JPH1059509A - Picking method for article - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To continue a picking from an other picking bay by performing a shortage registration for the registered kind of a picking bay which runs out of stock, stopping a picking from a shortage registration destination picking bay by a computer and continuing the picking from the other picking bay. SOLUTION: When shortage is generated in a picking bay in picking units 14 to 16 while a picking of a picking equipment 10 is operated, a shortage registration is performed for the registered kind (A product, for instance) of a picking bay which runs out of stock. Namely, when the unit CPU of the picking unit 14 notifies shortage of the a product of a picking bay by an alarm, a picking is promptly continued except this kind (A product) when a workman performs the shortage registration in the unit CPU when the A product urns out of stock in the picking units 14 to 16. Lacking product information on a container in which the A product for which the shortage registration is performed is scheduled to be fed is reported to a data distribution CPU.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article picking method using a picking facility.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a highly automated distribution center, a container issuing station and a plurality of sets of picking units are arranged along an upstream side to a downstream side of a transport line for transporting containers. Each picking unit, based on the picking information, a plurality of picking fronts for inputting the required number of articles of the registered varieties to the container, and an article input for inputting the articles supplied from each picking front to the container on the transport line. Station. The container issuance station issues a container with a barcode label in which the identification number of each container and the drop-in destination station are written based on the container information. The container information is transferred from the data distribution computer to the container issuing station, and the picking information is distributed from the data distribution computer to each picking unit.

[0003] Thus, in the process of being transported along the transport line, the container issued from the container issuing station stops at the article loading station of the picking unit written on the bar code label and is selected in the picking unit. The required number of registered varieties of the picking frontage are supplied by required number. That is, after the required number of articles of the required type are loaded into the container by the picking unit A on the upstream side, the required number of articles of the required type are sequentially loaded by the picking units B and C on the downstream side, and the container is shipped from the distribution center. Is done.

[0004]

However, according to the prior art, when a picking frontage responsible for shipping one type of product in the picking unit A runs out of stock, the container into which the type is to be loaded is completed when the type is loaded. And stops at the loading station of the picking unit. For this reason, the flow of the container downstream of the picking unit A is stopped until the replenishment of the picking frontage is completed, and the picking units B and C on the downstream side can be operated, but are in a waiting state and cannot work, and the distribution center is not able to work. Shipping capacity will be reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a picking facility having a plurality of picking frontages, in which when picking runs out of stock during a picking operation, picking from another picking frontage can be continued, and shipping to a distribution center can be performed. The ability to maintain.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transporting line for transporting a container, and a plurality of pickings for inputting a required number of articles of registered varieties into the container based on the picking information. Frontage, a plurality of article input stations for inputting the articles supplied from each picking frontage into containers on the transport line, and, at the upstream part of the transport line, based on the container information, the identification number of each container and the drop-in destination input station, Is transferred to the container issuing station for issuing a container by attaching the container information to the container, and the container information including the identification number of each container and the drop-in destination station is transferred to the container issuing station. Is the number of supplies to each container of goods registered in A computer for distributing king information, a method of picking articles by a picking facility having a picking facility, wherein when the picking frontage during the picking operation is out of stock, the registered kind of the picking frontage that has run out of stock is out of stock registered; Is to stop the picking from the picking frontage of the out-of-stock registration destination based on the out-of-stock registration and continue picking from another picking frontage.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the first aspect of the present invention, a load correction site is provided at the most downstream side of the transport line, and a shortage of a variety to be put into a container is displayed. A list issuing station that issues a shortage report list is provided, and for a container that was to be loaded with a registered product of the picking frontage that has been registered for lack of stock, the container is stopped at the cargo modification site at the lowermost stream of the transport line, and In this case, a missing item target item is replenished to the container based on the missing item report list of the container, or the missing item report list is input to the container.

According to the first and second aspects of the present invention, the following operations are provided. When the picking frontage of a certain type is out of stock during picking operation, the registered type of the picking frontage that has run out of stock is registered as out of stock, and the input of that type is stopped, and picking from the picking frontage of another type is immediately performed. By continuing, maintain the shipping capacity of the distribution center.

