JPS5997902A - Restocking method in automatic three-dimensional warehouse - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the operating efficiency of a stacker crane, by keeping a restocking demand out of a delivery port in memory temporarily, while constituting the restocking demand and a delivery demand so as to be related with each other in time of the next delivery demand. CONSTITUTION:When a central computer 13 receives a signal of a restocking demand classified by delivery exclusive rack numbers, it does not make out a stacker crane operation schedule at once but stores the information in memory till the next delivery demand is issued again from the delivery port that gives forth the restocking demand. When the next delivery demand is issued out of the delivery control computer 15, the previously stored restocking demand is searched in accordance with a preentering-information-first system, and if it exists within the same control zone, this restocking demand is assigned to the delivery demand. With this constitution, the operation of a stacker crane 3 can be streamlined, shortening the warehousing and delivery operation latency, thus disorder in stacking work can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an automatic storage system which has a large number of storage entrances and storage exits, stores and unloads goods while loading them onto pallets, and stores empty pallets in a multi-story warehouse. The present invention relates to a computer-managed re-stocking method for an automated multi-storey warehouse that can efficiently deal with randomly occurring requests for stocking, unloading and re-stocking in a warehouse, particularly in an automated multi-storey warehouse installed between processes.

The following functions are required for multi-level warehouses installed between processes. That is, it is necessary to efficiently deal with requests for storage, removal, and re-stocking that occur randomly, and to prevent process disruptions due to waiting times for rhinoceros to be brought in or special rhinoceroses to be released. To this end, it is necessary to establish a warehousing/unloading system that minimizes the operating time of the stacker crane for processing individual warehousing, unloading, and re-entry requests. As a solution to this problem, ■A method in which storage shelves are divided into multiple zones and the items to be handled in each zone are determined.

■A method that determines the operation schedule of the stacker crane by linking incoming requests and outgoing requests.

■A method that searches for empty shelves that will minimize the operating time of the stacker crane when receiving a warehouse request.

etc. have been proposed. However, in a multi-storey warehouse where goods are loaded onto pallets when they are stored, unloaded and re-entered, and empty pallets (vallets with no goods) are stored inside the multi-storey warehouse, the above solutions cannot be solved. No measures have been proposed.

In particular, when a restocking request occurs, conventionally this restocking request is processed independently, which delays the time required to process the restocking or shipping request, which causes confusion in the processes before and after the multi-storey warehouse. was there.

The purpose of the present invention is to
By temporarily storing the data of this re-entry request and processing the next re-entry request from this exit door in association with the re-entry request, only the re-entry request can be processed. To provide a restocking method for an automatic multi-level warehouse, which eliminates wasteful operation of a stacker crane for processing.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained based on examples. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which a multi-level warehouse includes a shelf row 1.2 in which a large number of shelves are arranged horizontally and vertically, and a stacker crane 3 for receiving and unloading pallets. It is provided. Furthermore, the first stage, which is the lowest stage of shelf row 1, is the second
As shown in the figure, a large number of storage shelves (warehousing entrance) 4a,
4b, 4c.

4d1...The song is set to 4t. In each column of this warehousing exclusive shelf, warehousing request setting boards 5a, 5b, 5c,
5d, ・Song-, 5t is installed, and when making a warehousing request, the item name (code), number of warehousing items, etc. are set in line 6゜.Also, on the warehousing entrance side of shelf row 1, there is a setting for temporary storage in a multi-level warehouse. Mechanical equipment for manufacturing articles (parts manufacturing machines) 6a, 6b,
6e', 6d, ... songs, 6j are installed. On the other hand, in the first stage, which is the lowest stage of the shelf row 2, as shown in FIG.
, 7d, 7e, and 7f are installed. A retrieval reservation device 8 is installed on the retrieval exit side of the shelf row 2, and when issuing a retrieval request, the product code to be retracted is set and the item is assigned to a retrieval-only shelf 7m, 7b, 7f, etc. Make a reservation for delivery. In addition, each shelf 7a, 71)
,... Song 7f has output request devices 9a, 9b,...
Song, 9f is installed. On the exit side, a conveyor device port is installed for conveying the goods delivered to the exit-only shelf to the assembly machine 10 or the like. Furthermore, the assembly machine 1o is provided with a conveyor device 12 for conveying the assembled articles to the next process.

