Modular Product Collecting System for Warehouse Order Fulfillment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing product collecting systems in the retail trade are inefficient, requiring high system capacity and taking a long time to collect and load products onto collecting carriers due to the need to retrieve products from various racks and convey them to collecting stations.
Innovation Solution
The method involves subdividing the product warehouse into modules, each comprising adjacent rack positions and a collecting station, where products are allocated and moved within or from other modules or pallets to efficiently collect and load 'slow-moving' and 'fast-moving' products onto collecting carriers, reducing the need for additional buffering systems and optimizing conveyor usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If products are collected from various racks and conveyed to collecting stations using a loop conveyor, then products can be gathered for orders, but the process takes a relatively great deal of time and requires high system capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The product warehouse is divided into multiple modules, each comprising a number of adjacent rack positions and an associated collecting station. This segmentation allows orders to be allocated to specific modules, enabling parallel processing of multiple orders simultaneously and reducing overall collection time.
Solution Approach 2:
Products are pre-positioned in modular sections of the warehouse before orders are processed. When an order is allocated to a module, the required products are already available in that module, eliminating the need for long-distance conveyance and enabling immediate collection at the associated collecting station.
2Productivity
If a high system capacity is used to handle product collection, then sufficient output can be achieved, but the system complexity and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The warehouse is segmented into independent modules that can process orders in parallel. This allows the system to achieve high throughput without requiring a single high-capacity conveyor system, instead using multiple lower-capacity modules working simultaneously, thereby reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Each module is designed to be multi-functional, capable of handling various product types and order configurations. The modular design allows flexible allocation of orders to different modules based on current demand, optimizing resource utilization without requiring dedicated high-capacity systems for each function.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for collecting products listed in an order in a product collecting system having a plurality of modules, the method including: assigning the order to a module, allocating a product listed in the order to the order if the product is already available in the module, allocating a product to the order from another module if the product of the “slow-moving” type is not already available in the module whereas it is available in the other module, allocating a product to the order from a pallet warehouse if the product of the “slow-moving” type is not already available in the module nor in another module, and releasing the order and loading the products onto a collecting carrier when all the products listed in the order have been collected in the module.