JPH1035835A - Automated warehouse system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform the delivery work as scheduled by designating the arbitrary time. SOLUTION: When the delivery setting is performed on a delivery setting screen 1 by operating an inventory control computer, ST No.11, the item number 12, the delivery number 15, etc., are inputted, and the time 16 can further be designated. The inventory control computer gives the carriage command to a stacker crane so that the delivery of the content set by the item number 12, the delivery number 15, etc., is performed at the time designated in the time 16. When the present time is inputted in the time 16, the carriage command is immediately prepared and implemented. When no time is inputted, storage is made at the last of the delivery waiting queue as usual.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic warehouse that stores a plurality of articles, and more particularly, to an automatic warehouse system that can eject articles at a desired time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a factory or a warehouse, two racks having a plurality of shelves arranged side by side in a matrix for temporarily storing products and workpieces, and a loading / unloading machine arranged near an edge of the racks. 2. Description of the Related Art An automatic warehouse including a station and a stacker crane that travels and moves up and down between two racks and conveys articles, such as pallets and buckets, between a shelf and a loading / unloading station with containers are used. The operation of the stacker crane is based on a transfer command from a stock management computer on the ground. The transfer command is created based on the data of the articles stored in the respective shelves stored in the inventory management computer according to the setting of delivery to the inventory management computer or an instruction from a higher-level computer. For example, receiving an article from a shelf storing articles loaded with a certain type, and leaving the article at an entry / exit station,
This is a transfer instruction having the content of:

[0003]

The inventory management computer stores a plurality of outgoing settings, and the plurality of outgoing settings constitutes an outgoing queue in the order in which the outgoing settings are set. Processing is performed sequentially from the delivery setting. In other words, a transport command is created in the order in which the articles are set, and articles are ejected. Therefore, in the case of manual shipment such as going to pick up an article from an automatic warehouse by a forklift, it is not known when the article is to be ejected, so workers and transport equipment such as a forklift are made to wait until the target article is ejected. Or, conversely, the stacker crane may be left unattended at the loading / unloading station for a long period of time without carrying out the next operation, so that the efficiency of the transfer operation is degraded.

[0004] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an automatic warehouse system capable of taking out articles at an arbitrarily designated time.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an automatic warehouse system which can easily make a reservation for retrieval of articles which can be retrieved at any time.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an automatic warehouse system in which it is easy to specify a leaving time, and in particular, it is possible to easily carry out retrieval of articles to be retrieved immediately.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 includes inventory management means for storing data of articles stored in each shelf and giving a transport command to a stacker crane. In the automatic warehouse system, the inventory management means can store a plurality of outgoing settings and can specify the outgoing time at the time of the outgoing setting. The automatic warehouse system was configured to give a transfer command to the stacker crane to be executed at the same time.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the inventory management means is configured to set and store the outgoing setting which is already set when the outgoing time is not specified.
The automatic warehouse system according to claim 1, wherein a reservation is made at the end of an exit queue composed of exit settings for which exit times are not specified.

In the invention according to claim 3, the delivery setting is performed on the delivery setting screen, and the present time is displayed in advance in the delivery time designation section displayed on the delivery setting screen. The automatic warehouse system described was constructed.

Since the present invention has the above-described configuration, the following operations are provided.

[0011] In the automatic warehouse system according to the first aspect of the present invention, the inventory management means includes data of articles stored in each shelf of the automatic warehouse, that is, a storage bin number, a product type, a quantity, and the like.
Data generally including the storage date and time is stored. The inventory management means can store a plurality of outgoing settings, and sequentially creates a transfer command for the outgoing settings. The inventory management means can specify the retrieval time at the time of setting the retrieval, for example, at 15:30, and when the retrieval time is designated at the time of the retrieval setting, the transport command to the stacker crane is executed so as to be executed at the designated time. give. The stacker crane receives and executes the transfer command, and therefore, the articles are ejected substantially at the designated ejection time.

