CN115231168A

CN115231168A - Warehousing operation system and method

Info

Publication number: CN115231168A
Application number: CN202110434078.4A
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: 2021-04-22
Filing date: 2021-04-22
Publication date: 2022-10-25

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 prompting device is used for receiving real-time order information and prompting a worker or a picking device so that the worker or the picking device can pick an item according to the order information; a sorting device for carrying order cases for storing and/or handling items sorted by staff or sorting devices; the distribution equipment is provided with a communication device for receiving and prompting the seeding strategy obtained according to the corresponding relation; the distribution equipment is any one or a combination of a fixedly arranged order distribution wall, a movable distribution wall and a conveying line capable of conveying order boxes. 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

The invention aims to provide a warehousing operation system and a warehousing operation method, which can improve the commodity sorting efficiency and improve the order completion efficiency.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention provides a warehousing operation system, including: the prompting device is used for receiving real-time order information and prompting a worker or a picking device so that the worker or the picking device can pick an item according to the order information; a sorting device for carrying order cases for storing and/or handling items sorted by staff or sorting devices; the distribution equipment is provided with a communication device for receiving and prompting the seeding strategy obtained according to the corresponding relation; the distribution equipment is any one or a combination of a fixedly arranged order distribution wall, a movable distribution wall and a conveying line capable of conveying order boxes.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a storage operation method, which comprises the following steps: receiving real-time order information by using a prompting device and prompting a worker or a picking device so that the worker or the picking device picks an item according to the order information; receiving the corresponding relation between the order box on the distribution equipment and the article by using a receiving device; receiving and storing the seeding strategy which is sent by the receiving device and obtained according to the corresponding relation by utilizing a communication device on the allocating equipment; the order distribution equipment is any one of an order distribution wall, a movable distribution wall, a conveying line capable of conveying order boxes or a combination of the order distribution wall, the movable distribution wall and the conveying line.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the advantages that through the prompting device for receiving real-time order information and prompting a worker or a picking device to pick items according to the order information, the worker or the picking device can pick the items according to the real-time order information and sow the items picked by the worker or the picking device into corresponding order boxes, and the receiving device for receiving the corresponding relation between each bin and the items of the bins on the order box distribution device, the order box distribution device is provided with the communication device for receiving the sowing strategies obtained according to the corresponding relation, namely, the picked items can be put into the corresponding order boxes after the worker or the picking device picks the items, after the picking work of partial or all the orders on the order box distribution device is completed at the local station, the system schedules the worker or the goods shelf transporting vehicle to transport the distribution device with the single bins to other work stations or temporary storage areas, or the sorting stations can be more flexibly adjusted according to the sorting load of the orders, the sorting stations can be more flexibly adjusted according to the sorting load of the picking stations, and the sorting load of the picking device can be more flexibly adjusted in the continuous order sorting stations, thereby the sorting stations, dynamic load balance is realized, the operation sequence of the priority orders can be flexibly ensured, and the commodity sorting efficiency and the order completion efficiency are improved.

In addition, the warehousing operation system further comprises: a rack transfer cart, the rack transfer cart comprising: the lifting mechanism is used for jacking the bottom of the movable distribution wall to carry the movable distribution wall. So set up, the workbin of realization a plurality of orders that can be convenient, quick is carried to next procedure simultaneously, has further promoted order efficiency.

In addition, the warehousing operation system further comprises: and the fork-taking trolley is used for taking the order box needing to be carried off the distribution equipment and transporting away.

In addition, the warehousing operation system further comprises: and a conveying line for conveying away the order boxes which are taken off from the distribution equipment and have finished being sorted at the station.

In addition, the communication apparatus includes: one or any combination of a display screen and a lighting device which is arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of order boxes. By the arrangement, the commodity state (including the type, the model, the quantity and the like of commodities) in each current order box can be better prompted.

In addition, each prompting device preferentially receives order information of orders containing the same articles. So set up, the quantity of selecting the station that the dolly that carries each kind of article need arrive is less, has improved and has selected efficiency.

In addition, before the items sorted by the staff or the sorting equipment are sown in the order boxes on the corresponding order box sorting equipment, the method further comprises the following steps: binding an order and the order box according to the order information; and binding the order box and the specified position of the specified distribution equipment according to the order information.