[0009] The varieties registered to be out of stock are corrected at the most downstream cargo correction station. That is, a container that is scheduled to be put out of stock out of stock and cannot be put in is stopped at the cargo modification station at the lowermost stream of the transport line, and the missing object article is replenished to the container based on the shortage report list of the container, or The shortage report list is input to the container to inform the shipping destination.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a registration flow of a picking frontage down registration, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a stockout registration process flow of a picking frontage, FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing picking equipment, and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a control system of the picking equipment, FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a bottle picking unit, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a main part of FIG. 5, FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an article cutting device of the bottle picking unit, FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a picking unit with a digital display, and FIG.
FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a main part of FIG. 8, FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a cargo correction place, and FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a barcode label.

(Picking Facility 10) (FIGS. 3 and 4) As shown in FIG.
From the upstream side to the downstream side of the transport line 12 for transporting
A container issuing station 13, a first picking unit 14, a second picking unit 15, a third picking unit 16, a load correction place 17, and a list issuing station 18 are arranged. Each picking unit 14-16
Has article input stations 14A to 16A.

As shown in FIG.
It has a container issuing CPU 21 for controlling the container issuing station 13, unit CPUs 22 to 24 for controlling the picking units 14 to 16, and a list issuing CPU 25 for controlling the list issuing station 18, and data located above the CPUs 21 to 25. Distribution CPU2
6. It has a management CPU 27 located above the CPU 26. The data distribution CPU 26 sends each container 1 to the container issuing CPU 21 of the container issuing station 13.
No. 1 and drop-in destination stations 14A-16
A, and transfers the container information consisting of A and the unit CPUs 22 to 24 of the picking units 14 to 16.
Then, picking information, which is the number of kinds of articles registered in the picking frontage of each of the picking units 14 to 16 and supplied to each container 11, is distributed. Further, the data distribution CPU 26 transfers the missing item information of the article to be inserted based on the picking information of each container 11 to the list issuing CPU 25 of the list issuing station 18. Management CPU2
Numeral 7 outputs a shipping result based on the final result of article input into each container 11 reported by the data distribution CPU 26.

(Container issuing station 13) (FIGS. 3 and 11) The container issuing station 13 is provided with a data distribution CPU 2
6 drives the labeler 28 based on the aforementioned container information transferred to the container issuing CPU 21, and the labeler 2
The barcode label 29 created by the printer 8 is attached to the container 11. The barcode label 29 is, as shown in FIG.
For example, it is composed of a 10-digit bar code, and the first to third digits indicate the drop-in destination stations 14A to 16A,
4, The 5th digit indicates the delivery destination store number, the 6th to 9th digits indicate the number of the delivery truck, and the 10th digit indicates the pallet size of the loading destination. Bar code label 29
4. The fifth-digit delivery destination store number and the sixth to ninth-digit delivery truck car numbers are used to represent the identification number of the container 11 described above.

(First and second picking units 14, 1
5) (FIGS. 5 to 7) The first picking unit 14 (same for the second picking unit 15) is a bottle picking unit.
As shown in FIG. 2, the apparatus includes a fluidizing shelf 31, an article supply robot 32, an article take-out apparatus 33, an article cut-out apparatus 34, a guide chute 35, a fixed chute 36, a load receiving conveyor 37, and a load transfer apparatus 38. The operation of each of these devices is controlled by the unit CPU 22. Hereinafter, details of each device will be described.

(A) Fluidized shelf 11 and article supply robot 32
(See FIG. 5) The fluidizing shelf 31 has a plurality of (for example, 20 first to 20th frontage) picking frontages corresponding to each product of a plurality of types (for example, 20 types) arranged in parallel, and differs for each frontage. A cardboard case 41 containing a plurality of types of articles is temporarily stored.

