JP2007076831A - Conveyance system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a conveyance system capable of reducing the possibility for prolonging schedule of a processing device even if amount of articles for work increases due to increase of amount of articles to be picked depending on day at delivery center and occupation time of a sorting device becomes long when amount of articles exceeds processing capacity of an automatic warehouse for supplying articles to a picking area, thereby affecting the other following articles to be sorted. <P>SOLUTION: At the delivery center 1, this conveyance system controls to convey articles partially in advance before the time fixed by the schedule when amount of articles to be conveyed by the automatic warehouse 2 is larger than amount of articles capable of being conveyed within the time allotted by the schedule. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport system, and more particularly to a technology of a transport system for improving picking efficiency in an automatic warehouse.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a conveyance system including a sorting device that sorts articles conveyed from a plurality of picking areas is known.
For example, a sorting support device disclosed in Patent Document 1. In this sorting support apparatus, for example, in the bread manufacturing industry, a product yard divided for each product type and a carriage yard for arranging a plurality of carriages according to shipping destinations are provided, and a plurality of carriage yards formed in an annular shape are provided. By forming a series of annular yards, each carriage is sequentially positioned in the sorting work area, and the sorting work is supported by sequentially positioning the carriages in the shipping work area. Here, a product yard divided for each product type corresponds to the plurality of picking areas, and a carriage yard and a sorting work area in which a plurality of carriages according to shipping destinations are arranged correspond to the sorting device. .
JP-A-8-99703

  In some cases, the above-described transport system is enlarged, and a transport system in which the occupation schedule of the sorting device is predetermined for each picking area may be configured. For example, goods stored in a large automatic warehouse equipped with a stacker crane are transported to the picking area according to the shipping destination in units of pallets, and the required number of articles are taken out from the pallet in the picking area and attached with an identification tag. This is a case where it is sent out to the apparatus and individual sorting according to the shipping destination is performed in this sorting apparatus. Usually, the occupancy schedule of the transport system (especially the sorting device and the automatic warehouse) is determined according to the shipping destination, so that the occupying time of one shipping destination becomes longer and can occupy the occupied time of other shipping destinations. Must be avoided as much as possible.

However, there are times when the amount of picking increases depending on the day, and if the processing capacity of the automatic warehouse that supplies articles to the picking area is exceeded, the time required for picking increases and the occupation time of the sorting device increases. It affected the picking work in other subsequent picking areas.
Therefore, it is a problem to provide a transport system that can reduce the possibility that the schedule of the processing apparatus becomes long even when the amount of articles to be worked increases.

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is as described above. Next, means for solving the problem will be described.

  That is, in claim 1, a plurality of work places, a processing device for processing articles worked in the work places according to the occupation schedule determined in advance for each work place, and a transport facility for carrying the articles to the work places; A transfer system that operates a transfer facility in accordance with an occupation schedule of the processing apparatus, wherein the transfer facility is previously set in advance of an occupation time allocated to a work place among articles to be transferred. Input means for inputting an article to be conveyed to the work place is provided.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the transport system according to the first aspect, the articles to be conveyed to the processing device are an article group in which the target articles are taken out from the container in which the articles to be conveyed from the conveyance facility are stored at the work place. The article to be transported in advance is an article accommodated in a container with a small quantity to be taken out at the work place, and is taken out from a plurality of containers at the work place before the occupied time and is put into another container. It is the conveyance system put together as a group.

  The transfer system according to claim 3, wherein the transfer facility includes an automatic warehouse having an article shelf that can store a group of goods and a transfer device that loads and unloads the group of articles, and the automatic warehouse. And a processing device that automatically sorts each article according to the ID assigned to the article group.

  As effects of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

  According to the first aspect, the specified article can be transported to the work place in advance by the input means, and it is possible to prevent the occupation schedule from becoming long by preventing the work delay caused by the waiting for the transport of the article. it can.

  According to claim 2, in addition to the effect of claim 1, a plurality of articles to be transported in advance are taken out and collected in another container, thereby minimizing a space for temporarily storing articles related to the work place outside the occupation time. Can be

  In claim 3, in addition to the effect of claim 2, the group of articles stored in the article shelf of the automatic warehouse is delivered by the transfer device, transported to the work place by the transport device, and a predetermined number of articles are transported. Picking from the group, the remaining group of articles can be re-entered into the warehouse of the automated warehouse. In other words, the daily processing amount fluctuates by taking out a group of articles in advance in accordance with an automatic warehouse with a low processing capacity per unit time in order to move between the transfer device and the article shelf. But you can finish it on schedule.

