JP2828884B2 - Goods sorting equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article sorting apparatus provided with an indicator for displaying the number of articles to be taken out of a storage section by hand, such as articles conveyed by a conveyor, and more particularly to an article sorting apparatus for workers. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article sorting facility that is designed to allow a certain amount of time to be taken out and to ensure that articles are taken out.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a distribution center or the like, when handling products that are not uniform in shape and cannot use an automatic picking facility at a distribution center or the like, they are used to manually sort the products into shipping destinations.

[0003] Conventional product sorting equipment includes a conveyer for conveying commodities, a plurality of merchandise storage devices including fixed shelves arranged on the sides of the conveyor, and a plurality of merchandise storage devices installed in the respective merchandise storage devices. A display for displaying the number of products to be taken out and conveyed on a conveyor, and a transmitter for transmitting completion of product removal to a control device, which drives or displays the conveyor based on reception from the transmitter. The container displays the number of items to be taken out next.

[0004] While watching the display on the display, the operator takes out the specified number of products from the product storage device in charge of the operator, puts them on a conveyor, and transports them to a predetermined position by the conveyor.

[0005] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-55006 discloses such a product sorting equipment.

[0006]

The efficiency and accuracy of product sorting, i.e., picking, depends on the ability of the operator. Since the conveyor that conveys the picked-up goods is usually driven at a constant speed, in a collaborative work involving a plurality of workers, the picking-up display on the display, that is, the worker's work becomes so irregular that the work instructions become irregular. Efficiency decreases due to synergy with ability. In a hurry not to inconvenience other workers, the number of picked up products may be incorrect, resulting in inaccuracy and even reduced efficiency.

[0007] Commodity sorting is performed for each shipping destination, and there is a case where it is not necessary to take out (picking) the product depending on the shipping destination. Therefore, an imbalance occurs in the work instruction to each worker, which may reduce efficiency.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an article sorting apparatus capable of improving both the efficiency and accuracy of an article taking out operation.

[0009]

The article sorting equipment according to the present invention is characterized in that a storage conveyor for temporarily storing supplied goods is provided separately from a conveyor for conveying goods.

[0010]

The function of storing articles by the storage conveyor can be confirmed visually. Since the worker can start the article removal operation while checking the article transport status, it is possible to know a margin for the next article removal operation. An unskilled worker starts the removal operation early, and a skilled worker starts the removal operation with a margin. In other words, each worker proceeds with the work while assessing his or her own ability, so that the worker does not feel tight. Therefore, the picking operation is performed not immediately before the article is conveyed by the conveyor but rather before. As a result, the picking operation is performed with high efficiency and high accuracy, there is no complaint from the destination, and the reliability of the distribution center is high.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The merchandise sorting equipment according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows a merchandise sorting facility according to one embodiment of the present invention. 2 and 3 are perspective views of a merchandise storage unit and a merchandise packing unit of the merchandise sorting equipment shown in FIG. 1, respectively, and FIG. 4 is an electrical diagram of the merchandise sorting equipment shown in FIG.

The alphabetic subscripts in each figure are lower-level concepts or equivalent concepts of the numbers without the subscripts, and the subscripts will be omitted in the following description for the common parts. FIG.
In the figure, 1 is a conveyor that moves from left to right in the figure, and 2 and 3 are a loading unit and a discharging unit of a transportation pallet A provided at the left end and the right end of the transportation conveyor 1 in the diagram, respectively. An elevator for the transport pallet A is installed in the unloading section 3. 4a to 4n are merchandise storage units for storing merchandise to be conveyed by the conveyor 1.
5a to 5n are the product storage units 4a to 4n and the conveyor 1
Is a cut-out conveyor (storage conveyor). Each cut-out conveyor can be controlled independently.

As shown in FIG. 2, each of the merchandise storage units 4a to 4
n includes a product storage table 41, an electronic weighing machine 42 having a communication function, and a display 43. An example of the product 6 placed on the product storage table 41 is a book. The measuring device 42 is the product 6
Measure the weight of.

The display 43 is provided from the goods storage table 41 to the measuring device 4.
2 is provided with a display unit 43a for displaying the number of products 6 to be taken out and a display unit 43b for displaying whether or not the number of products 6 taken out is correct.

When the desired number of the products 6 are placed on the measuring device 42, it is determined that the product take-out operation is completed, and the display of the display 43 is turned off. These determinations are performed electronically, and are managed by the computer 7. The computer 7 includes an input / output unit 7a, a calculation unit 7b, and a display unit 7c. Input data from the input (output) unit 7a and processing in the calculation unit 7b will be described later.

If it is determined that the work of taking out the product is completed,
The cutting-out conveyor 5 operates in synchronization with the conveyor drive of the conveyor incorporated in the weighing device 42, and the goods 6 are intermittently moved toward the conveyor 1 for each work unit.