The article supply robot 32 runs along the front of each frontage of the flow shelf 31 and supplies the corrugated cardboard case 41 of each frontage to the corresponding article cutting device 34. Specifically, the article supply robot 32 receives the cardboard case 41 of the specific frontage on the support table 42 and moves the article take-out device 33 held by the hand 43 to the cardboard case 4 on the support table 42.
1, the article take-out device 33 is engaged with the upper part of the corresponding article cut-out device 34 in a state where the cardboard case 41 sandwiched between the support table 42 and the hand 43 is inverted. The article supply robot 32 returns the empty cardboard case 41 together with the article take-out device 33 to the front of the fluidized shelf 31 by reversing the empty cardboard case 41 on the article cut-out device 34, and discharges the empty cardboard case 41 from the lower front portion of the fluidized shelf 31. The conveyor 44 is dropped.

(B) Article take-out device 33 and article cut-out device 34 (see FIGS. 5 to 7) The article take-out device 33 and the article cut-out device 34 are combined with each other to form a set. Then, the picking unit 14 is provided with a plurality of sets (for example, the first frontage to the twentieth frontage) of the article take-out device 33 corresponding to each kind of articles of a plurality of kinds, so as to correspond to the number of frontages of the fluidized shelf 31; An apparatus 34 is provided.

In the picking unit 14, an article take-out device 33 corresponding to an upper portion of each article cut-out device 34 is detachable, and all of the articles in the cardboard case 41 mounted on the article take-out device 33 can be removed. After the transfer to the article cutting device 34 below by opening the shutter device 46 of the 33, the shutter device 47 of the article cutting device 34 is opened, and an arbitrary number of the articles are guided from the article cutting device 34 to the guide chute. 35 can be cut out.

(C) Guide chute 35 and fixed chute 36 (see FIG. 7) As shown in FIG. 7, the fixed chute 36 is provided below each article cutting device 34 for each article cutting device 34. It is fixedly arranged at a width of 34 (total cutting width). That is, the rear end of the fixed chute 36 is disposed immediately below the cutout of the article cutting device 34,
Is arranged so as to protrude forward from immediately below the cutout of the article cutting device 34 and face the cargo receiving conveyor 37.

(D) Load Receiving Conveyor (See FIGS. 5 to 7) The load receiving conveyor 37 is a load transfer device 38 from the front of the guide chutes 35 and the fixed chutes 36 connected to the article cutting devices 34 as described above. Are set along a collection path (article transport path) set across the

That is, the receiving conveyor 37 is provided with each receiving unit 48.
Is intermittently fed so as to be simultaneously positioned at the frontage of each cutting device 34. As a result, the conveyor device 37 circulates while collecting the articles cut from the respective article cutting devices 34 from the fixed chutes 36 to the respective receiving sections 48 sequentially. Thus, each receiving section 48 of the receiving conveyor 37 collects a plurality of types of articles.

(E) Load Transfer Apparatus (See FIGS. 5 and 6) The load transfer apparatus 38 is a means for picking up the articles collected on the conveyer conveyor 37 at the article input station 14A by the first delivery means 51.
, And the goods delivered to the receiving table 50 are pushed out by the second delivering means 52 and transferred to the container 11 located on the side.

Station 1 for loading articles into container 11
4A is set near the side of the container transport line 12, and a container attitude control device 54 corresponding to the load receiving table 50 is installed at this position. Container attitude control device 54
Has a container support table which can be tilted upward from below the roller conveyor of the container transfer line 12 through the roller conveyor by the cylinder, and the opening 11A of the container 11 to be set in the article input station 14A is received by the receiving table. Container 1 to face 50
Tilt 1

(F) The article input station 14A (FIG. 5,
(See FIG. 6) The container transport line 12 is an article input station 14
A bar code reader 55 is provided on the input side of A,
Stoppers 56A and 56B are provided at two positions before and after the article input station 14A.

The unit CPU 22 reads the drop-in destination station display code written on the bar code label 29 affixed to the container 11 by the bar code reader 55, and stops at the station 14A to supply the container. It is determined whether it is 11 or not. As for the container 11 to be supplied with the articles stopped at the station 14A, the container 11 is stopped by the stopper 56A on the downstream side, and the stopper 56 on the upstream side is stopped.
B, the following container 11 is also stopped, and the container 11 is tilted by the container
The first opening 11 </ b> A is arranged sideways so as to face the receiving table 50.