Next, embodiments of the invention will be described.
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an overall configuration of an automatic warehouse according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a pallet in a state where articles are placed. 3 is an AA arrow view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is an BB arrow view of FIG.

First, the distribution center 1 which is embodiment of this invention is demonstrated using FIG. 1 thru | or FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, the distribution center 1 includes an automatic warehouse 2, a cart transport system 40, a picking station 20 that is an assembly of picking areas 14, and a conveyor from the right side to the left side of FIG. 1. An automatic sorter 30 is installed.
In addition, when it is not necessary to distinguish different picking areas 14A and 14B, they are referred to as picking areas 14.

The flow of article transportation in the distribution center 1 will be described briefly. First, the article group 9a taken out from the automatic warehouse 2 and loaded on the pallet is delivered to the picking area 14 via the carriage transportation system 40. It is. After the sorting preparation work (picking work) is performed on the article group 9b in the picking area 14, the article group 9b is conveyed to the automatic sorter 30, and each article group 9b corresponds to each article 9b by the automatic sorter 30. Sorted to the sorting destination.
As described above, in the following, articles are classified into two types depending on their properties. That is, an article group 9a that is taken out from the automatic warehouse 2 and immediately before picking and an article group that has been picked (with an identification tag attached) are 9b.

FIG. 2 shows the article group 9 a placed on the pallet 19. A plurality of articles can be placed on the pallet 19 at the same time, depending on the type and size of the article.
The article group 9 a is transported from the automatic warehouse 2 to the picking area 14 via the cart conveyance system 40 while the article group 9 a is placed on the pallet 19. In addition, as long as the article group 9a on the pallet 19 is not emptied, the pallet 19 on which the article 9a is placed is returned from the picking area 14 to the automatic warehouse 2 via the carriage transport system 40.
Similarly, the delivery of the article 9 from the picking area 14 to the automatic sorter 30 is performed in units of pallets in which the article group 9 b is placed on the pallet 19.

  In the following description, the phrase “convey the pallet 19” simply means that the pallet 19 on which the article group 9a is placed is conveyed. In particular, in the case of an empty pallet 19 on which an article is not placed, the empty pallet 19 is specified.

The automatic warehouse 2 will be described with reference to FIGS.
In the automatic warehouse 2, two article shelves 4 are erected on the floor so as to open the passage 3 of the stacker crane 10. A frontage of the article shelf 4 faces the passage 3, and a pallet 19 loaded with goods is taken in and out from the frontage.
An exit station 5 and an entrance station 6 are provided at one end of each side of each article shelf 4 for the two article shelves 4. The stacker crane 10 moves between the article shelf 4 and the storage station 6 to receive a pallet 19 loaded with articles, and moves between the article shelf 4 and the delivery station 5 to carry a pallet 19 loaded with articles. Issue the goods.

The cart conveyance system 40 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3.
A travel route 8 of the unmanned track truck 7 is attached between the automatic warehouse 2 and the picking station 20 described above. The travel route 8 and the unmanned track cart 7 constitute a cart transport system 40. The travel route 8 is configured as a closed route with one side face toward the exit station 5 and the entry station 6 of the automatic warehouse 2 and the other side face toward the picking station 20. Here, the unmanned track carriage 7 conveys the pallet 19 from the delivery station 5 to each picking area 14 of the picking station 20.
The traveling operation of the unmanned track cart 7 is controlled by a control device mounted on the unmanned track cart 7, and a central control device (not shown) gives a command to the control device of the unmanned track cart 7.

Next, the picking station 20 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 4.
The picking station 20 is an aggregate of a plurality (six in this embodiment) of picking areas 14A, 14B, 14C, 14D, 14E, and 14F. In each picking area 14, a plurality of U-shaped conveyors 11 are arranged with one end facing the unmanned track carriage 7 and the other end facing the personal computer 12 and the operator 13. Here, the pallet 19 transported by the unmanned track carriage 7 is transported to the front of the personal computer 12 and the worker 13 by the U-shaped conveyor 11, and the picking work (sorting preparation work) is performed. This picking operation is a combination of the operation of taking out only the item 9 to be sent to the automatic sorter 30 from the pallet 19 on which the item group 9a is placed and the operation of attaching an identification tag to the taken out item group 9b. is there.
As the identification tag, for example, a barcode is used, and the automatic sorter 30 reads this identification tag with a barcode reader and performs automatic sorting.
After the picking work of the sorting target article group 9a is completed, the remaining articles other than the sorting target article group 9a remain on the pallet 19 and are again transferred to the unmanned track carriage 7 by the U-shaped conveyor 11. It is transferred and returned to the automatic warehouse 2.