In FIG. 1, well-known pushers 8a to 8n are provided at connecting points between the conveyor 1 and each of the cut-out conveyors 5a to 5n.
The products on each of the cut-out conveyors 5a to 5n are sequentially transferred onto the transport pallet A waiting on the transport conveyor 1 based on the signal from the pallet A.

The transport conveyor 1 transports the transport pallet A to the load arranging section 9a or 9b located rightward in the figure. In the packing units 9a and 9b, the goods 6 carried by the packing worker W2 are stored in the containers 10a and 10b together with the goods specification issued by the printer 11. Issuance of a statement of invoice in the printer 11 is performed based on a signal from the computer 7.

FIG. 3 shows a situation where the goods 6 and the statement of goods R are transferred from the conveyor 1 and the printer 11 to the work table 12 of the load arranging section 9. If a pusher is used to transfer the product 6 to the worktable 12, the transfer operation is performed efficiently.

As shown in FIG. 1, the transfer of the transport pallet A between the elevator of the loading unit 2 and the unloading unit 3 and the transport conveyor 1 is automatically performed using the pushers 14a and 14b, and the operation is unmanned. Is being planned.

Driving of the elevators, the conveyor 1, and the cut-out conveyors 5a to 5n of the loading unit 2 and the unloading unit 3 is performed as follows.
The controller 15 drives each of the drive motors 16a to 16n in response to a signal from the computer 7, so that the drive is performed in conjunction with each other.

Next, input data and calculation of the computer 7 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG.
The computer 7 includes an input / output unit 7a including a keyboard shown in FIG. 1, an operation unit 7b for performing processing calculations, a display screen (display unit) 7c, a ROM 7d in which operation procedures of the entire equipment are stored, and an input / output unit 7b. (Output) A RAM 7e for temporarily storing data and the like input and output by the force unit 7a is provided. Instead of storing the operation procedure of the entire equipment in the ROM, it is stored in a hard disk or a floppy disk, and the RAM 7 of the computer 7 is used when the equipment is started up.
e may be moved to a predetermined portion.

Each of the merchandise storage units 4a starts from the input (output) force unit 7a.
The weight per unit of each product 6 stored in the product storage tables 41 to 4n and the product sorting quantity for each shipping destination are input, and the data is stored in the RAM 7e. Table 1 shows an example of the sorting quantity of commodities (for each article) for each shipping (shipping) destination.

[0025]

[Table 1]

With respect to the product sorting work table shown in Table 1,
Table 2 shows a product takeout schedule for each of the product storage units (lines) 4a to 4n.

[0027]

[Table 2]

As shown in FIG. 2, a product 6 is stored in a product storage table 41 in each of the product storage units (lines) 4a to 4n. The display unit 43a sequentially displays the number of the products 6 to be taken out to the measuring device 42 in accordance with the progress of the work as described later.

The weight of each product 6 in each product storage table 41 has been input from the keyboard 7a in advance. When the worker W1 takes out a designated number of pieces and places it on the weighing device 42 based on the indication of the number of pieces to be taken out, the total weight is transmitted to the computer 7.

The computer 7 determines that the total weight is the product of the designated number and the unit weight, confirms the completion of the removal operation, and instructs the display section 43b to display the completion of the operation. If it is insufficient, a message indicating that it is insufficient is displayed. The worker W1 proceeds with the work according to those instructions.

In FIG. 1, when the task of arranging the goods to a certain destination is initiated by the computer 7, the uppermost one of the transport pallets A stacked on the elevator of the loading section 2 is pushed to the transport conveyor 1 by the pusher 14a. Move.

Next, the transport pallet A stops at a connection portion with the cut-out conveyor 5 which is transporting the required product 6. Then the pusher 8 cuts out the product 6 and the conveyor 5
From the transfer pallet A on the transfer conveyor 1. After that, the conveyor 1 transports the pallet A on which the product 6 is placed.
Is conveyed to the loading unit 9.

In the load arranging section 9, the worker W2 picks up the product 6 on the transport pallet A and puts it in the container 10. The empty transport pallet A is transported to the unloading section 3 and is sequentially stacked on the elevator that descends one pallet by the pusher 14b. When a certain number of empty pallets have accumulated, the empty pallets are transferred to the cart and returned to the loading section 2.

The packing operation in the packing unit 9 is as an example.
Perform for each shipping destination. One transport pallet A on the transport conveyor 1 stops in front of the cut-out conveyor 5 for storing goods to be sent to the designated shipping destination, and
And conveys the goods 6 to the cargo arranging section 9. That is, the transport conveyor 1 does not stop at the connection portions with all the cutting conveyors 5a to 5n, but stops at the cutting conveyor 5 of the designated product.