As described above, the unit CPU 22 operates the picking unit 1 based on the picking information of each delivery destination.
After the required number of articles of each kind registered in each picking frontage of the picking unit 14 are collected in the receiving section 48 of the receiving conveyor 37, the collected goods are loaded by the loading / unloading device 38 into the loading station. 14
At A, it is put into the container 11 corresponding to the delivery destination.

(Third picking unit 16) (FIG. 8,
FIG. 9) The third picking unit 16 is a picking unit with a digital display, and as shown in FIG.
A roller conveyor 62 is provided in front of (storage equipment). The flow shelf 61 is divided into a plurality of zones (article storage sections) along the transport direction of the roller conveyor 62, and the roller conveyor 62 collects a container group for a single delivery destination or a plurality of delivery destinations and collects the flow shelf 6
1 and sequentially transported to each zone and stopped. In each zone,
The operator takes out the articles taken out of the flow shelves 61 into the containers 65 of the container group. In this manner, when each container 65 of the container group passes through all the zones, the predetermined loose picking ends. still,
The picking unit 16 includes a temporary placing table 63 that can move along the roller conveyor 62.

The details of each device will be described below. (A) Fluid shelves 61 (FIGS. 8 and 9) The fluid shelves 61 are provided with a plurality of inclined conveyors 71 for storing articles to be picked in a plurality of rows and a plurality of stages. A cardboard case 66 containing articles of the same type is temporarily stored in each of the picking frontages to be formed. In this embodiment, the picking frontage for five rows is defined as one zone. Therefore, in the present embodiment, if the inclined conveyors 71 are arranged in three rows of upper, middle, and lower in each row, a picking frontage for all 15 varieties of 5 rows and 3 rows is provided for each zone. Become.

At the end of each inclined conveyor (picking frontage) 71, there is provided a picking quantity display 72 for displaying the number of articles taken out from the frontage, and a takeout completion button 73 for notifying the unit CPU 24 that the takeout has been completed. ing.

At the stop position of each container 65 on the roller conveyor 62, an input container indicator 74 for displaying that the container 65 stopped at the stop position should input an article, and a unit for indicating that the input is completed. C
An input completion button 75 to be transmitted to the PU 24 is provided.

(B) Roller Conveyor 62 (FIGS. 8 and 9) The roller conveyor 62 is arranged along the front surface of the flow shelf 61, and starts and stops smoothly while closely contacting each container 65 of the container group. , Sequentially to downstream zones.

The driving of the roller conveyor 62 can be independently stopped for each zone. Then, it is assumed that the container group of the zone is started on condition that the loading completion button 75 of the zone is turned on and the conveyor group of the downstream zone has been started.

(C) Temporary Placement Table 63 (FIGS. 8 and 9) The temporary place stand 63 temporarily places the articles taken out of the fluidizing shelf 61 and slides along the transport direction of the roller conveyor 62. Further, the temporary placing table 63 is movable between a side approaching the roller conveyor 62 and a side approaching the fluidizing shelf 61.

However, in the picking unit 16, when the picking operation is started, the unit CPU 24 displays picking data of the delivery destination (store) picked in each zone. For example, in one zone, picking data of store A (5 in 2 rows and 1 row, 10
In the second zone, the picking data of the B store is displayed on the picking quantity display 22 of each corresponding picking frontage (9 pieces per row, 8 pieces per row, 8 pieces per row, 5 pieces per row, 6 rows). .

In each zone, the worker takes out a required number of articles from each picking frontage in each zone according to the above-mentioned display, and temporarily collects them on the temporary placing table 63.

The containers 65 are sequentially conveyed to the picking zone in the form of a container group as described above, and are stopped when the containers 65 in the container group reach the zone where the articles should be stored. In this container group, the input container indicator 74 corresponding to the container 65 of the delivery destination (store) to which the articles are to be input is turned on. The operator puts the articles that have already been temporarily stored on the temporary storage table 63 into an appropriate one of the containers 65 illuminated with the display.

(D) Article inputting station 16A (FIG. 8) The transport line 12 is located on the entry side of the inputting station 16A.
A bar code reader 77, and stoppers 78A provided at two positions before and after the loading station 16A;
78B.

