station can process the picking operation of the popcorn items through one continuous picking operation, and the orders containing the popcorn items are prevented from being scattered in a plurality of picking stations, the goods shelves 14 where the money-exploded goods are located need to visit the sorting stations according to a certain sequence, so that the problem of mutual waiting among the different sorting stations is caused, and the sorting efficiency of the goods is improved.

The steps of the above methods are divided for clarity, and the implementation may be combined into one step or split some steps, and the steps are divided into multiple steps, so long as the same logical relationship is included, which are all within the protection scope of the present patent; it is within the scope of the patent to add insignificant modifications to the algorithms or processes or to introduce insignificant design changes to the core design without changing the algorithms or processes.

It is to be understood that this embodiment is an example of a method corresponding to the first embodiment, technical details in this embodiment and the first embodiment may be mutually applicable, and this embodiment may also achieve technical effects similar to those of the first embodiment, and details are not described here again.

It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the foregoing embodiments are specific examples for carrying out the invention, and that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention in practice.

Claims

1. A warehousing operation system, comprising: the order form sorting device comprises a prompting device, a plurality of order form carrying trolleys and a receiving device, wherein the prompting device is used for receiving real-time order form information and prompting a worker or a sorting device so that the worker or the sorting device can sort articles according to the order form information, the order form carrying trolleys are used for sowing the articles sorted by the worker or the sorting device into corresponding order form boxes or carrying the order form boxes to carry the articles sorted by the worker or the sorting device, the receiving device is used for receiving the corresponding relation between the order form carrying trolleys and the articles on the order form carrying trolleys, and the order form carrying trolleys are provided with a communication device used for receiving sowing strategies obtained according to the corresponding relation.

2. The warehousing operation system of claim 1, further comprising: a rack for storing bins loaded with articles, and a fork carriage for removing the bin from which the article required for the order is located from the rack fork for the purpose of picking the article in the bin by a worker or a picking apparatus.

3. The warehousing operation system of claim 2 wherein the rack includes a bin storage device and a bin staging device located below the bin storage device, the forking cart for forking the bin from the bin storage device and placing the bin in which the item required for the order is located on the bin staging device.

4. The warehousing operation system of claim 3, further comprising: the work bin conveying trolley is used for conveying the work bin in which the articles required by the order in the work bin temporary placing device are located.

5. The warehousing operation system of claim 4, further comprising: the bin conveying trolley is used for conveying the bins from the bin temporary storage device to the bin storage device or the position adjacent to the prompting device according to the sorting priority of the articles in the bins.

6. The warehousing operation system of claim 2, wherein the forking cart comprises a movable chassis, a lifting device disposed on the chassis, a forking structure disposed on the lifting device, the forking comprising a chute extendable in a direction perpendicular to a lifting direction of the lifting device, and a stop device disposed on the chute.

7. A method of warehousing operations, comprising:

receiving real-time order information by using a prompting device and prompting staff or picking equipment so that the staff or the picking equipment can pick items according to the order information;

receiving the corresponding relation between the order carrying trolley and the articles on the order carrying trolley by using a receiving device;

receiving the seeding strategy which is sent by the receiving device and obtained according to the corresponding relation by utilizing a communication device on the order carrying trolley;

and utilizing the order carrying trolleys to sow the items sorted by the staff or the picking equipment into the corresponding order boxes according to the sowing strategy, or utilizing the order boxes carried by the staff or the picking equipment to carry the items sorted by the staff or the picking equipment.

8. The warehousing operation method of claim 7, wherein each of the prompting devices preferentially receives order information for orders containing identical items.

9. The warehousing operation method as claimed in claim 7, wherein said receiving real-time order information and prompting staff or picking equipment by said prompting device before the staff or the picking equipment picks the item according to the order information further comprises:

the fork carriage is used to remove the bin from which the item required for the order is located from the rack fork so that the worker or the picking device can pick the item in the bin.

10. The warehousing operation method of claim 9, wherein the fork trolley is used for taking down the bin with the article required by the order from the shelf fork so that a worker or a picking device can pick the article in the bin, and the method comprises the following steps:

the material box of the article needed by the order is taken down from the material box storage device on the high layer of the goods shelf and placed on the material box temporary storage device on the bottom layer of the goods shelf;

after the material box with the article needed by the order is taken off from the shelf fork by the fork-taking trolley so that a worker or a picking device picks the article in the material box, the method further comprises the following steps:

and the work bin carrying trolley is used for carrying the work bin in which the articles required by the order in the work bin temporary placing device are located.

11. The warehousing operation method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the step of using the plurality of order-transporting carriages to seed the selected items from the staff or the picking device into the corresponding order boxes or using the self-carried order boxes to transport the selected items from the staff or the picking device further comprises:

acquiring an empty order box from an order box injection port by using the order carrying trolley;

binding an order and the order box according to the order information;

judging whether the picking station where the prompting device is located has the bound items required by the order or not;

if yes, driving the order carrying trolley to move to the sorting station;

if not, the bound order boxes are placed on an order temporary storage rack by using the order carrying trolley, and an injection opening of the order box is removed to take another order box.