JP3682486B2 - Automatic warehouse - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
[Field of the Invention]
The present invention relates to an automatic warehouse, and more particularly, to efficient delivery work.
[0002]
[Prior art]
The automatic warehouse is configured such that racks are provided on both sides of a travel space of a transport device such as a stacker crane, and the transport device transports between the loading / unloading station and the rack. Units for loading and unloading are pallets and buckets. Warehousing and unloading are performed alternately in order to improve the efficiency of the conveying device, and in addition to normal unloading, there are many cases where interrupted unloading is performed for unloading urgent items.
[0003]
[Problems of the prior art]
In the conventional automatic warehouse, the delivery destination is limited to one station for one delivery setting. The inventor examines this point, and if the transportation from the issued station to a truck or the like is delayed, or if an abnormality occurs in the station, the transportation device has to wait until the station can be dispensed, It has been found that the conveyance efficiency decreases. Dispensing means unloading from the transfer device to the station.
[0004]
[Problems of the Invention]
It is a basic object of the present invention to improve the efficiency of a transfer device in an automatic warehouse, to easily carry out the goods delivered to the station, and to continue the delivery even if an abnormality occurs in the station. (Claims 1 to 3).
An additional problem in the invention of claim 2 is to make it possible to easily specify a station that is convenient for carrying out delivered articles.
An additional problem in the invention of claim 3 is to optimize the allocation of stations with respect to the case of using a plurality of stations.
[0005]
[Structure of the invention]
In the present invention, in accordance with the setting of the user of the goods receipt and unloading, in the automatic warehouse which is adapted to entry and leaving an article by conveying device between the rack and the station, provided with a plurality of stations, when the unloading set, goods issue set each If a plurality of stations can be specified, and an article is delivered to the designated plurality of stations by a transfer device, and the article cannot be delivered to the station to be delivered , the plurality of designated stations The vehicle is delivered to the next station (claim 1).
[0006]
Preferably, a terminal for displaying a delivery setting screen is provided, and the plurality of stations can be individually specified on the screen (claim 2).
[0007]
Preferably, a plurality of designated stations are sent out cyclically or according to the priority between the stations (claim 3). Particularly preferably, both a mode of cyclically issuing to a plurality of designated stations and a mode of issuing according to the priority between stations are provided so that the user can select them.
[0008]
[Operation and effect of the invention]
In this invention, since the goods are delivered to a plurality of designated stations, it is rare that all the stations cannot be dispensed when viewed from the transportation apparatus side of the automatic warehouse. The waiting time is reduced and the efficiency of the transport device is improved. In addition, even if an abnormality occurs in the station, the delivery can be continued at the remaining designated stations. When viewed from the side where the delivered article is processed by unloading or the like, a plurality of stations can be used for unloading, which facilitates unloading work. For these reasons, the delivery is performed more promptly and more reliably (claims 1 to 3).
[0009]
According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the delivery setting screen is displayed on the terminal and a plurality of stations can be individually designated, it is possible to easily designate a station that is convenient for delivery.
[0010]
In invention of Claim 3, it issues to a some station cyclically, or issues according to the priority between stations. If the goods are delivered cyclically to a plurality of stations, processing such as carrying out the delivered goods can be performed almost evenly at the plurality of stations, and processing of the delivered goods becomes easy. If priority is provided between the stations and the goods are delivered according to the priority, the goods are delivered to the station with the higher priority. When the station is closed, the article is delivered to the station with the lower priority. For this reason, it is only necessary to first process an article delivered to a station with high priority, and the processing after delivery is easy to understand.
[0011]
【Example】
1 to 6 show an embodiment. 1 and 2, reference numeral 2 denotes an automatic warehouse, and reference numeral 4 denotes a stacker crane as an example of a transport device. Racks 5 and 6 are provided on both sides of the traveling rail, and a warehousing station 7 and There are three shipping stations ST1 to ST3. The stations 7, ST1 to ST3, etc. may be used as loading / unloading stations. The unloading stations ST1 to ST3 are composed of a unloading sub-conveyor 9 and a unloading port 10. The items are unloaded from the stacker crane 4 to the unloading sub-conveyor 9 in units such as pallets and buckets, and conveyed to the unloading port 10 by the unloading sub-conveyor 9. Then, it shall be transported by a forklift or the like to a cargo handling area or a truck for shipping.