In addition, before binding the order box to the specified position of the specified distribution equipment according to the order information, the method further comprises the following steps: according to the work scheduling information of the workstation, a goods shelf carrying trolley or a worker is assigned to carry the allocating equipment with the empty order box to the workstation; or, the fork-taking trolley is assigned to take the order boxes from the empty order box temporary storage device and the empty order box filling port and place the order boxes at order box placing positions on the order box distribution equipment of the workstation; or, the dispatching conveying line conveys the order boxes to the work station.

In addition, if the order on the order box distribution equipment has finished the picking work at the station, the method further comprises the following steps after the picking task of the station is finished: the dispatching goods shelf carrying trolley carries the movable distribution wall to other work stations or a temporary storage area; or prompting the staff to carry the movable distribution wall to other workstations and a temporary storage area; or the dispatching fork trolley takes the order box to be carried off from the distribution equipment and carries the order box away by using the fork trolley; or the dispatching fork-taking trolley takes the order boxes needing to be carried off from the distribution equipment and carries the order boxes away through the conveying line.

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 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 view showing the construction of the hopper handling car according to the 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 illustration of a picking station in a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic illustration of a picking station movable seeding wall and loaded order boxes being carried by a transport AGV according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of an order case on a seeding wall of a picking station being forked and carried by the forking cart in accordance with another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of the order boxes at the picking station being transported by the conveyor line arrangement in yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of a picking station using robotic arms for picking in yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a quality inspection package ex-warehouse area according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a flow chart of a warehousing operation method according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a flow chart of order picking provided by the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a schematic view of the fork carriage of the second embodiment of the present invention with the bin removed from the rack;

FIG. 17 is a schematic view of a fork lift truck placing a bin in a bin staging device in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a schematic view of an order handling cart according to a second embodiment of the present invention removing bins from a bin stock device;

FIG. 19 is a schematic illustration of an order handling cart for picking and placing bins from a fixed shelf area in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 20 is a schematic view showing a worker sowing an article on an article sowing device of an order carrying cart according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 21 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. 22 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. 23 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. 24 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. 25 is a schematic illustration of the entry of a new empty order box in a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 26 is a schematic view of order boxes being pushed to a conveyor for picking in a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 27 is a flowchart of replenishment in the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 28 is a schematic illustration of the restocking zone operation in a second embodiment of the present invention;

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

FIG. 30 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. 31 is a schematic view of an order handling cart carrying bins to be inventoried to a gantry under an automated inventory station in a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 32 is a flowchart of the return racking of the second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 33 is a flowchart of inventory reconciliation in a 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 sorting system 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 picks an article according to the order information, a distributing device 12 for carrying an order box to store and/or carry the article picked by the worker or the picking device, and a receiving device 13 for receiving the corresponding relation between the distributing device 12 and the article on the distributing device 12, wherein the distributing device 12 is provided with a communication device 121 for receiving and prompting a seeding strategy obtained according to the corresponding relation, and the distributing device 12 can be any one or a combination of a fixedly arranged order distributing wall, a movable distributing wall, a conveying line of a transportable order box.

Through a prompting device 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, and through a receiving device for sowing the items picked by the worker or the picking device into corresponding order boxes, and for receiving the corresponding relation between each bin on the order box sorting device and the items of the bin, a communication device for receiving a sowing strategy obtained according to the corresponding relation is arranged on the order box sorting device, namely, after the worker or the picking device picks the items, the picked items are put into the corresponding order boxes, and after the picking work of part or all orders on the order box sorting device is finished at a local station, the system dispatches workers or shelf carrying trolleys to convey the allocating equipment with the order boxes to other workstations or temporary storage areas, or conveys the order boxes selected by the station to other workstations or buffer areas through the forking trolleys or conveying lines, so that the system is not limited by the quantity of the order stored in the order racks in the picking station, each worker or picking equipment can continuously process a large number of dynamic orders, the utilization rate of the order storing and sowing positions of the picking station and the working efficiency of the picking station are improved, the system is equivalent to enlarging the quantity of the orders processed simultaneously by the picking station, the workers or the picking equipment of the picking station can complete more picking operations through one continuous picking operation, meanwhile, the accumulation of picking tasks in certain workstations is avoided, the distribution of the orders in each workstation can be dynamically adjusted more flexibly according to the task load condition of each workstation, dynamic load balance is realized, the operation sequence of the priority orders can be flexibly ensured, and the commodity sorting efficiency and the order completion efficiency are improved.