The handling of the empty pallet 19 will be described with reference to FIG.
In the picking operation in the picking area 14, the article group 9 a is taken out from the pallet 19, but when at least one article remains on the pallet 19, the pallet 19 is returned to the automatic warehouse 2. On the other hand, in this picking operation, when all the articles are taken out from the pallet 19 and become an empty pallet 19, the empty pallet 19 is transferred to the pallet magazine 18 arranged on one end side of the picking station 20. Be transported.
A first conveyor 17 is disposed in the pallet magazine 18 so as to be adjacent to the travel path 8 of the unmanned track truck 7, and an empty pallet is provided between the trolley transport system 40 and the pallet magazine 18 by the first conveyor 17. 19 transfers are possible. The pallet magazine 18 accommodates empty pallets and can provide empty pallets to the unmanned track carriage 7 by the first conveyor 17.

The pallet delivery line 16 that does not go through the picking station 20 will be described with reference to FIG.
On the other end side of the picking station 20, a second conveyor 15 is arranged as a pallet delivery line 16 so as to be adjacent to the travel route 8 of the unmanned track carriage 7. In the pallet unloading line 16, a pallet loaded with articles can be directly carried out by a forklift (not shown) without going through the picking work and sorting work in the picking area 14 described above.
The pallet delivery line 16 is also used when storing excess articles in pre-picking (described later) in the temporary storage area 21.

The automatic sorter 30 as a processing apparatus will be described.
The automatic sorter 30 is an equipment that automatically sorts the group of articles 9b picked at the picking station 20 for each transport destination based on the barcode. For example, the steel belt conveyor having a low transport surface and each transport destination. And a diverter that is provided for each chute and moves an article on the conveyor to the chute, and the diverter of the sorting destination corresponding to the barcode attached to the article group 9b is activated, The article group 9b on the conveyor is moved to the chute. In the present embodiment, for convenience of explanation, only the conveyor disposed at a position adjacent to the picking station 20 is shown in FIG.

Next, a normal transport procedure according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.
(1) In the automatic warehouse 2, the stacker crane 10 conveys the pallet 19 from the article shelf 4 to the delivery station 5.
(2) The pallet 19 is transferred from the unloading station 5 to the unmanned track carriage 7 and put into the U-shaped conveyor 11 in the picking area 14.
(3) The operator 13 takes out an article instructed as a picking target by the personal computer 12 from the pallet 19, attaches a barcode (recognition tag) to the target article, and transfers the target article to the automatic sorter 30.

Next, a transport procedure in the distribution center 1 according to the occupation schedule of the automatic sorter 30 will be described.
The occupation schedule of the automatic sorter 30 in the distribution center 1 is determined for each picking area 14, and the picking work must be performed in the picking area 14 allocated within the occupation time.
The occupation schedule of the automatic sorter 30 is a work time from 08 o'clock to 20 o'clock, and this work time is set, for example, in units of 2 hours (hereinafter, unit occupation time). For example, from 08 o'clock to 10 o'clock is assigned to the picking areas 14A, 14C, and 14E, from 10 o'clock to 12 o'clock is assigned to the picking areas 14B, 14D, and 14F, and from 12 o'clock to 14 o'clock is the picking areas 14A, 14C -Assigned to 14E. Hereinafter, the case of this schedule configuration will be described as an example.
Note that the configuration for allocating such an occupation schedule is not limited to the above-described configuration, and the picking area 14A is from 08 o'clock to 09 o'clock, and the picking area 14B is from 09 o'clock to 10 o'clock. Of course, other configurations may be used.
Although not shown, a plurality of picking areas 14 are provided. In addition to the picking area shown in FIG. 1, there are picking areas (not shown) in the delivery center 1, and an automatic sorter occupation schedule 30 is provided for each. It has been.
In this embodiment, the picking area 14 is divided into a plurality of groups and the occupation schedule of the automatic sorter 30 is determined. For example, the picking area 14, the automatic warehouse 2, and the transport cart system 40 shown in FIG. In the distribution center system in which a plurality of picking facilities having the same configuration as those described above are provided, the occupation schedule of the automatic sorter 30 may be determined for each picking area of each picking facility.