[0012]
Reference numeral 12 denotes a pallet accommodated in the racks 5 and 6. 14 is an entry / exit setting terminal, for example, provided in the vicinity of the station 7 or the stations ST1 to ST3. The terminal 14 displays an entry / exit setting screen and inputs necessary data to this screen. Warehousing settings and shipping settings are made. Instead of providing the fixed terminal 14, warehousing and delivery may be set from a logistics CPU management terminal, which will be described later, or a portable information device. 1 and 2, the automatic warehouse 2 provided with stations at both ends of the racks 5 and 6 is shown. However, the arrangement of the automatic warehouse 2 is arbitrary as long as there are a plurality of stations.
[0013]
FIG. 3 shows an automatic warehouse control system. Reference numeral 20 denotes a logistics CPU, which has a shelf file 21, an inventory file 22, and other management files 23, includes a management terminal 24 and a printer 25, and is connected to the LAN via a LAN or the like. Are connected to the loading / unloading setting terminal 14. The logistics CPU 20 manages almost all data necessary for the operation and management of the automatic warehouse, for example, stores the contents of the automatic warehouse shelves and inventory in the shelf file 21 and the inventory file 22, and enters the entry / exit setting terminal 14 and the like. The setting of the delivery is received and recorded, and the files 21 to 23 are searched and answered in response to the inquiry about the inventory status and the setting status, and the file maintenance and duplication are also performed. Furthermore, if a necessary form is output using the printer 25 or the like, and reservations for entry and exit are set, these reservations are managed. When goods are received, a storage shelf is allocated, and when a goods is output, a storage rack is allocated. The allocation at the time of delivery follows the principle of first-in first-out, and prioritizes the goods with the older receipt time to the delivery. Logistics CPU 20 manages the loading and unloading results in the automatic warehouse, manages the operation status of the automatic warehouse system, manages the control and operating status of each device such as the stacker crane and shipping sub-conveyor, and stores these histories To do.
[0014]
A control terminal 26 is connected to the logistics CPU 20 via a LAN or the like. The control terminal 26 is connected to a remote control unit 27 for a stacker crane and a remote control unit 28 such as a shipping sub-conveyor. Control the delivery sub-conveyor 9 and the like. A limit switch 30 is provided on the delivery sub-conveyor 9. When the pallet 12 moves up to the limit switch 30, the delivery sub-conveyor 9 is stopped on the assumption that the pallet has been transported to the delivery port.
[0015]
4 and 5 show the delivery setting screen and its processing algorithm in the embodiment. In the output setting, the product number of the output item is input from the keyboard of the setting terminal, etc., and if the item is registered in the inventory file, the item name is displayed. If the item is not registered in the inventory file, a setting error is displayed. . When the product number registered in the inventory file is input, the input of the output quantity, the reservation of the output time (the output date / time), and the input of the station to be output are accepted. If the delivery quantity is required and the delivery time is not entered, the delivery settings will be moved to the waiting queue for execution, and if the delivery time is entered, it will be moved to the time designated queue and the specified time (reserved When the (time) arrives, the queue is moved from the time-designated queue to the queue for execution and processed from the queue for execution with a predetermined priority.
[0016]
In the case of the embodiment, there are three delivery stations ST1 to ST3, and if only one delivery station is designated, the delivery is made to one designated station as in the past. There are two types of designations: “C” for clicked delivery and designation of delivery with priority (for example, station ST2 has priority 1 and station ST3 has priority 2). Note that “dispensing” in FIG. 5 means unloading from the stacker crane to the shipping station.
[0017]
In the case of cyclic delivery, if the station that is going to go out cyclically at the specified station is unable to pay out due to a remaining baggage (in stock), station malfunction, etc. , the next order Issue to station. In the case of delivery with priority, for example, if station ST2 is priority 1 and station ST3 is priority 2, if a station with a high priority can be paid out, it will be delivered to a station with a high priority. If a high station cannot be paid out, it issues the next priority station that can be paid out.
