JPH0361202A - Stock allocating method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve efficiency of an automatic warehouse system, in an auto matic warehouse equipped with a plurality of cranes, by carrying out crane allocation through determining items to be shipped by means of crane manage ment information and by preparing a shipment completion data at each comple tion of a shipment operation so as to renew a crane operating condition. CONSTITUTION:A crane operating condition renewal means 14 reads cut ship ment completion data at the same time when a crane control means 13 prepares it and subtracts the shipment time from crane waiting time of a crane manage ment means 11. And a crane allocating means 12 determines the stock to be shipped based on the information of this crane management means 11 and puts out crane operating information of the stock data to the crane management means 11 and the crane control means 13. The crane control means 13 controls each of cranes 1 through 5 based on this. And the crane control means 13 sends completion data to the crane operating condition renewal means 14 at each completion of shipment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an inventory allocating system, particularly to an inventory allocating system in an automated warehouse system having a plurality of cranes.

[Conventional technology]

Currently, there is a growing interest in automated warehouse systems in logistics systems, regardless of industry, and it has come to be said that considering the introduction of automated warehouses is essential in building a better logistics system. .

Automated warehouses are classified into many types depending on the type of storage shelves and the type of crane that takes inventory items from the shelves where they are stored (hereinafter referred to as locations) and automatically transports inventory items to the exit. However, especially in the case of automated warehouses where multiple cranes perform warehouse retrieval work individually, it is important to have each crane operate on an average basis in order to increase the efficiency of the retrieval work. . To this end, it is necessary to consider the movement of the crane when allocating inventory items based on data.

Conventionally, when allocating inventory data, it was customary to allocate data logically, without managing the operational status of cranes, using only the information on the inventory data to be used as a basis for making allocation decisions. For example, there is a case where the allocation is made in the order in which the data of available inventory items is stored.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the conventional inventory allocation method described above, when multiple cranes actually carry out shipping work, the number of items handled by each crane and the allocated locations may vary. , there were cases where a difference occurred in the operating time of the crane. As a result, since the unloading process of only one crane is not completed, there is a problem that the entire unloading work is not completed even though the other cranes have finished their work.

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate unnecessary waiting time from the time it takes for one unloading operation using an automated warehouse with multiple cranes, and to improve the efficiency of unloading operations. Manage the operating status of the crane and
The objective is to provide a device that converts into J.

[Means to solve the problem]

The method of the present invention, in an inventory allocation method in an automated warehouse system having multiple cranes, includes a crane management unit that stores the operating status of multiple cranes, and determines inventory items to be delivered based on information of the crane management unit. a crane allocation means that outputs crane operation information of inventory data that has been decided to be delivered to the crane management means; and a crane that actually instructs the crane to receive information on the goods to be delivered determined by the crane allocation means, and is in operation. A crane control means that creates unloading completion data each time the crane completes one unloading operation, and a crane operating status update means that updates the crane management means based on the created completion data. It is characterized by:

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, the automatic warehouse crane operation averaging device of the present invention includes a crane management means 11, a crane allocation means 12 for determining the location of stock items to be delivered, and a crane operation control device 16 for instructing the crane to operate. The crane control means 13 provides information on the completion of the crane unloading operation, and the crane operation status update means 14 writes information on the completion of the crane unloading operation to the crane management means 1.

Further, this automated warehouse system includes five automatic stacker cranes 15 for unloading, and a crane operation control device 16 that controls the cranes.

Further, information on inventory items is stored in inventory data 17, and information on products to be shipped is stored in shipping schedule data 18.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a shelf on which a second crane performs unloading work. In this case, the shelf is composed of a total of 40 locations, each with 5 vertical rows and 8 horizontal rows. The crane is normally in its home position, but it can simultaneously move up and down the shelves and in the left and right directions as shown in the diagram at a constant speed.
The crane positioned at the home position is instructed to take out the warehouse, moves upward and to the right, and when it reaches the desired location, takes out all the inventory at that location and returns to the home position with it. Come back until. This series of operations is one operation of leaving the warehouse. In addition, when there are multiple instructions for leaving the warehouse to the same location, the leaving process is performed for all of them in one operation.

A location Na (number: upper row) is set for each of the 40 locations, and by specifying this location M when taking out inventory, the crane can be moved to the target location without moving. Further, for each location, the time required for the crane to perform one unloading operation (number 2, lower row) is set in advance in seconds, and this is registered in the inventory data. For example, NQ
Since it takes 23 seconds to take out inventory items from 15 locations, 23 is set as the outgoing time.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the crane management means 11. The crane management means 11 is a table that has, for each lane, a waiting time in seconds until the currently reserved inventory data is released. The initial state is table 3A, and updated states are shown in tables 3B to 3E.