Preferably, the warehousing operation system further comprises: a rack 14 for storing bins loaded with items, and an forking cart 15 for forking off bins from the rack 14 for a worker or a picking device to sort items in the bins, the forking cart 15 being in communication with the receiving device 12 for carrying corresponding bins according to order information, the forking cart 15 forking off bins from the rack 14 for a worker or a picking device to sort items in the bins, the worker or a picking device seeding the items sorted by the worker or the picking device into corresponding order bins by the forking cart 12 or carrying the order bins for carrying the items sorted by the worker or the picking device, i.e. different operations are disassembled and are completed with different carts, so that each cart needs to perform a single function, has a simpler structure, reduces device costs, improves system robustness, and, at the same time, since the forking device 12 does not need to fork bins from the rack 14, the center of gravity is lower, uses the same cart while achieving a single truck to perform a single function from the rack 14, reduces the device costs, reduces the transfer device costs, and reduces the transfer device costs by reducing the transfer efficiency of orders.

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. The material box of the article needed by the order is forked off from the material box storage device at the high layer of the goods shelf 14 by the forking trolley 15 and is placed on the material box temporary placing device 142 at the bottom layer of the goods shelf 14, the material box of the article needed by the order in the material box temporary placing device 142 is carried by the material box carrying trolley 16, namely, the operation of the material box to the picking station is further disassembled and is respectively carried out by the forking trolley 15 and the material box carrying trolley 16, 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 gravity center is lower because the material box carrying trolley 16 does not need to take the material box off from the goods shelf, compared with the mode that the forking and carrying of the material box are directly carried to the picking station by one trolley, the travelling speed of the material box carrying trolley 16 in the embodiment can be adjusted to be faster, the efficiency of carrying the material box is higher, too many material box carrying trolleys are not needed, the required number of the trolleys is reduced, and the cost is further reduced.

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 goods stored in the warehouse are stored in bins, or the like, which are placed on fixed shelves 14, the shelves 14 themselves being placed 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 transfer cart 16) responsible for transferring goods bins to the picking station, and the system prompts the worker for picking. 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 the bin transfer cart 16. This figure shows two possible structural designs of the bin-handling carriage 16. The bin cart 16 has a number of different functions: taking and placing of the material box, carrying of the material box and the like. The structure of the device comprises a motion chassis, a material box placing device, a material box limiting device and an article sowing device. The motion chassis is primarily responsible for the movement of the entire bin-handling cart 16, and the navigation modes include, but are not limited to, laser, two-dimensional code, visual, magnetic stripe, track, and other various navigation 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 illustrated:

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 for placement of 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 a detail 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 for temporarily storing bins to be picked by the picking station. During picking, the sorting equipment 12 is disposed beside the picking station 1031, the picking workers pick corresponding items from the bins, and then place the items on the sorting equipment 12, the order corresponding to the bin on the to-be-sorted equipment 12 is completed in whole or in part at the picking station, and the to-be-sorted equipment 12 can be transported to the next picking station or the delivery area 104 by using a rack truck. Order boxes may be stored on fixed order box buffers or on the distribution facility 12 itself. After order picking is complete, the area may be transported by a conveyor to a quality control package delivery area 104.

In particular, the picking station may have a fixedly disposed or movable distribution wall or a conveyor line for transporting order boxes. The distribution wall may be a shelf-like structure having one or more order box placement locations, or may be other means by which order boxes may be placed. Each order placement location may be marked with a label and a corresponding prompting device may be provided to prompt the picker or automated picking device. When the order box is placed at the corresponding position, the system records the binding relationship between the corresponding order box and the position. After the picking worker or the automated picking device picks the corresponding item from the container of the sorting device 12, the sowing prompt message is sent to the picking worker or the automated picking device, and the item is placed in the order box at the corresponding position. The goods which are picked by the workstation entering the station can simultaneously satisfy a plurality of orders, the picking efficiency is improved, and meanwhile, the error rate of picking workers can be reduced.

Wherein the communication device 121 may include: one or any combination of a display screen and a lighting device which is arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of order boxes. Of course, a light guide device on the workstation may be provided.

