Dynamic Shelf Assignment for Automatic Warehouse Travel Distance Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional automatic warehouses face inefficiencies in storage and retrieval operations due to unequal storage and retrieval demands between stations, leading to increased traveling distances for stacker cranes and decreased capability in handling articles per unit time.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a shelf assigning unit that dynamically allocates trays to stations based on priority use, ensuring each station has a consistent maximum traveling distance and optimizing the assignment of shelves to minimize total traveling distance for elevators, allowing for efficient storage and retrieval operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If trays are assigned to stations based on storage and retrieval amount, then the station handling more articles gets more trays, but the stacker crane must travel greater distances reducing efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The rack is divided into multiple independent shelf groups, each assignable to different stations. This segmentation allows flexible allocation of shelf groups to stations based on current workload requirements, enabling the system to balance the number of shelves per station dynamically rather than having fixed assignments throughout the rack.
Solution Approach 2:
The shelf group assignment to stations is made dynamic rather than static. The controller can reassign shelf groups to different stations based on real-time or changing storage and retrieval demands, allowing the system to adapt to varying workload patterns and maintain optimal efficiency under different operating conditions.
2Productivity
If more shelves are assigned to one station to handle greater storage and retrieval amount, then the station's capacity increases, but the stacker crane's traveling distance increases reducing operational speed
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the rack into multiple shelf groups that can be independently assigned, the system can concentrate multiple shelf groups at stations requiring higher capacity without proportionally increasing travel distances, as the shelf groups are distributed throughout the rack structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions or groups of shelves can be optimized for different stations based on local workload requirements. Stations with higher storage and retrieval demands can be assigned multiple shelf groups locally, while stations with lower demands receive fewer shelf groups, creating a non-uniform distribution that matches actual operational needs.
3Quantity of substance
If tray columns are assigned to stations to ensure adequate storage space, then storage capacity is sufficient, but the stacker crane cannot overtake another crane reducing flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The rack is segmented into multiple independent shelf groups that can be assigned to different stations. This segmentation, combined with the ability to reassign shelf groups dynamically, provides operational flexibility by allowing the system to adapt to varying workload patterns and station performance requirements while maintaining adequate storage capacity at each station.
Data Source
AI summary
An automatic warehouse includes a rack including vertically arranged shelves and traveling vehicles each of which is provided to a corresponding one of the shelves. The automatic warehouse includes stations receiving an article to be stored on and an article unloaded from the rack, elevators each mediating traffic of articles between the corresponding station and at least one of the traveling vehicles, and a shelf assigning unit assigning, to each of the stations, one or more of the shelves to which the station has priority of use over the rest of the stations.