FIG. 4 is an overall system diagram of the present invention. In the figure, the central computer 13 is connected to a warehouse management computer t4, a warehouse management computer 15, and a stacker crane control computer 16. The central computer 13 stores inventory information (inventory file) of goods.
management of empty shelf address information (empty shelf file), shelf address information for storing empty pallets (empty pallet 7 aisle), and stacker crane operation schedule (when a loading/unloading request occurs, the stacker crane will Its main function is to determine the shelf address for receiving and unloading goods. The warehousing management computer 14 is connected with warehousing request setting panels 5a, 5b, . . . , 5t, and its main function is to issue warehousing requests to the central computer 13. The delivery management computer 15 includes a delivery reservation device 8, a delivery request device 9a, and a delivery request device 9a. b,・
, 9f is connected, and its main function is to issue warehouse retrieval and re-entry requests to the central computer 15. The stacker crane control computer 16 includes:
The stacker crane 3 is connected and the central computer 1
Its main function is to control the running of the stacker crane 3 based on the stacker crane operation schedule transferred from the stacker crane 3.

In the present invention, as shown in Figs. 2 to 3, the storage shelves 4a, 4b, ..., 4 and the rhinoceros extraction shelves 7a17b, ..., 7f are excluded. Multiple management sheets yzt, z2, z3, z4, z5V
It is recommended to divide the warehouse into 3 zones and process the warehousing and unloading for each zone.

This zone division (which shelf address belongs to which management zone) is determined by taking into account the operating time of the stacker crane 3 required to process the retrieval request for each management zone.

For example, the management zones z1, z2, z5, z4, and z5 are arranged in order of decreasing processing time for the delivery request. When a warehousing request occurs, the goods with a high warehousing urgency level are pressurized to be warehousing preferentially to the management zone z1 or z2 near the warehousing exclusive shelf.

In addition, the delivery urgency level and line indicate the degree to which the assembly machine 10 will stop waiting for the goods if the pallets containing the goods to be used in the assembly machine 10 are not delivered from the warehouse. It is determined by the number of items received and the consumption rate of the items in the assembly machine 10. In addition, in practical terms, it is appropriate to divide the emergency level of delivery into three levels: A%, B%, and C. This exit emergency level is set in advance in the storage device (RAM) of the central computer 13.
In the format shown in Table 1, all items to be stored and removed are registered as a master table.

Additionally, at the start of this system, each management zone z1
, z2, z5, z4, and z5, one or more empty shelves are arranged so that one or more empty shelves are secured in each zone even when the system is in operation.

Furthermore, in the present invention, the shelf addresses used for the inventory file, empty shelf file, and empty pallet file stored in the storage device (RAM) of the central computer 13 are expressed in "column/row" which is generally used as a display method for shelf addresses.・It is better to use the following method instead of "dan". In other words, consecutive numbers starting from 1 (hereinafter referred to as shelf numbers) are assigned to the empty shelves of storage-only shelves, and a correspondence table between shelf addresses and shelf numbers is registered in advance in the storage device (ROM) of the central computer 15. put. The shelf numbers are assigned in the order of management zone numbers, that is, management zone z1 → z2 → z5 → z4 → z
If the shelf numbers are assigned in the order of 5, it will be easier to search for empty pallets and empty shelves in management zone units at the time of warehousing and warehousing requests. An example of this shelf address-shelf number correspondence table is shown in Table 2.

Next, a method for processing a warehousing request will be explained based on FIG. 2. The articles 17 manufactured by the parts manufacturing machine 6c are stored in pallets (18) on the Ohara dedicated shelves 4e and 4f.

Load on 19th. When the pallet 19 on the warehousing shelf 4f (1061″4Ii ground) is full of articles 17, the worker presses the button on the warehousing request setting panel 5f installed on this shelf to send the warehousing request signal to warehousing management. The data is transferred to the computer 14.Then, the warehousing management computer 14 reads the warehousing request data set on the warehousing request setting panel 5f, such as the article code and the number of items to be warehousing, and sends an interrupt for the warehousing request to the central computer 15. conduct.

This interrupt is performed at regular time intervals until the central computer 15 accepts it.