FIG. 9 illustrates a schematic diagram of the movable wall beside the picking station being transported by the transport AGV. The warehousing operation system may further include: a rack truck 21, said rack truck 21 comprising: the movable distribution wall comprises a moving mechanism and a jacking mechanism located on the moving mechanism, wherein the jacking mechanism is used for jacking the bottom of the movable distribution wall to carry the movable distribution wall. The transfer process of the rack transfer cart 21 is specifically as follows: first, the jacking structure is lowered to move the rack carrying cart 21 to the bottom of the movable dividing wall, then, the jacking structure is raised to lift the movable dividing wall, and after the rack carrying cart 21 carries the movable dividing wall to the destination, the jacking structure is lowered to lower the movable dividing wall and is driven away.

Specifically, when an order on one movable distribution wall is selected at the station, or other order distribution walls need to be inserted into the selecting workstation to operate, the AGV can be dispatched and carried to carry the movable distribution wall to other workstations or temporary storage areas, other order distribution walls and orders which need to come from the workstation to be selected at the selecting station are carried to the station to be selected, and the utilization rate and the personnel efficiency of the workstation are improved.

Figure 10 shows a schematic view of the order box on the branch wall of the picking station being picked and carried by the fork carriage 15. When some order boxes on the fixedly arranged distribution wall or the movable distribution wall are completely sorted at the station or other order boxes need to be inserted into the sorting work station for operation, the forking trolley 15 can be scheduled to carry the order boxes to other work stations or temporary storage positions.

Figure 11 shows a schematic view of the transfer line handling order box beside the picking station. The warehousing operation system further comprises: a conveyor line 22 for conveying away the order cases removed from the branch equipment and having completed the sorting at the present station.

FIG. 12 illustrates a schematic view of a picking station using robotic arms as automated picking equipment for picking and seeding items.

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.

Fig. 13 shows the quality control package export 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 packaged 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 completed, 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 goods picking and seeding are prompted during manual operation, any judgment on the picked goods is not needed, and any judgment on orders for seeding the goods is not needed, so that invalid operation of workers is reduced, and the operation efficiency of the workers can be greatly improved. Meanwhile, the fork trolley 15 and the goods shelf carrying trolley 21 in the system respectively perform the functions and only do the best work of the fork trolley and the goods shelf carrying trolley, the utilization rate of each robot is higher due to the division of the functions, 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 transformation of a warehouse is small, and the change of the business can be adapted through software 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 various different order structures including orders with high timeliness, 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. 14, 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.

In fact, before binding the order box and the designated location of the designated allocating device according to the order information, the method further includes: according to the work scheduling information of the workstation, a goods shelf carrying trolley 21 or a worker is assigned to carry the allocation equipment with the empty order box to the workstation; or, the fork-taking trolley is assigned to take the order box from the temporary storage device of the empty order box and the injection port of the empty order box and place the order box at the order box placing position on the order box distribution equipment of the workstation; or the scheduling conveying line conveys the order boxes to the work station, so that the empty order boxes are conveyed to the sorting station.

In addition, before the items sorted by the staff or the sorting equipment are sown in the order boxes on the corresponding order box sorting equipment, the method may further include: and binding the order and the order box according to the order information, and binding the order box and the specified position of the specified distribution equipment according to the order information.

S22: and receiving the corresponding relation between the order box on the distribution equipment and the article 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 allocating device 12 and the items on the allocating device 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 that the corresponding relationship between the allocating device 12 and the items on the allocating device 12 can be obtained, and the allocating device 12 is controlled to transport the items required by the order to the corresponding packing area. Wherein, the corresponding relation of order case and article includes: the current attributes of the items (including type, model, quantity, etc. of the items) in each bin on the dispensing device 12.

S23: and receiving and prompting the seeding strategy which is sent by the receiving device and obtained according to the corresponding relation by utilizing the communication device on the distribution equipment.

Specifically, the communication device 121 is in communication connection with the receiving device 13, so as to obtain the seeding strategy obtained according to the correspondence sent by the receiving device 13, and the distribution device 12 prompts, according to the seeding strategy, areas where the bins of the distribution device 12 need to go next and needed operations (for example, packaging or adding goods continuously). The distribution equipment can be any one of a fixedly arranged order distribution wall, a movable distribution wall, a conveying line capable of conveying order boxes or a combination of the fixed order distribution wall and the movable distribution wall.