  Here, the occupation schedule of the automatic sorter 30 is performed in accordance with, for example, a change in the large classification of the sorting destination (the difference between the delivery destination A and the delivery destination B). For example, the sorting operation for the delivery destination A is performed by occupying the automatic sorter 30 from 08 o'clock to 10 o'clock. In the sorting operation corresponding to the delivery destination A, it is necessary to perform a picking operation corresponding to the delivery destination A, and data corresponding to the delivery destination A is registered in the personal computer 12 in the picking area 14 where the picking operation is performed. Yes.

In the present embodiment, the person in charge determines whether the sorting amount required in each unit occupation time is an amount that can be completed in the unit occupation time (2 hours) from the conveyance capacity per hour of the pallet of the automatic warehouse 2. Judgment.
The method for determining whether or not the amount of articles required to be sorted in each unit occupation time exceeds the transport capacity of the automatic warehouse 2 requires the transport capacity of the automatic warehouse 2 per unit time and the sort. The method is not limited to the comparison with the amount of articles to be processed, and other methods may be used.

  Here, the conveyance capacity of the automatic warehouse 2 is the conveyance capacity of the pallet 19, and the sorting amount required in each unit occupation time is the total amount of articles, and the automatic warehouse 2 simply because the total quantity of articles is large. It does not necessarily exceed the transport capacity of This is because when the varieties of articles are disjoint or the amount of articles placed on one pallet 19 is small, the pallet 19 transport efficiency (conveys articles necessary for sorting per pallet 19). This is because the amount that can be reduced).

If the required sorting amount is larger than the amount that can be unloaded from the automatic warehouse 2 during the unit occupation time, an amount of pallets that exceed the amount that can be unloaded can be picked in the picking area 14 in advance (hereinafter, Pre-picking) and store. The storage location may be in the picking area 14, but is a temporary storage area 21 that can be transferred using the second conveyor 15, and the excess amount of articles is placed in the pallet 19 in the temporary storage area 21. It shall be kept in a mounted state.
For example, in the sorting in the unit occupation time from 14:00 to 16:00, if the person in charge determines that sorting exceeding the transport capacity of the automatic warehouse 2 is required, the time before 08 hours before the work time of the automatic sorter 30 In addition, the picking work is performed in the corresponding picking area 14 and the picked article group 9b is stored in the temporary storage area 21 while being placed on the pallet 19.
In the article group 9b that has been picked, articles conveyed from a plurality of pallets 19 are grouped into the same delivery destination pallet 19 to form an article group 9b.

The effect of the pre-picking shown above is demonstrated.
In the distribution center 1, in the process of the automatic warehouse 2, picking work, automatic sorter 30 and the three transport systems, the automatic sorter 30 has a high processing capacity, and the operation rate can be adjusted if the number of workers in the picking work is increased.
By performing the pre-picking operation, the processing amount of the automatic warehouse 2 where the processing capacity is most difficult to adjust can be reduced in advance, and the processing capacity of the distribution center 1 can be improved.

Here, in order to minimize the total amount of articles stored in the temporary storage area 21, in the pre-picking, items that are not frequently taken out from one pallet are selected as pre-picking (small amount selection in the pre-picking), and the same It is put together on the delivery destination pallet. That is, picking is performed so as to reduce the number of pallets of the same sorting destination.
The small quantity selection in the pre-picking is different from the normal picking operation, and the item in the article group 9b as the sorting destination is selected in advance.
That is, the total amount of pallets stored in the storage area 21 can be reduced. In addition, the reduction in the total amount of pallets can reduce the number of pallet transports from the pallet exit 16 to the storage area 21, and the number of operations of the automatic sorter 30 can also be reduced.
In addition, since the present embodiment is performed in advance (such as 07 hours) from the normal picking work (for example, from 08:00 to 20:00), for example, the automatic sorter 30 should be performed even if it is used for another purpose. Can do.