The unit CPU 24 reads the drop-in destination station display code written on the bar code label 29 affixed to the container 11 with the bar code reader 77 and stops at the station 16A to supply the container. It is determined whether it is 11 or not. With respect to the container 11 to be supplied with the articles stopped at the station 16A, the container 11 is stopped by the downstream stopper 78A and the upstream stopper 78 is stopped.
The following container 11 is also stopped by B.

As described above, the unit CPU 24 operates the picking unit 1 based on the picking information of each delivery destination.
6, the required number of articles of each type registered in each picking frontage of the picking unit 16 are collected in the container 65, and then the collected goods are collected by the input station 16A into the container 11 corresponding to the destination.
It is put into.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 19 denotes an article supply line. The supply line 19 is provided for the picking unit 1.
Each of the picking units 14 to 16 runs on a rail laid between the picking units 14 to 16 and the replenishing conveyor 19A. And a supply car 19B positioned at the back of the frontage. In response to a replenishment request from each picking frontage of each of the picking units 14 to 16, the cardboard cases 41 and 66 of the product of the kind dispensed from the automatic warehouse (pallet unit storage) are supplied via the conveyor 19A and the supply car 19B. It is supplied to the picking frontage where there was.

The loading station 17 and the list issuing station 1
8 (FIG. 3 to FIG. 10), a cargo correction place 17 is provided at the lowermost stream of the transport line 12, and corrects a shortage of the collected goods of the container 11. The list issuing station 18
And the data distribution CPU 26 is a list issuing CPU
Based on the missing item information transferred to the container 25, the missing item report list indicating the missing item of the type to be put into the container 11 arriving at the work zone 17A of the cargo reloading station 17 (how many items are missing at which store, Issue).

A bar code reader 81 is provided on the entrance side of the work zone 17A, and a work guide display 82 for the worker is provided. Barcode reader 81
Reads the identification number of the barcode label 29 affixed to the container 11 carried by the carrying line 12,
If the out-of-stock information for the container 11 with this identification number has been transferred, an out-of-stock message is displayed on the work guide display 82 to inform the operator of this.

The transport line 12 collectively sends out the containers 11 for a single delivery destination to the work zone 17A, and if any of the containers sent out to the work zone 17A are out of stock containers 11, those containers are operated. Zone 17A
And the container 11 for the next delivery destination is made to stand by before the work zone 17A. The worker inputs the missing item to the missing container 11 based on the missing report list issued by the list issuing station 18. If there is no missing item, the missing item report list is put into the container 11 instead, and the information is notified to the shipping destination.
When the load correction work on the container group is completed, the operator turns on the foot-operated work completion switch 83 and sends out the container group to the loading site.

A bar code reader 84 for counting the number of containers is provided on the exit side of the work zone 17A, and counts the number of containers sent to the loading area.

However, in the picking facility 10, when a failure occurs in any of the picking units of the picking units 14 to 16 during picking operation, the failure is dealt with by the down registration process, and the picking unit of any of the picking units 14 to 16 is handled. In the event that the product is out of stock, it can be dealt with by the stock-out registration process. Hereinafter, the down registration processing and the out-of-stock registration processing will be described.

(Down Registration Processing) (A) Down Registration When a picking frontage in one of the picking units 14 to 16 breaks down during the picking operation of the picking facility 10, the operation stop of the picking frontage is down-registered. That is, the unit C of the picking units 14 to 16
When the PU 22 to 24 notifies the failure of a certain picking frontage by an alarm, the worker attempts to recover the faulty frontage, but when it is determined that the recovery is not expected, the worker lowers the picking frontage and promptly returns to another. Continue picking other varieties at the picking frontage. When the worker decides to downgrade the product A in the picking unit 14 and registers it down in the unit CPU 22, for example, the data distribution CP
This is reported to U26.

At the time of down registration, the operator can select the following transfer registration or shortage registration as to how to pick up the down registered A article afterwards. If there is no item A in the automatic warehouse (pallet unit storage) (item A cannot be replenished), or if there is no empty frontage in the picking units 14 to 16 (there is no transfer destination), shortage item registration is selected.