When the central computer 15 accepts the warehousing request, it receives the warehousing request data (product code, number of warehousing items, shelf address for which the request was made) from the warehousing management computer 14 .

Next, set the emergency level of the goods for which the storage request has been made to the first level.
Obtained from the master table shown in the table. Next, it is determined in which management zone the item for which the storage request has been requested is to be stored. The following method can be adopted as this determination method. That is,
The fifth memory is stored in the storage device (ROM) of the central computer 13.
A processing zone selection priority order table for processing warehousing requests shown in the table is registered in advance. Then, an empty pallet in the management zone of the first priority is searched based on the urgent level of delivery of the article for which the storage request has been made.

Table 5 To search for empty pallets, sort the empty pallet files in order of shelf number, and search based on the minimum and maximum shelf numbers in each preset management zone. You can search for empty pallets within the management zone. If there are no empty pallets in the management zone of the first priority, an empty pallet is searched for in the management zone of the next priority. When the shelf number holding the empty pallet is retrieved in this manner, the shelf address of the empty pallet is determined from the shelf address-shelf number correspondence table shown in Table 2. If there are two or more empty pallets in the same management zone, select the empty pallet that was searched first. When an empty pallet is searched in this way, an empty shelf in the same management zone as the empty pallet is searched for using the same procedure as above. As described above, since one or more empty shelves are always secured in each management zone, empty shelves within the same zone are always searched.

In this way, as shown in FIG.
Empty shelf Kl (address 1102) and empty pallet P1 (1o
q s address) is searched, the central computer 1
Step 3 creates an operation schedule for the stacker crane in the format shown in Table 4.

Subsequently, the central computer 13 transfers the stacker crane operation schedule data to the stacker crane control computer 16 and updates the inventory file, empty shelf file, and empty pallet file.

On the other hand, when the stacker crane control computer 16 receives data on the stacker crane operation schedule from the central computer 13, it converts this data into distance data from the travel origin and issues an operation command to the stacker crane 3. Then, the stacker crane 3 comes to receive the pallet 19 containing the articles 17 on the warehousing shelf 4f.

Then, the stacker crane 3 unloads the pallet 19 onto the empty shelf 1. Subsequently, the stacker crane 3 goes to the shelf P1 where the empty pallet is stored, receives the empty pallet, and unloads it to the original warehouse dedicated shelf 4f, thereby completing the processing of this warehousing request.

Then, the stacker crane control computer 16
A signal indicating the completion of the operation is transferred to the central computer 13.

Then, the central computer 13 performs the next warehousing or
Enable to accept shipping requests.

As mentioned above, in the present invention, not only can searches for empty pallets and empty shelves, which are safe for processing warehousing requests, be performed in the same management zone, but also in each management zone at the start.
If more than one empty shelf is arranged, one or more empty shelves will be secured in each management zone even after the warehousing request is processed. Therefore, if there is one or more empty pallets in the dedicated storage shelf, it is possible to respond to the warehousing request. When the number of empty pallets in the dedicated storage shelf reaches 0 (meaning that the multi-level warehouse is full), a signal indicating that ``warehousing request cannot be accepted'' is transmitted to the warehousing control computer 14, as shown in Fig. 5. do. Then, the warehousing management computer 14 lights up the battery light 21 shown in FIG. 4 to notify the operator. moreover,
Every time an interrupt is received from the warehousing and warehousing management computer 14.15 to the central computer 13, the central computer 13 transfers the total number of empty pallets to the warehousing management computer 14, and the warehousing management computer 14F
i. By displaying this number on the display device 22, it is possible to know in advance whether the multi-storey warehouse is full.

Next, the re-warehousing method of the present invention will be explained based on FIGS. 3 to 5. As shown in FIG.
Pallet 7) 20 is delivered, and article 17 is transferred to assembly machine 1.
0, but due to setup change of the assembly machine 10, υ, article 1
If there is a surplus in item 7, it is necessary to re-enter the pallet containing article 17 into the storage-only side. In the present invention,
First, a reservation for re-entering the warehouse is made to the central computer 15 using the retrieval reservation device 8 consisting of a numeric keypad device, a CRT device, or the like. This re-stocking reservation is made as follows. First, as shown in FIG. 6, the re-entry button 8a is pressed to instruct the delivery management computer 15 that the upcoming operation is to reserve a re-entry request. Next, the user enters the name of the article to be re-stored, the number of articles to be re-stored, and the shelf address of the re-stocking side for which the re-store is requested, using the numeric keypad device 8b.

