Multi-Level Inventory System With Mobile Drive Units
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern inventory systems face challenges in efficiently handling inventory items due to the complexity of packing, storing, and adapting to fluctuations in system throughput, which leads to high costs for incremental changes in capacity or functionality.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a multi-level inventory system utilizing mobile drive units to efficiently move inventory holders between different stations, allowing for strategic operator interactions and reducing the number of touches and time consumed in processing inventory items, while enabling flexible operation across multiple floors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If inventory systems expand capacity or functionality to handle more inventory items, then system throughput increases, but infrastructure changes become significant and costs become prohibitively expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs mobile drive units that can dynamically move inventory holders between different stations and locations within the workspace. This dynamic reconfigurability allows the system to adapt to varying throughput requirements without permanent infrastructure changes, resolving the contradiction between productivity enhancement and device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a vertical dimension by implementing multiple floors or levels within the workspace. Mobile drive units transport inventory holders vertically between floors, effectively increasing system capacity and throughput without expanding the horizontal footprint or requiring significant infrastructure changes at any single level
2Ease of operation
If operators manually handle inventory items through multiple touches, then inventory items can be processed, but time consumed increases and efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables inventory holders to be autonomously transported by mobile drive units between stations without requiring operator intervention for each movement. The mobile drive units self-navigate to retrieve and deliver inventory holders, reducing the number of operator touches and minimizing processing time while maintaining ease of operation through centralized control
Solution Approach 2:
Mobile drive units serve as intermediaries between inventory holders and processing stations. Instead of operators directly handling and moving inventory items between locations, the mobile drive units mediate this transport function, reducing manual touches and processing time while keeping the system easy to operate through automated coordination
Data Source
AI summary
An inventory system can include a workspace in which is defined different areas and different stations at which tasks can be performed. A receipt receptacle received from a shipping vehicle can be moved to a rack without separating items from the receipt vehicle. A mobile drive unit can move the rack to an area on the workspace depending on information known about the items. Items from the receipt receptacle can be removed from the receipt receptacle and placed in inventory holders for movement or storage or in other receptacles for performance of other tasks such as order processing.