(B) Transfer registration The product A registered down is transferred to another picking frontage (a vacant frontage by that time). That is, when the frontage of the picking unit 14 is down, for example, the product A is registered in the frontage of the picking unit 16 (or another frontage of the picking unit 14 or the frontage of the picking unit 15).
Picking of A goods.

When the operator selects transfer, data distribution C
This is reported to the PU 26, and the data distribution CPU 26 temporarily stops the output (distribution) of the already calculated container information and picking information, and stops the issuance of the container 11 at the container issuing station 13. Then, when the worker registers the down product (product A) in the unit CPU 24 of the transfer destination picking unit 16, the data distribution CPU restarts the calculation of the container information and the picking information based on the new frontage (relocation destination picking frontage). Issue of container 11 at container issuing station 13, unit CP
U22 to U24, data distribution to the list issuing CPU 25 is restarted.

At the time of transfer registration after the down registration, for the container 11 that has already been issued from the container issuing station 13 and for which the down-registered A product is to be loaded, the data distribution CPU 26 sets the transfer line 12 Is instructed to stop at the cargo modification site 17 located at the most downstream side of. In the cargo replenishment place 17, the goods A are replenished based on the above-mentioned shortage report list of the container 11 (by the time the container 11 arrives at the cargo replenishment place 17,
When a product is prepared (the person in charge determines whether or not to put in the product)) or the shortage report list is put into the container 11. When container A is refilled with item A,
This is input to the data distribution CPU 26. Data distribution C
The PU 26 reports the final input result to the management CPU 27. The management CPU 27 outputs the shipment result based on this.

(C) Missing Item Registration The A item registered down is registered as a missing item. When the worker registers a missing item in the unit CPU 22, the fact is reported to the data distribution CPU 26. Based on the missing item registration, the data distribution CPU 26 stops picking from the picking frontage of the missing item registration destination in the picking unit 14 and continues picking from another picking frontage.

The data distribution CPU 26 issues an instruction to stop the container 11 in which the A-item registered as described above is to be inserted, at the cargo correction station 17 at the lowermost stream of the transport line 12. At the cargo reloading site 17, the product A is replenished based on the above-mentioned shortage report list of the container 11 (container 1).
In the case where the item A enters the cargo correction place 17 by the time the 1 arrives at the cargo correction place 17), or the shortage report list is put into the container 11. When the container 11 is refilled with the product A, the fact is input to the data distribution CPU 26.
Data distribution CPU 26 manages final input results
Report to 27. The management CPU 27 outputs the shipment result based on this.

Therefore, according to the down registration processing of the present embodiment, the following operations are provided. If it is determined that the picking frontage of a certain product type is broken during picking operation and recovery is unlikely (or it takes time to recover), the picking frontage is registered as down and the picking frontage of another product type is immediately started. Maintain the shipping capacity of the distribution center by continuing picking.

The type of product scheduled to be shipped from the picking frontage registered down is as follows. The registered variety of the picking frontage registered down is transferred to another picking frontage, and this type of article is picked from the transfer registration destination picking frontage.

At this time, the container 11 based on the picking frontage at the transfer registration destination and the container 11 that has been issued before the picking information is distributed cannot be put in because the down-type goods are scheduled to be put in the container 11. The container 11 is stopped at the cargo modification station 17 at the lowermost stream of the transport line 12, and replenishes the container 11 with the missing item based on the missing item report list of the container 11, or adds the missing item reporting list to the container 11. To notify the shipping destination.

The registered product type of the picking frontage that has been registered down is registered as a missing item, and the supply of the product of this type is stopped.

At this time, for the varieties registered as missing,
It is corrected at the cargo correction site 17 at the lowermost stream. In other words, the container 11 that could not be put in due to be put in the stockout type is stopped at the cargo modification station 17 at the lowermost position of the transport line 12, and the goods subject to the stockout are removed based on the stockout report list of the container 11. 11 or put the missing item report list into the container 11 to inform the shipping destination.