[0018]
When a plurality of delivery stations are designated, the stations can be individually designated in some sense. For example, in the layout of FIG. 1, the stations ST1 and ST2 are designated, and the stations ST2 and ST3 are designated. So, the deployment of forklifts, etc., necessary for transport after delivery is completely different. Cyclic and priority designations do not necessarily have to be designated as shown in FIG. 4. For example, if it is allowed to designate the same priority for a plurality of stations, it is the same as designation of cyclic delivery. . If the station to be delivered is determined by fuzzy selection from the stations that can be paid out of the designated stations, for example, if designation of 70% is accepted for station ST2, 30% is designated for station ST3, etc., station ST2 Is given the same designation as the station ST3.
[0019]
When the product number, quantity, delivery station, and delivery time have been entered, if the confirmation icon is clicked, the input data is checked, and if the confirmation icon is clicked without entering necessary items, a setting error is displayed. If necessary items have been entered and goods in the rack can be assigned to the delivery setting, “Setting OK” is displayed. If the inventory is insufficient, “Insufficient inventory”, “Out of inventory”, etc. indicate.
[0020]
FIG. 6 (1) shows the exit station of the stacker crane in the case of cyclic delivery, and FIG. 6 (2) shows the exit station in the case of delivery with priority giving priority to station ST2 over station ST3. In the case of cyclic delivery, for example, the delivery is first made to the station ST2 and then to the station ST3. Since there are two designated stations, the delivery is made alternately to the stations ST2 and ST3. In this process, if the station that is going to leave cannot be paid out due to a delay in carrying out by the forklift, it goes out to the next station.
[0021]
In cyclic shipping, the stacker cranes issue almost evenly to multiple stations, so the stacker crane will not wait for the stations to become payable unless all the designated stations become unpaid. This improves the transport efficiency of the stacker crane. Further, from the side of performing processing after unloading such as a forklift, since a plurality of stations can be used for unloading, processing such as unloading is simplified. For these reasons, the time until completion of delivery is short, and work after delivery such as unloading becomes easy.
[0022]
In the case of delivery with priority, the delivery is performed from the station ST2 having a higher priority, and in the next delivery, since the station ST2 is in stock, the delivery is made to the station ST3 having the next priority. In the subsequent delivery, if the station ST2 can pay out, the station ST2 issues, and if the delivery is not possible, the station ST3 issues.
[0023]
Even with prioritized delivery, the stacker crane will not wait until all designated stations are unable to pay out. From the standpoint of a forklift, etc., in principle, work should be done at the station with the highest priority. And if work on goods delivered at a station with higher priority is slower than goods delivered by a stacker crane, it will also be delivered to a station with lower priority. It is sufficient to carry out the item on the side with priority, and if the remaining power is generated, the item of the station with a low priority may be carried out. For this reason, it is possible to easily perform the processing after the delivery.
[Brief description of the drawings]
1 is a plan view showing the layout of an automatic warehouse. FIG. 2 is a side view showing the arrangement of racks and shipping stations in the automatic warehouse. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control system of the automatic warehouse. Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the delivery setting algorithm in the embodiment. Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the algorithm for setting the delivery in the embodiment. Fig. 6 is a diagram showing the operation of the stacker crane and the selection of the delivery station in the embodiment.
2 Automatic warehouse 4 Stacker cranes 5 and 6 Rack 7 Warehousing station 9 Unloading sub-conveyor 10 Unloading port 12 Pallet 14 Warehousing and setting terminal 20 Logistics CPU
21-23 File 24 Management terminal 25 Printer 26 Control terminal 27, 28 Remote control unit 30 Limit switch ST1-ST3 Delivery station

Claims (3)

In an automatic warehouse in which goods are stored and received between the rack and the station by the transfer device according to the setting of the user's warehousing and warehousing, a plurality of stations are provided and at the time of the warehousing setting, a plurality of stations are set for each warehousing setting. Can be specified, and the article is delivered to the designated plurality of stations by the transfer device, and if the article cannot be delivered to the station to be delivered , the next station among the designated plurality of stations. automatic warehouse is characterized in that so as to goods issue to. 2. The automatic warehouse according to claim 1, wherein a terminal for displaying a delivery setting screen is provided, and the plurality of stations can be individually designated on the screen. 3. The automatic warehouse according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a plurality of designated stations are issued in a cyclic manner or are issued in accordance with a priority between the stations.

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