Therefore, in order to cut out products designated for each shipping destination and transfer the products from the conveyor 5 to each transport pallet A,
Table 3 summarizes an example in which the transport conveyor 1 stops at a connection with the required cut-out conveyor 5 with respect to the product sorting work table in Table 1.

[0036]

[Table 3]

The pallet stop line No. in Table 3 is equivalent to the line in Table 2, and indicates a place where the transport pallet A is transported by the transport conveyor 1 for product transfer and stops at the connection with the cut-out conveyor 5. .

For example, for the shipping destination A, the article number
In order to transfer 1, 3, 6, 7 and 8, the pallet stop line NO. Stop individually at 1,3,6,7,8, product 6
And carry it to the packing section 9. When the transportation of all the designated products is completed, the process moves to the next shipment destination B.

Returning to FIG. 4, the controller 15 operates the transport conveyor 1, the cut-out conveyor 5, the pushers 8, 14 and the like under the management of the ROM 7d using the data of Table 3 created by the computer 7. . Completion of each operation is detected by various sensors (not shown). While the data is being confirmed by the computer, the next processing and operation are performed.

Although this processing and operation are managed by the computer 7, since the sequence operation is performed sequentially for each shipping destination and no particularly complicated software processing is performed, a software flow chart for the processing is omitted.

Next, each product storage unit (line) 4a-4
The margin time for taking out the product at n will be described.
Here, as shown by the cut-out conveyor 5a in FIG. 1, products for four shipping destinations can be sequentially transferred to each cut-out conveyor. The transport pallet A after the transfer is placed in the loading unit 9
During the transfer, the cutting conveyor 5 is intermittently moved to the connection portion with the conveyor 1 in order to transfer the goods to the conveyor pallet A. Since the cut-out conveyor 5 can store the products for the four shipping destinations, the work of taking out the products from each product storage unit for a certain shipping destination is performed at least immediately before the first product transfer of the shipping destination at least four homes. It is sufficient if the transfer is performed before the final product transfer at the shipping destination is completed.

During this period, the cumulative time required for loading and unloading the goods to one shipping destination for transferring the goods and transporting the goods to the loading unit 9 is not uniform, and as shown in Table 1 and Table 3, the delivery time from the shipping destination is not uniform. Will vary.

Therefore, in order to work in a relaxed mood with a margin, for example, a beginner can visually observe the transfer status by the cut-out conveyor 5 and the transfer conveyor 1 to check the goods stored on the cut-out conveyor 5. It is only necessary to start the preparation for taking out the products designated on the display 43a at the stage where the set of the products is four. At least because the product is taken out of the shipping destination after 5 homes,
Work can be done in a relaxed mood.

If the operator W1 is used, the cutting conveyor 5 is used.
And, by visually observing the transport status by the transport conveyor 1, the margin of the work start time is determined. For example, when the set of the products stored on the cutting-out conveyor 5 becomes two, the product taking out is started. Is also good.

The feature of the equipment according to this embodiment is that the picking is completed in advance of the transport by the transport conveyor 1 instead of being performed immediately before the transport by the transport by the transport conveyor 1. If the product is taken out several times beforehand on the cutting-out conveyor 5, the margin of the work start time becomes longer, and the margin of the worker W1 increases.

As described above, it is possible to determine a margin of the work start time by observing the state of conveyance by the conveyor 5 and the conveyor 1 by visual observation. Therefore, each worker W1
Can perform the extraction work at his own discretion according to his / her skill level. The feeling of oppression that has been overtaken by the work can be eliminated, and the work can be performed accurately.

Based on the merchandise sorting work table shown in Table 1, the printer 11 determines the type of goods (article number) for each shipping destination.
And a remittance statement stating the quantity. The data is created by the computer 7 based on Table 1, and the data is received by the printer 11 to perform the issuing process.

The process for issuing a remittance statement for each shipping address is performed at the start of a packing task for each shipping address. The worker W2 stores the goods 6 conveyed in the issued remittance statement along with the remittance statement in the container 10.

Hereinafter, modified examples and applied examples of the product sorting equipment will be described. (1) In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the judgment of the start of the work for picking up the product is made by visual inspection. However, as shown in FIG.
The notification may be made by a combination of a sensor such as 0 and an alarm device such as the alarm 51. In the present embodiment, a photoelectric switch 50 is provided at a predetermined position of the cut-out conveyor 5, and an alarm 51 is provided at a mounting portion of the display 43. When the signal from the photoelectric switch 50 is cut off, an alarm 51 sounds so as to prompt the user to take out the product. With this configuration, it is possible to prevent the product from being overlooked.

In the present embodiment, a non-contact type photoelectric switch is used as the sensor, but a contact type limit switch may be used. Alternatively, an indicator lamp that appeals to the eye, or a combination thereof may be used.