The crane allocation means 12 refers to the crane management means 11 and allocates inventory, but the basic idea is that the inventory data includes the delivery time for each location shown in FIG. Each time a reservation is made, the unloading time registered in the reservation data is added as the waiting time for each lane of the crane management means 11, and the next time the crane is reserved, the crane with the shortest waiting time for that crane management means 11 is selected. This means that the amount will be reserved from the stock of the company.

Now, a method of allocating inventory when the inventory data shown in FIG. 4 and the shipping schedule data shown in FIG. 5 exist will be described below. Note that one piece of inventory data exists for each crane and location in which the product code and its inventory are stored. Furthermore, since the products are stored in multiple locations 7E1, at the time of inventory allocation, there are multiple items of inventory data that can be allocated. In addition, when the number of available inventory data is 1 or more, it is possible to make a reservation from that data, and after the reservation, the number of available stocks is the remaining number after subtracting the number of items issued.

First, the release schedule data 51 of the first product is read.

This data means that 15 products with code 001 will be shipped. Next, referring to the crane management means 11, the crane with the shortest waiting time is determined. in this case,
This is the fourth crane with a waiting time of 75 seconds (data 31).

Next, inventory data with the same code as the product code in the shipping schedule data 51 is referred to, and only the required quantity is shipped from there, but in this case, data 41 to 49 of the inventory data in Figure 4 can be reserved. This is data. Therefore, the product code (=OO1) and the number of the crane with the shortest waiting time are set in the keys and the inventory data is read. Since the data 48 of the fourth crane exists, that data is determined as the data to be allocated.

At this time, the number of data 48 that can be reserved is 9, so of the scheduled number (=51) of the scheduled delivery data 51, 9 is set as the number of delivered items, and the crane of the reserved inventory data 48 (=4),
The location (=28) and the pre-registered exit time for each location (=14 seconds) are written as exit information in the exit instruction data (Figure 6, data 61).
). Furthermore, the delivery time is added to the waiting time of the data 31 of the crane management means 11. After addition, table 3B
It will look like this.

Next, among the number of outgoing items in the outgoing schedule data 51, the quantity (=6) that was not allocated in the above process is allocated from other inventory data. At this time, as in the previous allocation process, when the crane management means 11 determines the crane with the minimum waiting time, it is found that it is the fourth crane (data 32).

Since the data 49 of the fourth crane exists on the inventory data 4X, this data 49 is determined as data to be reserved. Quota! (=6) and the crane, location, and shipping time of the reserved inventory data 49 are written to the shipping instruction data (data 62) as in the first reservation process, but here, the number of possible items for inventory data 49 is 10. Since the number of reservations is 6, there will be 4 stocks left after the reservation.

In this case, the crane that moved to the home position with all the inventory at the location once again moves to the original location and returns to the home position again in order to return the remaining inventory to the original position. This movement is necessary. Therefore, the time required for one delivery is calculated as twice the time registered in the inventory data = 52 seconds. Further, in order to indicate that there is still inventory left even though the reservation processing has been carried out on -1, a reservation mark = * is added to the inventory data 49 (data 4A). 32 waiting time and delivery time (
=52 seconds) is added (data 33).

Next, the shipping schedule data 52 is read and the next allocation process is performed, but here it is first determined whether or not there is an allocation mark in the inventory data. This is because inventory reservations for multiple shipment schedule data can be made at once, and inventory from the same location can be issued all at once, rather than making new reservations from different data (locations).
This is because it takes less time to issue goods from the warehouse if the data is reserved for the first time.

Now, inventory data 4A has a reservation mark, so
From here, the quantity = 4 is allocated, the available quantity of inventory data 49 is set to 0, and the allocation mark is set to a space. Here, regarding the update of the crane management means 11, the inventory data 4A has been previously dispatched when the second reservation was made for the dispatch schedule data 51, and the corresponding dispatch time has already been added to the table. ing.

Assuming that a third exit is performed at the same time as this second exit, there is no need to add a new exit time.

Not only that, but in the second reservation, the same operation as the restocking operation was performed once again to return the remaining inventory after the restocking, and the time = 26 seconds was added, but the second and third restocking was combined. Then, the remaining number of allocable units becomes 0 and the operation is unnecessary, so it is necessary to subtract the extra unloading time = 26 seconds from the crane management means 11 (data 34
).

Also, -26 is added to the delivery instruction data as a time subtraction.
Set the delivery time in seconds and write it out (data 63). If the number that can be reserved does not become O in the third reservation, the reservation mark in the inventory data remains attached, and the additional value of the crane management means 11 and the delivery time in the delivery instruction data are set to O.
shall be.

Next, the remaining number of deliveries = 5 in the delivery schedule data 52 is reserved. Since the reservation mark is not added to any inventory data, the fifth crane is found by referring to table 3D and finding the crane with the minimum waiting time (data 35). However, when referring to the inventory data, there is no inventory for the fifth crane.