In practical application, if an order on the order box distribution equipment has completed the picking work at the station, the method further comprises the following steps after the picking task of the station is completed: the dispatching goods shelf carrying trolley 21 carries the movable distribution wall to other work stations or a temporary storage area; or prompting the staff to carry the movable distribution wall to other workstations and a temporary storage area; or the dispatching forking trolley takes the order boxes needing to be carried down from the distribution equipment and carries the order boxes away by the forking trolley; or the dispatching fork-taking trolley takes the order boxes needing to be carried off from the distribution equipment and carries the order boxes away through the conveying line.

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 sorting equipment are sown into the corresponding order boxes by using the allocating device 12 or the items sorted by the staff or the sorting equipment are carried by using the order boxes carried by the staff or the sorting equipment, the method further includes: acquiring an empty order box from an order box injection port by using the allocating device 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 allocating device 12 to move to the sorting station; if not, the bound order boxes are placed on an order temporary storage rack by using the distribution equipment 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 items required by the order exist at the picking station, the bound order boxes are placed on the order temporary storage rack by using the allocating device 12, and an order box injection opening is removed to pick another order box, so that the problem of low efficiency caused by waiting for picking of the order can be avoided.

FIG. 15 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. 16 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 feed box forking device can be adjusted in advance by the lifting device in the process of idle running of the forking trolley 15.

Fig. 17 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. 16, 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. 18 shows a schematic diagram of the process of removing a bin from the bin staging device 142 by the bin transfer cart 16. The bin is originally placed above the bin staging device 142. The bin transfer cart 16 is first set to the non-limiting position, driven under the bin staging device 142, set to the limiting position, and driven outward to bring the bin down from the bin staging device 142 and place the bin on the bin staging device of the bin transfer cart 16. 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 magazine unloading process allows the magazine trolley 16 to place the magazines on the magazine stocker 141, which will not be described further.

Fig. 19 shows a schematic view of the bin handling cart 16 picking and placing bins from a fixed shelf area. The specific process is similar to that of fig. 18, and is not described herein again.

Both fig. 20 and 21 illustrate the picking process by a picking station worker. In practical applications, the specific structure of the distributing device 12 may not be limited, and the distributing device 12 is a carrying cart having the same structure as the material box carrying cart 16. FIG. 20 shows the picker after picking by the picker and then sowing the item onto the item sowing apparatus of the cart; FIG. 21 shows an order picker seeding items into order boxes carried by a cart.

FIG. 20 illustrates the flow of picking station workers picking seeds. The picked bins have been previously transported by the transfer cart and placed on bin stock 141 at the picking station. The picker picks the corresponding item and the corresponding quantity from the bin according to the prompting device 11 and then places the item on the item sowing device of the carrier. And then, the carrying trolley leaves the sorting station, runs to the side of the corresponding order box and seeds the article to the corresponding order box. If the items stored in the bin are no longer needed after the picking operation is complete, additional carriers may be provided to carry 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. 21 also shows the flow of picking station workers picking seeds. In this case, unlike fig. 20, the trolley transports the corresponding order box to the picking station. Therefore, after picking the item, the picker seeds the item directly into the order box carried by the cart. In the process of sowing by the picking workers, the article sowing device of the carrying trolley is in an open state, so that the picking workers can conveniently sow articles.

In the actual picking process, both the seeding modes of fig. 20 and 21 may exist, or only one of them may be used. The mode of figure 21 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. 20 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 22 shows another way of picking at the picking station. In this manner, the bin is transported by the cart directly to the picking station without placing the bin on the bin storage 141 of the picking station. The picking workers directly pick corresponding commodities from the bins carried by the carrying trolleys and sow the commodities. In the picking process, the article seeding device of the carrying trolley is in an open state, so that the operation of picking workers is facilitated. After picking is complete, the cart 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 cart after operation at the picking station, the cart then needs to seed the item into the corresponding order box.

Fig. 23 and 24 show two ways of automatically sowing the carriers.

FIG. 23 illustrates one manner in which the cart seeds items into order boxes. In this manner, the order box has been previously placed on the bin magazine 141, the cart travels with the item to be seeded adjacent to the order box, the item seeding device is then activated to seed the item into the order box, and the cart then travels away from the order box area.

Fig. 24 shows another seeding pattern with dynamic movement. In this manner, the corresponding order box is placed on a carrier instead of the bin storage 141. The system can dispatch the carrying trolley carrying the articles and the carrying trolley carrying the order box to meet at one place in a field, the article seeding device of the carrying trolley carrying the order box can be in an open state, the carrying trolley carrying the articles can conveniently start the article seeding device of the carrying trolley carrying the articles, and the articles can be seeded into the corresponding order box. After the seeding operation is completed, both the carrying trolleys can drive away from the site, and the subsequent operation is continued.