Further, in this embodiment, only one sensor is provided. However, by providing two or more sensors, the alarm device is provided in a stepwise manner (for example, the alarm sound of the alarm is gradually increased, It may be changed according to the position where the reaction has been made, etc.).

(2) The signal from the sensor is sent to the computer 7
And the alarm device may be activated by the judgment of the computer 7.

With such a configuration, it is possible to determine a margin for the actual working time. For example, the number of times the pallet A does not stop can be calculated, and the alarm device can be activated so that the margin time becomes uniform.

Further, information on the skill level of the worker W1 and the product storage table (line) 41 in charge is input, and the time until the alarm device operates for each product storage table (line) 41 is varied. Is also good. In this case, it is possible to prevent the alarm device from being carelessly operated even though the worker has extra time, so that it is possible to prevent the worker from feeling uncomfortable.

(3) Of the products to be placed on the product storage table 41, those that are often taken out are stored in a single product type.
For items that only occasionally need to be taken out, different types of products may be combined in an appropriate number and stored in the same product storage table. By handling as one product unit,
The number of product storage tables 41 attached to the conveyor 1 can be reduced, and the installation area of the sorting equipment in the distribution center can be reduced. In this case, the display 43 may display a product to be taken out next.

(4) The number of product sorting for each shipping destination is
The information is received by the host computer at the distribution center that manages the stock status of the goods and the like.
Data may be transmitted.

(5) A switch may be provided near the measuring device 42 so that the computer 7 can be notified of the completion of the work. In this case, for example, the total weight and the designated number, which are the product of the designated number and the unit weight, are transmitted from the computer 7 to the measuring device 42 in advance. When the worker W1 takes out the designated number and puts it on the weighing device 42, the weighing device 42 determines the removal status and displays it on the display 43b. When the operator presses the switch in the case of the OK display, a signal is sent to the computer 7 to inform the completion of the take-out operation.

(6) When the product is transferred on the transport pallet A for each product of one kind for one shipping destination, the number of times the transport pallet A transports the transport pallet A by the transport conveyor 1 increases. At the distribution center where there is no variation in the types of goods taken out to the destination, the delivery pallet A is taken out of each conveyor pallet A so that goods of different types are transferred to one pallet A as one destination. 5 may be sequentially stopped.

(7) A return conveyor is provided below the conveyor 1 so that empty pallets are automatically returned from the unloading section 3 to the loading section 2 to save labor.

Although the configuration in which a plurality of cut-out conveyors are connected to one main conveyor has been described, various types of conveyor systems are possible. In any case, by providing a display in the product storage unit and making it possible to visually check the product take-out status, the margin of the worker is increased.

Although the description has been made by taking as an example the sorting of goods by shipping destination, similar equipment can be widely used for sorting articles. Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications, improvements, combinations, and the like can be made.

[0062]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain an article sorting facility capable of improving both the efficiency and accuracy of an article taking out operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a product sorting facility according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a product storage unit of the product sorting equipment shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a product packing unit of the product sorting equipment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an electrical system diagram of the product sorting equipment shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a product sorting unit of a product sorting facility of an embodiment different from the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Conveyor 2 ... Input part 3 ... Unloading part 4, 4a-4
n: Commodity storage unit 5, 5a to 5n: Cutting conveyor 6: Commodity 7: Computer 7a: Input / output force unit 7b: Operation unit 7c: Display unit (display screen) 7d: ROM 7e: RAM 8, 8, 8a to 8n , 14a, 14b ... pushers 9a, 9b ... load arranging parts 10a, 10
b ... container 11 ... printer 12 ... work table 15 ... controller 16,16a
~ 16n ... Drive motor 41 ... Product storage table 42 ... Measuring device 43 ... Display device 43a, 43
b ... Display section A ... Transport pallet R ... Transmission statement W1, W2 ...
Worker 50: photoelectric switch 51: alarm

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A conveyor for transporting articles, a plurality of article storage sections arranged on the sides of the conveyor, and articles stored in each article storage section and taken out of each article storage section and transported by the conveyor. A display for displaying the number, means for transmitting completion of removal of the articles in each article storage unit, and driving the conveyor based on the reception from the transmission means, and displaying the number of articles to be subsequently removed on the display. In an article sorting facility provided with a control means for displaying, between the conveyor and each article storage unit, a storage for storing articles taken out of each of the article storage units based on the display of the display and supplied to the conveyor. A conveyor, wherein the control means supplies the articles stored in the storage conveyor to the conveyor based on the reception from the transmission means. An article sorting facility characterized by driving a machine. 2. An article sorting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a detecting means for detecting a state of article transport by the storage conveyor, and an alarm device for issuing an alarm by a signal from said detecting means. Goods sorting equipment.