JP2005298076A - Picking facility of article - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce work burden of an operator moving with a picking cart and to improve the working efficiency, in a picking facility of articles for moving the picking cart into an installation space of a storage shelf and for collecting desired articles. <P>SOLUTION: The facility has storage shelves 1, 1, etc. where storage regions are set every article and picking carts 4, 4, etc. movable in a storage space 2 having these, and collects pre-specified articles while sequentially moving the picking carts 4 into the storage regions of respective articles. The proximity of some storage shelves 1, 1, etc. is provided with temporarily placing shelves 5, 5, etc. capable of temporarily placing the articles having the storage regions in the storage shelves 1, 1, etc., and the articles can be collected from the temporarily placing shelves 5, 5, etc. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an article picking facility configured to take out and collect pre-designated articles from respective storage areas by a picking cart that moves in a storage shelf installation space.

  In a distribution warehouse that presupposes the storage of a wide variety of goods and the shipment of a relatively small number of goods as a unit, a picking cart (collection and transport) is installed in the storage space of the storage shelf where a storage area is set for each article. A picking facility is employed in which a cart is moved and a necessary number of articles are taken out and collected in each desired article storage area. The picking cart is moved, taken out of the storage area, and put into the picking cart. Generally, the picking cart is manually operated by an operator, and the picking cart moves to the end of the moving path. The conveyed articles are shipped after performing shipping operations such as inspection, label issuance, and packing.

The same picking equipment has been put to practical use in various configurations conventionally, and various proposals have been made for the purpose of preventing erroneous picking of articles and reducing the labor burden of workers (for example, (See Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Japanese Patent No. 2916569 JP 2000-335713 A

  Now, even in the above-described picking equipment configured to move the picking cart into the installation space of the storage shelf and collect and transport a desired article, an erroneous article by the operator (picker) who moves the picking cart Although it is required to prevent picking and to reduce the labor burden of an operator, the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a delivery of an article between an article storage shelf and an article transporting conveyor. This is intended to improve work efficiency and is not applicable to the above-described picking equipment using the picking cart.

  The invention disclosed in Patent Document 2 relates to a picking equipment that uses a picking cart. This equipment is equipped with an article that is transported from a storage location and used for each shipping destination. The installation space of the shipping shelves (boxes) provided in the vehicle is visited, and the transported articles are put into the required shipping shelves, and the shipping shelves to be loaded with the loaded articles are displayed on each picking cart. In addition to providing a display unit, each shipping shelf is provided with a shutter for preventing an erroneous article from being input.

  According to the present invention, in the above-described picking equipment, a display unit for displaying a storage area of articles to be collected is provided in the picking cart, and a shutter for preventing erroneous insertion into the storing unit of the picking cart for storing picked articles is provided. It can be applied by means such as providing, and can contribute to the reduction of the labor burden on the operator.

  However, in the above-described picking equipment, there is a problem that the labor burden of the worker for moving together with the picking cart to the storage area of each article becomes large, particularly when picking various kinds of articles is required, This problem is not solved by the inventions described in Patent Documents 1 and 2.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and in the configuration in which the picking cart is moved into the installation space of the storage shelf and desired articles are collected and transported, the labor burden of the operator who moves with the picking cart An object of the present invention is to provide a picking facility capable of effectively mitigating the problem.

  The picking equipment according to the first aspect of the present invention includes a storage shelf in which a storage area is set for each article, and a picking cart that can move within the installation space of the storage shelf. In an article picking facility for collecting articles while sequentially moving the picking cart to the article storage area, an appropriate number of articles stored in the storage area can be temporarily placed near one or a plurality of the storage areas. A temporary placement unit is provided.

  In the present invention, among the storage areas set for each article, provisional storage units are provided in the vicinity of some storage areas, and articles stored in the corresponding tube regions are provided in the temporary storage units in a range of 5 to 10%. When collecting these items in an appropriate number, such as about a single piece, when collecting these items, move the picking cart to the temporary storage unit instead of the storage area and take out the items temporarily stored in the temporary storage unit. Reduce the labor burden required to move to the area.