The procedure of order box handling is described below.

The order box pick-and-place process is similar to that of figure 18 and will not be described further.

FIG. 25 illustrates the process of entering a new empty order box. Empty order boxes are transported from the quality inspection packing out-of-stock area to the sorting seeding area by the conveyor and placed on the bin storage 141 at the entrance of the empty order box. The system can dispatch the floor truck and go to empty order case entrance to take away this order case, carry out subsequent seeding operation of selecting.

FIG. 26 shows the order boxes that have been picked being pushed to the conveyor 18. After the order corresponding to the order box is selected and sown, the system dispatches the carrying trolley to move to the side of the material box storage device 141 where the order box is placed, and then the carrying trolley places the limiting device in a limiting state and walks towards the inside of the material box 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 can refer to fig. 8 to 12, which are not repeated herein.

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. 27 shows a flow chart of replenishment in the system of the invention. The replenishment process is divided into a replenishment preparation and operation part. In the procedure of the replenishment preparation section, first, a replenishment worker puts the article to be replenished into a hopper, and records the article ID, the number of putting, and the container ID put in by a PC, RF, or the like. This operation can be done at any site. The restocker then carries the containers with the stored goods 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. The containers with the stored goods can also be transported to a restocking racking station. After the system receives the racking task, the operation process is started, and the material boxes to be racked are transported before the transportation trolley is dispatched. The system will determine the bin delivery and storage destinations based on the manner in which the items are shelved, location, picking priority, etc. For the bins on the replenishment area storage device 141, the AGV is scheduled to be transported; for the replenishment commodities at the replenishment shelving workstation, the system can decide whether to perform replenishment shelving on the whole container or to shelf the commodity replenishment in the container to the corresponding container according to the corresponding shelving strategy: if the whole container is subjected to replenishment and loading, the container is dispatched and conveyed before the AGV arrives, the whole container is directly placed on the AGV after the AGV arrives, and the binding relationship between the container and the AGV is recorded; if the goods are supplied to the corresponding containers on the shelf, the AGV is dispatched to convey the corresponding containers from the temporary storage area to the corresponding containers, and after the corresponding containers enter the corresponding containers, the corresponding goods are placed into the corresponding containers according to the prompt. Then the system dispatches the AGV to move away the SKU container, and the carrying trolley directly carries the SKU container to a sorting station for sorting for the bin which needs to be sorted immediately; for bins that the system determines will need to pick at a future time, the cart will transport and place on the bin storage 141 of the bin staging area; for the bins that the system judges are not needed to be picked for a long time, the carrying trolley carries the bins to the fixed shelf 14 area, and the forking trolley 15 places the bins on the goods position of the fixed shelf 14 for storage.

FIG. 28 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 bin tote carts 16 to handle the 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. 29 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 for the system stock and the manual interaction only have a plurality of operations such as 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. 30 and 31 show schematic views of the inventory station.

In FIG. 30, the bin transport cart 16 transports 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. 31, the bin transporting cart 16 transports the bins to be inventoried to the automated inventory station below the gantry 20 on which the RFID reader is mounted 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. 32 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 worker scans the returned merchandise piece by piece and the system determines whether to complete the return on shelf via the seeding device of the bin tote cart 16 or to return on shelf via the carriage of the merchandise bin to the station based on the identified returned merchandise and the corresponding strategy. If the former way is used, the system will dispatch the totes to go directly to the station, the picker will place the goods on the seeding devices of the tote totes 16, and the tote totes 16 will seed the goods to the corresponding bins, and if the bins of the bins are already in the bin staging area, the tote totes 16 will seed the goods directly to the bins; otherwise, the bin cart 16 will seed the item into a new empty bin and the system will record the bin-bin binding; if the mode is the latter mode, the system can dispatch the carrying trolley to carry the corresponding SKU workbox to the workstation from the temporary storage area, and the worker puts the corresponding commodity into the SKU workbox. After the return sort operation is complete, the system will dispatch the bin tote cart 16 for restocking and racking of the bins.