[0012] In the automatic warehouse system according to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to make a leaving setting in which the leaving time is not specified. Outgoing settings that do not specify an outgoing time constitute an outgoing queue, with the latest set being reserved at the end. That is, they are executed according to the order in which the items are set. However, those for which the delivery time is designated are executed at the designated delivery time regardless of the order in which the delivery is set.

[0013] In the automatic warehouse system according to the third aspect of the present invention, the leaving setting is performed on the leaving setting screen. A retrieval time designation section is displayed on the retrieval setting screen. Prior to the input, the present time is displayed in advance in the delivery time designation section. The current time is typically displayed according to a timer built into the inventory management means. For example, if the current time is 15:30, and if you want to leave the car after 10 minutes, usually, the display of the current time is added by 10 minutes, and
By simply rewriting the place from 3 to 4, the delivery time can be easily specified. If the user wants to leave the warehouse immediately, if the designation is made with the current time, the inventory management means immediately sends a transport command to the stacker crane.

[0014]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.

FIG. 1 shows a delivery setting screen displayed on the display of the inventory management means in one embodiment of the automatic warehouse system according to the present invention. Outgoing delivery setting screen 1
This is a screen displayed on the display 33 of the inventory management computer 3 to be described later, and is a screen for setting the delivery of the article to be delivered. In this automatic warehouse system, articles are placed on pallets, and data is managed in pallet units. A plurality of types of articles or a single type of article is placed on the pallet.

In the retrieval setting screen 1, ST No. 11 is used to input the entry / exit station No. for distributing articles. Usually, it is 1 or 2. In the item number 12, the item number of the article to be taken out is input. For example, "1234AB
C ". Enter the product number 12 and the product name 13
Are read from the master data and displayed. The lot number is input to the lot 14. This can be omitted. The number of articles required is input in the number of articles to be delivered 15.
If the quantity is large, multiple pallets may be delivered. At time 16, the time at which the article is to be retrieved
○ hour xx minutes ". The confirmation 17 confirms that each of the above data is correct, and when Y is selected, the delivery setting is registered in the inventory management computer 3. When N is selected, the input data can be corrected. When the above input is performed, the inventory management computer 3 stores data on the articles stored in each shelf as described later, so that it is possible to know from which shelf the articles should be taken out. Thus, a transfer command can be created and given to the stacker crane 23.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a part of the automatic warehouse of the same automatic warehouse system. The automatic warehouse 2 transports a plurality of racks 22, 22 each having a plurality of shelves 21 arranged in a matrix, and a plurality of articles W placed on a pallet P by traveling / elevating between the racks 22, 22. Stacker crane 23, and loading / unloading stations 24, 25 arranged near the ends of the racks 22, 22. The operation of the stacker crane 23 is controlled by an on-crane machine control panel 26 mounted on the stacker crane 23. The articles W delivered to the loading / unloading stations 24 and 25 are shipped by a forklift operated by a forkman.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the inventory management computer 3 of the same automatic warehouse system. The inventory management computer 3 is a personal computer,
It comprises a keyboard 32 and a display 33, and the display 33 displays a retrieval setting screen 1. Body 3
In the external storage device 1, each of the shelves 21 of the racks 22
Is registered, and the exit setting / inbound setting that has not yet been executed by the stacker crane 23 is registered. The inventory management computer 3 is connected to the on-crane machine control panel 26 via optical communication, and transmits a transfer command and receives a work status. The transfer command is created based on the stored data of the article based on the outgoing setting / incoming setting input by operating the keyboard 32, or according to an instruction from a higher-level computer (not shown). For example, when a certain type of product is to be unloaded by a certain quantity, a transfer command starting from the shelf 21 in which the articles W containing the required number of products of the type are stored and ending at the entry / exit station 25 is transmitted to the crane machine control panel. Give to 26. When the inventory management computer 3 receives the operation result from the on-crane machine control panel 26, it updates the inventory management data and transmits the result data to a host computer.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