  The picking equipment according to the second invention of the present invention is characterized in that the temporary storage section in the first invention is provided in the vicinity of an article storage area where the number of collections or the number of collections within a predetermined time is small.

  In the present invention, for example, a temporary placement unit is provided in the vicinity of a storage area where the number of collections per day or the number of collections is small, and the labor required for moving articles from each storage area to the temporary storage part is reduced.

  In the picking facility according to the first aspect of the present invention, the temporary storage unit for the articles is provided in the vicinity of the storage area, so that an operator who picks up these articles moves to the respective storage area together with the picking cart. There is no need, and the labor burden for this movement is reduced.

  Moreover, in the picking equipment according to the second invention, since the temporary placement unit is provided for the articles with a small number of collections or the number of collections, it is possible to reduce the trouble of frequently repeating the movement from the storage area to the temporary placement unit, In addition, the worker who moves together with the picking cart does not need to use unnecessary movement for picking a small number of articles, and the present invention can effectively reduce the labor burden as a whole.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings illustrating embodiments thereof. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the overall configuration of a picking facility according to the present invention. This picking facility is, for example, a storage space 2 in which a large number of storage shelves 1, 1. And a shipping space 3 for carrying out shipping operations such as acceptance of shipping, inspection of shipped goods, issuance of labels, packing, etc., so that the entire space of the storage space 2 is reached to the shipping space 3 in the figure. Picking carts 4, 4... That are movable along a movement route set as indicated by arrows.

  In the storage shelves 1, 1... Installed in the storage space 2, a plurality of types of articles are stored while occupying separate storage areas. Of these storage shelves 1, 1..., An article having a storage area is provided in the vicinity of some of the storage shelves 1, 1. Temporary storage shelves 5, 5... That can be temporarily placed in a plurality of units are provided so as to surround the outside of the storage area of the storage shelves 1, 1.

  The moving paths of the picking carts 4, 4,... Are a main moving path 4a set along the outside of the storage area of the storage shelves 1, 1,... And a plurality of branches branched in the middle of the main moving path 4a. .. Are provided, and the temporary storage shelves 5, 5... Are provided along the main movement route 4a. The branch paths 4b, 4b,... Are set so as to be movable along the front surfaces of the respective storage shelves 1, 1... With respect to most other storage shelves 1, 1. Has been.

  The temporary storage shelves 5, 5... Are provided within a predetermined time, for example, in the vicinity of the storage shelves 1, 1. Each of the temporary storage shelves 5, 5... Has a size that allows an appropriate number of the respective target articles to be placed, and these are replenished sequentially from the respective storage shelves 1, 1. By replenishing a sufficient number of articles every predetermined time, an appropriate number of articles are always temporarily placed.

  In addition, although an operator is required for the movement of the articles | goods from the storage shelves 1, 1 ... to the temporary storage shelves 5, 5 ..., the articles temporarily placed on these temporary storage shelves 5, 5 ... As described above, it is an article with a small number of shipments or shipments, and does not require frequent movement, and can be further reduced by moving in units of a plurality of units, and the labor burden on the operator is not great.

  FIG. 2 is an external perspective view showing an example of the picking cart 4. As shown in the figure, the picking cart 4 has two upper and lower mounting shelves 42 and 42 laid on a carriage frame 41 supported by two wheels 40 and 40 at the front and rear, and an input box 43 is placed above these. , 43 is installed. On one side of the upper mounting shelf 42. A handle 44 for push-pull operation is provided. An information terminal 45 that displays information for picking is provided on the top of the mounting shelf 42 in the vicinity of the handle 44 so as to be visible and operated by an operator (picker) that holds the handle 44. A bar code reader 46 is connected to the information terminal 45.

  A number of such picking carts 4, 4... Are mounted on a cart storage 30 (see FIG. 1) set facing the shipping space 3, and an operator can select an appropriate picking cart from the cart storage 30. 4 is pulled out and registered and used in the shipping acceptance unit 31 provided in the shipping space 3.

  By this registration, the information terminal 45 of the picking cart 4 can, for example,. The communication means using the indoor PHS line is connected to a host computer (not shown) for managing the distribution information of the entire picking facility so that information can be exchanged. Name, article code, weight, required number, etc.), and the position of each storage shelf 1 and the storage area on the storage shelf 1 are displayed in the order along the movement path described above, for example.