(Registration of Out of Stock) When a picking frontage in one of the picking units 14 to 16 is out of stock during the picking operation of the picking facility 10, the registered kind (for example, A type) of the picking frontage that has run out of stock is out of stock. register. That is, the unit C of the picking unit 14
When the PU 22 notifies the out-of-stock item A of a certain picking frontage by an alarm, when there is no item A in the picking units 14 to 16 and there is no stock of the item A in the automatic warehouse (pallet unit storage), the operator sets the unit. When the out-of-stock is registered in the CPU 22, picking is immediately continued except for this kind (A-type). Out-of-stock information on the container 11 in which the out-of-stock registered A product was to be loaded is reported to the data distribution CPU 26.

For the container 11 into which the product A registered to be out of stock was to be loaded, the data distribution CPU 26
Is instructed to stop at the cargo correction site 17 at the most downstream of the transport line 12. At the cargo replenishment site 17, the product A is replenished based on the shortage report list of the container 11 described above.
(If a product comes in)) or puts the shortage report list into the container 11. When the container 11 is refilled with the product A, the fact is input to the data distribution CPU 26. The data distribution CPU 26 manages the final input result C
Report to PU27. The management CPU 27 outputs the shipment result based on this.

Therefore, according to the out-of-stock registration processing of the present embodiment, the following operations are provided. When the picking frontage of a certain type is out of stock while picking is in operation, the registered type of the picking frontage that has run out of stock is registered as a missing item, the input of that type is stopped, and picking from the picking frontage of another type is immediately performed. To maintain the shipping capacity of the distribution center.

The varieties registered for lack of stock are corrected at the most downstream cargo correction station 17. In other words, the container 11 that was scheduled to be filled with the stockout registered product and could not be loaded is transferred to the transport line 1.
2 stops at the most downstream cargo correction station 17 and the container 11
Based on the shortage report list, the shortage target article is replenished to the container 11 or the shortage report list is input to the container 11 to notify the shipping destination.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration of the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and the design may be changed without departing from the scope of the present invention. The present invention is also included in the present invention.

[0063]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a picking facility having a plurality of picking frontages, when a picking frontage running out of picking is out of stock, picking from another picking frontage can be continued. And maintain the shipping capacity of the distribution center.

[Brief description of the drawings]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a flow of a down registration process of a picking frontage.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a flow of a stocking registration process for a picking frontage;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a picking facility.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a control system of a picking facility.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a bottle picking unit.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing a main part of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an article extracting device of the bottle picking unit.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a picking unit with a digital display.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a main part of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a load correction place.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a barcode label.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Picking equipment 11 Container 12 Transport line 13 Container issuing station 14-16 Picking unit 14A-16A Article loading station 17 Load correction station 18 List issuing station 21 Container issuing CPU 22-24 Unit CPU 25 List issuing CPU 26 Data distribution CPU 27 Management CPU

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A transport line for transporting containers, a plurality of picking frontages for inputting required number of articles of registered varieties into the containers based on the picking information, and a transport line for transferring articles supplied from each picking frontage. A plurality of article loading stations for loading into the upper container, and a container issuing station that issues a container by attaching an identification number of each container and a drop-in destination loading station to the container based on the container information at an upstream portion of the transport line. And transferring the container information including the identification number of each container and the drop-in destination station to the container issuing station side, and the number of articles registered in the picking frontage supplied to each container at each picking frontage side. A computer that distributes the picking information. In the picking method of goods using the picking equipment, when the picking frontage during picking operation is out of stock, the registered kind of the picking frontage that has run out is registered as out of stock, and the computer registers out of stock based on the out-of-stock registration. A method of picking an article, wherein picking from a front picking frontage is stopped and picking from another picking frontage is continued. 2. A picking frontage which is provided at a lowermost position of the transport line, and a list issuing station for issuing a shortage report list indicating a shortage of a variety to be put into a container. For containers that were to be registered with the registered varieties, stop the containers at the cargo reloading station at the lowermost position of the transport line, and replenish the containers with missing items based on the missing item report list for the containers. 2. The article picking method according to claim 1, wherein the shortage report list is input to the container.