Article Transport Facility Inter-Warehouse Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing article transport facilities face inefficiencies and increased costs due to the need for article rearrangement devices to ensure articles are transported in a specified order from automatic warehouses to transport target locations, which requires additional space and resources.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a control device that manages the retrieval and inter-warehouse transport of articles between multiple automatic warehouses, allowing for the selection of a target warehouse to move articles into position before retrieval, eliminating the need for article rearrangement devices by ensuring all specified articles are retrieved in the correct order directly from the target warehouse.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If an article rearrangement device is provided to ensure articles are transported in a specified order, then the transport order accuracy is improved, but the facility cost and installation space increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by proactively moving articles between warehouses before retrieval requests are made. The control device monitors article locations and anticipates future retrieval needs, relocating articles to appropriate warehouses in advance. This eliminates the need for complex rearrangement devices during actual retrieval operations, as articles are already positioned correctly when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The article transport system serves itself by automatically managing article distribution across warehouses without external intervention. The control device autonomously determines which articles should be moved to which warehouses based on retrieval patterns and current stock levels, eliminating the need for manual rearrangement or additional complex infrastructure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If articles are retrieved from multiple different automatic warehouses, then the article variety available for retrieval is improved, but the retrieval efficiency and time consumption worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system proactively transfers articles between warehouses before retrieval operations begin. By analyzing retrieval requests and article locations in advance, the control device moves articles to optimally positioned warehouses, ensuring that high-priority or frequently retrieved articles are readily available in warehouses positioned for efficient access.
Solution Approach 2:
The control device acts as an intermediary that coordinates between multiple warehouses and the retrieval system. It manages article distribution across warehouses, balancing the need for article variety with retrieval efficiency by strategically positioning articles in warehouses based on their retrieval priority and the operational characteristics of each warehouse.
Data Source
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AI summary
A control device 6 executes retrieval control to, in response to a transport request in which a type and an order of each of a plurality of articles W that are transported to a transport target location 3 are specified, retrieve all the articles W specified in the transport request from a target automatic warehouse, which is one automatic warehouse selected from among a plurality of automatic warehouses 2, to a retrieval transport device 4 in a specified order that is specified in the transport request. The control device 6 executes, before execution of the retrieval control, inter-warehouse movement control to, if at least one of the plurality of articles W specified in the transport request is not stored in the target automatic warehouse, move the article W that is not stored in the target automatic warehouse from another automatic warehouse 2 to the target automatic warehouse by using an inter-warehouse transport device 5.