The keyed-in information is displayed on the display 8c. When the key-in operation is completed, the key-in completion button 8d is pressed. When the button 8d is pressed, the delivery management computer 15 transfers the keyed-in re-entry request data to the central computer 15.

The central computer 13 is the shipping management computer 1
When the re-stocking request data is received from No. 5, this data is stored in the storage device (RAM).

Data for this re-warehousing request is made for each storage bin on the issue-only side. When a reservation for a restocking request is accepted, the restocking reservation flag (storage device RAM
The corresponding flag (set at a specific address) is turned ON (set to +). Then, the next request (warehousing, shipping, re-stocking request, etc.) can be accepted.

As mentioned above, even if the central computer 13 receives data for a restocking request, it does not immediately create a stacker crane operation schedule for processing this request. The data of the re-entry request is stored in the central computer 13 until the next exit request is issued from the exit-only side that has made the re-entry request.

Next, a method will be described in which the exit exclusive side 7e, which has made the re-entry H request, requests the exit of articles to be newly used in the assembly machine 10. First, the stock of goods to be delivered is registered with the central computer 13 using the delivery reservation device 8, which includes a numeric keypad device 8b, a CRT device 8C, etc. shown in FIG. 6, and the stock information is displayed on the 'tcRT device 8c. Then, select which article is to be delivered to which delivery-only side using the numeric keypad device 8b.
, the decision is made interactively by a human using a CRT device ae. The specification of the dedicated side to be dispatched from the warehouse is determined according to the number of types of articles used in the assembly machine 1o and the urgent level of dispatch of the articles.
Multiple issue-only sides are specified.

Subsequently, when the button of the exit reservation device installed on the exit-only side for which the exit reservation has been made is pressed, a exit request signal is sent to the exit management computer 15. Then, the shipping official computer 15 interrupts the central computer 15 with a shipping request. This interrupt is performed at regular time intervals until the central computer 13 accepts it.

The shipping management computer 15 is the central computer 1
FIG. 5 shows the processing procedure of the central computer 13 when an interruption request is made to the computer 3.

In FIG. 5, when the central computer 1s receives an interrupt for a delivery request from the delivery management computer 15, it first detects that the stacker crane is in operation (the processing of the request for stocking or delivery received before this interrupt request has been completed). Check to see if there is anything that has not been
Check the contents of ll: flag). That is, when the central computer 13 transfers the operation schedule of the stacker crane to the stacker crane control computer 16, it sets this operation flag to 0N (1), and when it receives the completion signal of this operation schedule from the stacker crane control computer 16, Turn off the operation flag (0
By doing so, the operating status of the stacker crane can be monitored, making the above checks possible.

In FIG. 5, when the central computer 13 receives an interruption for a retrieval request, the retrieval management computer 15 sends the retrieval request data (article code, shelf address where the request was made,
(e.g. shipping method).

Next, the central computer 13 searches the inventory file stored in the central computer 13 to determine whether or not the item is in stock according to a preset procedure for the specified shipping method for the item for which the shipping request has been made.

As this inventory search method, a first-in, first-out method is generally adopted. This first-in, first-out system is a method in which, when there are multiple pallets for storing articles, the article for which a storage request has been made first is taken out of the warehouse. As this first-in, first-out inventory search method, any of the following methods can be adopted.

(1) The date of the stocking request is also stored in the data of the inventory file. Then, when a warehouse delivery request occurs, the inventory file is searched using the product code for which the warehouse delivery request was made and the date of warehousing as keys.

(2) The warehousing request monitor registers the warehousing requests in the inventory file group in the order in which they are processed.

Then, when a delivery request occurs, the item for which the delivery request has been made is searched from the beginning of the inventory file.

In this search, the article searched first becomes the article stocked first.

In this way, when an article to be delivered is searched for, an empty shelf in the same management zone as the article is searched for.

Note that if the item for which the delivery request has been made is out of stock, the central computer 1-3 transmits a "out of stock" signal to the delivery management computer 15. Then, the delivery management computer 15 flashes a red lamp or the like installed in the delivery requesting device for a certain period of time to notify the worker that the item is out of stock.