After picking, replenishing, returning, etc., the inventory distribution of some bins may be fragmented, such as having only 3 total items in a bin, but being 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. 33 shows a flow chart of inventory consolidation in the system of this invention. The system calculates the bins that need inventory consolidation based on real-time inventory conditions and dispatches the bin tote cart 16 to transport the bins to the corresponding inventory consolidation 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 taking and placing process can also require workers to count the number, and the counting operation is carried out incidentally. When the inventory consolidation operation is complete, the system will schedule the bin handling carts 16 to move the bins away from 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 relation between the distribution equipment 12 and the articles on the distribution equipment 12 by using a receiving device 13; receiving, by using the communication device 121 on the allocating device 12, the seeding strategy sent by the receiving device 13 and obtained according to the correspondence; the sorting device 12 is used for sowing the items sorted by the staff or the picking device into the corresponding order boxes according to the sowing strategy, or the order boxes carried by the staff or the picking device are used for carrying the items sorted by the staff or the picking device, namely, after the items are sorted, the staff or the picking device puts the sorted items on the sorting device 12, and the sorting device 12 is used for sorting the orders, so that the limitation of the number of the orders stored in the order shelves in the picking station is avoided, each staff or the picking device can simultaneously process a large number of dynamic orders, thus a plurality of orders for the explosive items can be distributed to one picking station as intensively as possible, the staff or the picking device in the picking station can process the picking operation of the explosive items through one continuous picking operation, the problem that the orders containing the explosive items need to be scattered among a plurality of picking stations for picking is avoided, the shelves 14 where the explosive items are located need to visit different picking stations according to a certain sequence, and the picking efficiency 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 prompting device is used for receiving real-time order information and prompting a worker or a picking device so that the worker or the picking device can pick an item according to the order information;

a sorting device for carrying order cases for storing and/or handling items sorted by staff or sorting devices;

the distribution equipment is provided with a communication device for receiving and prompting the seeding strategy obtained according to the corresponding relation;

the order distribution equipment is any one of an order distribution wall, a movable distribution wall, a conveying line capable of conveying order boxes or a combination of the order distribution wall, the movable distribution wall and the conveying line.

2. The warehousing operation system of claim 1, further comprising: a rack transfer cart, the rack transfer cart comprising: the lifting mechanism is used for jacking the bottom of the movable distribution wall to carry the movable distribution wall.

3. The warehousing operation system of claim 1, further comprising: and the forking trolley is used for taking the order boxes needing to be transported away from the distribution equipment.

4. The warehousing operation system of claim 1, further comprising: and a conveying line for conveying away the order boxes which are taken off from the distribution equipment and have finished being sorted at the station.

5. The warehousing operation system of claim 1, wherein the communication device comprises: one or any combination of a display screen and a lighting device which is arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of order boxes.

6. 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 box on the distribution equipment and the article by using a receiving device;

receiving and storing the seeding strategy which is sent by the receiving device and obtained according to the corresponding relation by utilizing a communication device on the allocating equipment;

the distribution equipment is any one or a combination of a fixedly arranged order distribution wall, a movable distribution wall and a conveying line capable of conveying order boxes.

7. The warehousing operation method of claim 6, wherein each of the prompting devices preferentially receives order information for orders containing identical items.

8. The warehousing operation method of claim 6, wherein before the step of seeding the items sorted by the staff or the sorting equipment to the order boxes on the corresponding order box sorting equipment, the method further comprises:

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

and binding the order box and the specified position of the specified distribution equipment according to the order information.

9. The warehousing operation method according to claim 8, wherein before binding the order box and the designated location of the designated distribution equipment according to the order information, the method further comprises:

according to the work scheduling information of the workstation, a goods shelf carrying trolley or a worker is assigned to carry the distribution equipment with the empty order box to the workstation;

or, the fork-taking trolley is assigned to take the order box from the temporary storage device of the empty order box and the injection port of the empty order box and place the order box at the order box placing position on the order box distribution equipment of the workstation;

or, the dispatching conveying line conveys the order boxes to the work station.

10. The warehousing operation method of claim 6, wherein if an order on the order box distribution equipment has completed picking work at the station, further comprising after completion of the picking task at the station:

the dispatching goods shelf carrying trolley carries the movable distribution wall to other work stations or a temporary storage area;

or prompting the staff to carry the movable distribution wall to other workstations and a temporary storage area;

or the dispatching fork trolley takes the order box to be carried off from the distribution equipment and carries the order box away by using the fork trolley;

or the dispatching fork-taking trolley takes the order boxes needing to be carried off from the distribution equipment and carries the order boxes away through the conveying line.