As described above, when the article W is to be ejected from the automatic warehouse, the keyboard 32 is operated to display the exit setting screen 1 (step S1). As described above, input is performed on the delivery setting screen 1, and when the input is completed, confirmation 17
Is used to select Y (step S2). Next, the inventory management computer 3 determines whether the time 16 is designated on the delivery setting screen 1 (step S3). If the time is not specified, it is already set and registered in the inventory management computer 3 and is registered and reserved at the end of the outgoing queue made up of a plurality of outgoing settings in which no time is specified (step). S4). The exit setting registered previously is executed, and when it becomes the earliest in the exit queue (step S5), a transfer command is created (step S6) and executed. Here, if there is no exit queue, it goes without saying that a transfer command is immediately created and executed.

When the time 16 is designated on the delivery setting screen 1, it is first determined whether or not the current time is present (step S7). If it is the current time, it must be executed immediately. Therefore, regardless of the exit queue, a transfer command is immediately created (step S6), and the process is executed. If the present time is not the present time, when the designated leaving time comes (step S8), a transfer command is created (step S6), and it is executed regardless of the leaving queue.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, by specifying the delivery time at the time of setting the delivery, the articles can be taken out at the designated time, whereby the forkman and the forklift for manually carrying out the delivery operation are provided. And the stacker crane does not stay on standby for a long time because the articles W are left in the loading / unloading station, thus improving the work efficiency. In addition, the reservation for leaving the article at any time can be easily performed simply by not specifying the leaving time when setting the retrieval. Also, outgoing setting screen 1
Since the current time is displayed at the time 16, it is easy to specify the leaving time, and the leaving time of the article that the user wants to leave immediately can be specified as it is at the current time.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be appropriately modified and implemented within the scope of the present invention.

[0024]

As described above, according to the automatic warehousing system according to the first aspect of the present invention, the article can be ejected at the designated time by specifying the exit time at the time of setting the exit. The operator, such as a forkman, who manually performs unloading work, and transport equipment, such as a forklift, do not needlessly wait, and the stacker crane is used because articles are left at the loading and unloading station for a long time. Without having to wait
Accordingly, work efficiency is improved.

According to the automatic warehousing system according to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to easily reserve the retrieval of articles which can be retrieved at any time simply by not specifying the retrieval time when setting the retrieval. , Such a delivery setting is executed in order.

According to the automatic warehouse system according to the third aspect of the present invention, since the current time is displayed in the delivery time designation section of the delivery setting screen, designation of the delivery time is easy, and The retrieval of the article to be retrieved can be easily performed by specifying the retrieval time while keeping the current time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing a leaving setting screen in one embodiment of an automatic warehouse system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a part of an automatic warehouse of the same automatic warehouse system as FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an inventory management computer of the same automatic warehouse system as in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process of creating a transfer command for taking out of the inventory management computer of the same automatic warehouse system as in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Outgoing setting screen 11 STNo. 12 Part number 15 Outgoing number 16 Time

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An automatic warehouse system including an inventory management means for storing data of articles stored in each shelf and giving a transport command to a stacker crane, wherein the inventory management means can store a plurality of outgoing settings and perform the outgoing setting. An automatic warehousing system in which a delivery time can be specified, and a transfer command is given to a stacker crane so that the delivery setting in which the delivery time is specified is performed at the specified time regardless of the order in which the delivery is set. 2. The inventory management means, when a delivery setting in which a delivery time is not specified is made, comprises the delivery settings which are already set and stored, and in which the delivery time is not specified. 2. The automatic warehouse system according to claim 1, wherein a reservation is made at the end of the exit queue. 3. The automatic warehouse system according to claim 1, wherein the leaving setting is performed on the leaving setting screen, and the present time is displayed in advance in the leaving time designation section displayed on the leaving setting screen.