In this way, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, when a delivery request is made from the delivery shelf 7e (address 2121), a shelf for storing the article to be delivered is searched.

Since this item is located on shelf Bl (address 21+S), which is the z2 zone, search for an empty shelf in the same management zone.To search for an empty shelf in the same management zone as the item to be shipped, This can be done as follows.In other words, if you move the empty shelf files in order of shelf number and search based on the minimum and maximum values of shelf numbers in each preset management zone, you can find the target management zone. This procedure searches for empty shelf 2 (address 2123) in zone 22.

The central computer 13 then creates an operating schedule for the stacker crane in the format shown in Table 5.

Subsequently, the central computer 13 transfers the stacker crane operation schedule data to the stacker crane control computer 16 and turns on the stacker crane operation flag. Next, the inventory, empty shelves, and empty palette files are updated. At this time, the restocking reservation flag is checked, and if this flag is OFF, an empty pallet will be stored in the empty shelf 2 shown in Table 5 as a normal shipping request process, so the empty pallet file will contain no empty pallets. 2 is registered on the shelf.

On the other hand, if the restocking reservation flag is ON, the items to be restocked will be stored in empty shelf 2, so the inventory file will contain the following information:
Register 2 restocking items on the shelf and turn off the restocking reservation flag.
F.

When the stacker crane control computer 16 receives the stacker crane operation schedule from the central computer 13, it converts this data into distance data and issues an operation command to the stacker crane 3. Then, the stacker crane 3 comes to receive the pallet 20 (in the case of a normal delivery request, it is an empty pallet) containing the goods 17 to be re-entered from the delivery shelf 7e. The pallet 20 is unloaded onto the empty shelf 2.Next, the stacker crane 3 goes to the shelf B1 where the goods to be delivered are stored, receives the pallet containing the goods, and places it on the delivery shelf 7e. The goods are unloaded, and the processing of the unloading request that involves re-entering the warehouse is completed.

When the processing of this delivery request is completed, the stacker crane control computer 16 transfers an operation completion signal to the central computer 15. Then, the central computer 13 turns off the stacker crane operation flag and accepts the next warehousing or warehousing request.

When the pallet containing the articles on the rhino extracting shelf 7e is unloaded, the unloading worker transfers the article to the conveyor device 11 and supplies it to the assembly machine 10.

As described above, in this explanation, when a re-warehousing request occurs, the re-warehousing request is not processed immediately, but is processed together with the next warehousing request, so that the following effects are achieved.

(Re) There is no need to handle re-stocking independently. This eliminates wasted operating time of the stacker crane, and it becomes possible to quickly respond to stocking requests or stocking requests. The present invention is particularly effective in a multi-story warehouse having several exits, in which a wide variety of items are requested to be delivered at once, and re-entry and delivery requests occur frequently when changing the setup of the assembling machine 10.

(2) If a method is adopted in which warehousing and warehousing requests are processed for each management zone, if re-entry H requests are processed independently, an imbalance will occur in the number of empty shelves installed in each management zone.
As a result, there is a risk that the time required to process a stacker crane loading or unloading request will become longer. However, in the case of the present invention, since the restocking request is processed together with the restocking request, the number of empty shelves in each management zone is maintained at the initially set value, and the above drawback does not occur. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are explanatory diagrams showing the warehousing and unloading method of the present invention, FIG. 4 is an overall system diagram of the present invention, and FIG. , a flowchart for explaining the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a front view of the exit reservation device. 3 Nistatsuka Crane, 4a, 4b, 4
t: Shelf for storage only, 7a, 7b1..., 7f: Shelf for delivery only, 17: Goods, 1B, 19.2o: Pallet representative patent attorney Takashi Honma

Claims (1)

[Claims] In addition to loading and unloading goods loaded on pallets,
In an automated multilevel warehouse where loaded pallets, empty pallets, and empty shelves coexist on arbitrary shelves, when a re-entry request occurs from the exit door, the data of this re-entry request is temporarily stored and the When a warehouse exit request is issued from the warehouse exit that issued the warehouse entry request, a stacker crane operation schedule is created that combines the re-entering request and the warehouse exit request, and the stacker crane is operated based on this operation schedule permission. Features: Automated multi-level warehouse restocking method.