  Therefore, the operator pushes and pulls the picking cart 4 along the movement path in accordance with the display information on the information terminal 45, takes out the desired article from the respective storage area, and repeats the procedure for putting it into the input boxes 43 and 43. All the necessary items can be collected reliably.

  At this time, the barcode reader 46 connected to the information terminal 45 is used for reading the barcode attached to the taken-out article. The article information obtained by the reading is transmitted to the host computer via the information terminal 45, used for collation with the physical distribution information, and the collation result is displayed on the information terminal 45. As a result, it is possible to prevent the collection of erroneous articles due to carelessness of the operator, and it is possible to efficiently perform the picking work.

  In the series of collection operations as described above, articles having storage areas in many storage shelves 1, 1... That do not have temporary storage shelves 5, 5... Are stored on the storage shelves 1 along the respective branch paths 4 b. The picking cart 4 is moved to the front of the storage area and collected directly by taking it out of the storage area. On the other hand, articles having storage areas in some storage shelves 1, 1... Having temporary storage shelves 5, 5... Are not temporarily stored in the respective storage shelves 1, 1. It is picked up from the shelves 5, 5 ... and collected.

  As described above, the articles temporarily placed on the temporary storage shelves 5, 5, etc. are those with a small number of shipments or the total number of shipments, and the storage area on each storage shelf 1 is also narrow, so It is an article that is difficult to find. In the picking equipment according to the present invention, the collection of the articles as described above can be performed from the temporary storage shelves 5, 5... Without the need to move the picking cart 4 to the front surface of each storage shelf 1. The work efficiency of the picking work is greatly improved, and the labor burden of the worker who moves together with the picking cart 4 and collects articles can be effectively reduced.

  The collection of articles from the storage shelves 1, 1... Without the temporary shelves 5, 5... Is performed in the same way as before, but these articles have a large storage area and the number of collections per time is also general. Therefore, there is no problem in the trouble of moving to each storage area and collecting in the storage area. In addition, when temporary storage shelves 5, 5,... Are provided on these storage shelves 1, 1,..., It is necessary to frequently move articles from the respective storage shelves 1, 1. Since the labor burden on the worker for this movement increases, the effect of improving the efficiency of the entire picking work is small.

  The positions of the storage shelves 1, 1... Provided near the temporary storage shelves 5, 5... Are not limited to the positions shown in FIG. It is needless to say that any temporary form other than the shelf can be used as long as the temporary placement is possible.

  The articles collected by the picking cart 4 are taken out to the shipping space 3 through an inspection procedure in the inspection section 32 provided at the end of the main moving path 4a, and shipped to the outside through a required shipping process such as packing. . The inspection unit 32 is a terminal device connected to the host computer via a LAN (Local Area Network) together with the above-described shipment receiving unit 31, and the inspection of the collected articles by the picking carts 4, 4,. This is done promptly by sending and receiving information. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 33 denotes a belt conveyor that conveys articles that have been shipped, and 34 denotes a shipping vertical conveyor provided at the end of the belt conveyor 33. Furthermore, reference numeral 35 in FIG. 1 denotes a luggage elevator used for carrying in the goods.

It is a top view showing the whole picking equipment composition concerning the present invention. It is an external appearance perspective view which shows an example of the picking cart used in the picking equipment which concerns on this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 Storage shelf 2 Storage space 3 Shipping space 4 Picking cart
4a Main travel route
4b Branch route 5 Temporary storage shelf

Claims (2)

A storage shelf in which a storage area is set for each article and a picking cart that can move in the installation space of the storage shelf are provided, and the picking cart is sequentially moved to the storage area of each article by specifying a predetermined article. In the picking equipment of the goods to collect while letting
An article picking facility comprising: a temporary placement unit capable of temporarily placing an appropriate number of articles stored in the storage area in the vicinity of one or a plurality of the storage areas.   2. The article picking facility according to claim 1, wherein the temporary storage unit is provided in the vicinity of an article storage area where the number of collections or the number of collections within a predetermined time is small.

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