Below, the state of implementation of the small quantity selection in the pre-picking will be described.
In the following, ST1 is a picking area where empty pallets are carried in, and ST2 is a picking area where pallets loaded with pre-picked goods are carried.
(1) First, the person in charge decides to perform pre-picking. The person in charge inputs the numerical value of the shipping case and the item in advance with the personal computer 12 and grasps the number of pallets to be shipped from the automatic warehouse 2 (which may be a rough guide).
(2) The person in charge, for example, automatically stores the pallet 19 in which the article group 9a of five cases or less (the maximum number of placements on the pallet 19 is 20 for example) on one pallet 19 in advance picking. 2 is set as the target pallet 19 to be taken out from 2 (target pallet for prior delivery).
(3) Re-input the items other than the target products to be issued in advance and the shipping case to the PC again, and determine whether they can be processed within 1 batch (2 hours).
(4) Transport the empty pallet from the pallet magazine 18 to ST1.
(5) The pre-picked goods are conveyed to the U-shaped conveyor (ST2) next to ST1.
(6) Carry the goods in ST2 to the empty pallet in ST1 according to the picking instruction. At the same time, a barcode is also pasted.
(7) When a certain amount of empty pallets is fully loaded from a plurality of target pallets to be delivered in advance, the unmanned track carriage 7 transports the pallets to the pallet delivery line 16.
(8) The loaded pallet is taken out from the pallet unloading line 16 by a forklift and temporarily placed near the automatic sorter 30 until the original picking operation is started.
(9) A pallet that does not require picking (for example, a pallet on which a necessary number of picking cases are placed on one pallet) is taken out from the automatic warehouse 2 directly to the pallet unloading line 16 in advance picking.

  Next, a specific example in the above-described pre-picking operation will be described with reference to FIG. The U-shaped conveyors 11b and 11c located on the left and right sides of the U-shaped conveyor 11a, which is ST1 to which the empty pallet is transported, are referred to as ST2 for transporting the pre-picking goods. As a result, an operator is positioned on each of the U-shaped conveyors 11b and c, and the pre-picking goods can be mounted on both sides of the empty pallet of ST1.

The present invention includes a processing apparatus that processes an article, a plurality of work places that perform a predetermined operation on the article delivered to the processing apparatus, and a transport facility that transports the article to the work place, The apparatus is not limited to the configuration of the present embodiment as long as the apparatus occupation schedule is determined in advance by assigning the occupation time of the processing apparatus for each work place.
In the present embodiment, the processing apparatus is the automatic sorter 30, the work place is the picking area 14, and the transfer facility is the automatic warehouse 2 and the cart transfer system 40. In the picking area 14, as the predetermined work, a work for picking up an article to be transported to the automatic sorter 30 from the goods group 9 a transported by the pallet 19 from the automatic warehouse 2 and an identification tag are attached to the picked-up article 9 b. Work.

In the present embodiment, the control means for controlling the transport equipment is a warehouse control device for controlling the driving of the automatic warehouse 2 (stacker crane 10), and the central control device for controlling the cart transport system 40. The input command to the control device can be made from a personal computer in an office provided separately from the picking area 14, for example.
Based on the input command from the personal computer, the warehouse control device and the central control device perform the following control. When the amount of articles to be transported from the automatic warehouse 2 to the picking area 14 is larger than the amount of articles that can be transported in the occupation time allocated to the picking area 14 in the occupation schedule, the picking area 14 On the other hand, the warehouse control device controls the automatic warehouse 2 so that a part of the articles to be conveyed is conveyed in advance from the automatic warehouse 2 to the picking area 14 at a time before the occupied time allocated to the automatic warehouse 2. The apparatus controls the cart transport system 40.

The top view which showed the whole structure of the automatic warehouse which concerns on embodiment of this invention. The perspective view which shows the pallet in the state in which the article | item was mounted. FIG. 2 is an AA arrow view of FIG. 1. The BB arrow line view of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1 Distribution Center 2 Automatic Warehouse 7 Unmanned Track Cart 20 Picking Area 30 Automatic Sorter

Claims (3)

A plurality of work places, a processing device for processing an article worked in the work place according to an occupation schedule determined in advance for each work place, and a transport facility for carrying the article to the work place. A transport system that operates transport equipment according to the occupation schedule,
The transport system includes an input unit for inputting an article to be transported to the work place in advance before an occupation time allocated to the work place among the articles to be transported. . The transport system according to claim 1,
The article to be conveyed to the processing apparatus is a group of articles in which a target article is taken out at a work place from a container in which the goods to be carried from a carrying facility are stored, and the article to be carried in advance is taken out at the work place. A transport system in which goods stored in a small quantity of containers are taken out from a plurality of containers and grouped in another container at a work place before the occupation time. The transport system according to claim 2, wherein
The transfer facility includes an automatic warehouse having an article shelf that can store a group of goods and a transfer device that loads and unloads the article group, and a transfer apparatus that conveys the article group between the automatic warehouse and the work place. The processing system is an automatic sorter that automatically sorts each processing destination based on an ID assigned to an article group.