Here, the crane management means 11 is referred to again to find the crane with the second shortest waiting time. third table 3
From D, it can be seen that it is the third crane (data 36
). Therefore, it is decided to allocate based on the inventory data of the third crane, that is, data 45. As with the second reservation, set the number of reservations (= 5), crane (= 3), location (= 9), and delivery time (216 seconds), including the time to return since the number that can be reserved remains after reservation. The delivery instruction data 64 is written out and the data 36 of the crane management means 3D is updated.

In this way, if the crane management means 11 does not have the crane with the shortest waiting time in stock, the crane with the next shortest waiting time is allocated from the stock.

Similarly, when the following dispatch schedule data 54 are reserved, the crane management means 11 updates the inventory data as shown in table 3E, the inventory data as data 4z, and the dispatch instruction data as shown in data 6A in FIG. Created in

As a result, the difference between the maximum and minimum delivery time for cranes 1 to 5 was 79 seconds before inventory reservation,
After allocation, the time will be shortened to 62 seconds. As in the above example, in order to average the operating time of each crane regarding the allocation of one product, it is desirable that allocable inventory items are equally stored in each crane. In fact, in the above example, there is no item in stock for the 5th crane, so even though there is an instruction to allocate it for the 5th crane, it is allocated from the inventory of other cranes. The difference between this and the third crane, which has the longest waiting time, will not narrow any further when it comes to reserving this product.

However, it is rare that inventory is reserved for one product at a time, and as in the above example, when one product is in stock at only a few locations.

It is normal for many other types of products to be stored in other locations, and when considering inventory reservations for all products, the unevenness of crane operation for each product is due to the fact that the usage rate of each crane location is approximately equal. If so, they are finally averaged.

Now, in the crane allocation means 11, the inventory allocation process was performed as described above, and the shipping instruction data was created. Here, the processing contents of the crane control means 13 will be explained below.

The crane control means 13 sequentially reads the unloading instruction data outputted by the crane allocation means 12, and if the cranes and locations are the same, transmits the data together as one instruction data to the crane operation control device 16. In this case, an instruction is also passed to the crane operation control device 16, such as whether all the stock items will be delivered or whether the stock items should be returned to their original locations because there is a remaining number of available items. Of course, this is not directly related to the present invention, so it will be omitted here.

Now, when the crane completes one unloading operation, the crane control means 13 transmits the information to the crane operation control device 1.
6, and based on the loaded unloading instruction data, one unloading completion data is written for each completed crane operation. FIG. 7 shows the contents of the exit completion data when all the operations of the exit instruction data shown in FIG. 6 have been completed. For example, the data 71 is written by combining the unloading instruction data 62 and 63 at the time of completion of outputting the unloading operation instruction to the crane once.

Next, the processing contents of the crane operating status updating means 14 will be explained below.

The crane operating status update means 14 is the crane control means 1
At the same time as the unloading completion data is created in Step 3, the unloading completion data is read in sequence, and the unloading time of the unloading completion data is subtracted from the waiting time of the corresponding crane in the crane management means 11.

Through this processing, the waiting time for the actual delivery completed is immediately reduced compared to the waiting time of the crane management means 11, and even when inventory reservation and inventory delivery work are being performed at the same time, the waiting time is immediately reduced. The crane management means 11 can manage the operation status of the lane in a very detailed manner that is close to the actual situation.

In this example, the shipping time included in the inventory data was set in detail for each location, but if this task is difficult, the locations can be divided into several ranks depending on the size of the shipping time, and the shipping time can be set for each rank. You may also set a time. Further, in this embodiment, five autostacker cranes are set, but this device can be applied to any automated warehouse having a plurality of cranes.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above in detail, the present invention can manage the operating status of a crane at a certain point in detail in real time, and also can monitor the operating status of multiple cranes by using this management information to reserve inventory data. This has the effect of eliminating wasteful waiting time from the average time required for shipping operations and increasing the overall efficiency of shipping operations.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a shelf on which a single crane performs shipping work, Fig. 3 is a diagram showing a crane management means, and Fig. 4 is a diagram showing inventory data. Figure 5
The figure shows the leaving schedule data, FIG. 6 shows the leaving instruction data, and FIG. 7 shows the leaving completion data. 11...Crane management means, 12...:
Crane allocation means, 13... Crane control means, 14... Crane operating status update means, 15.
...Auto stacker crane, 16...
Crane operation control device, 17... Delivery schedule data, 18... Inventory data, 19... Delivery instruction data, IA... Delivery completion data.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In an inventory allocation method in an automated warehouse system having multiple cranes, there is provided a crane management means for storing the operating status of the plurality of cranes, and determining inventory items to be delivered based on information of the crane management means, a crane allocation means that outputs crane operation information of inventory data that has been decided to be delivered to the crane management means; and a crane that actually instructs the crane to receive information on the goods to be delivered determined by the crane allocation means, and is in operation. A crane control means that creates unloading completion data each time the crane completes one unloading operation, and a crane operating status update means that updates the crane management means based on the created completion data. This is an inventory allocation method that is characterized by: