Automated Product Loading Sequence Grouping for Carrier Pattern
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automated loading methods for products onto carriers require stringent logistic processes and facilities, especially when products are stored in different racks, necessitating a specific supply order to achieve a desired spatial pattern, which increases logistical demands.
Innovation Solution
The method subdivides products into groups, allowing for successive supply in any order within groups, determining a loading sequence that realizes the desired spatial pattern with the fewest groups possible, thereby reducing logistical requirements and enabling flexible product ordering.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a specific loading sequence is determined to realise the desired spatial pattern, then the loading order is precise, but the logistic process requirements become heavy
Solution Approach 1:
The loading sequence is segmented into groups of products. Within each group, products can be supplied in any order to the collecting location, while groups themselves are processed sequentially. This segmentation allows the system to achieve the desired spatial pattern without requiring precise ordering of individual products, thereby reducing logistic process complexity while maintaining loading precision.
2Manufacturing precision
If products are supplied in a specific order from different racks, then the desired spatial pattern is achieved, but the logistic facilities requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Products from different racks are organized into groups that are supplied successively to the collecting location. The segmentation allows products to be collected from multiple racks without requiring a specific supply sequence, reducing the complexity of logistic facilities while ensuring the final spatial pattern on the carrier is achieved.
Solution Approach 2:
A collecting location acts as an intermediary between the warehouse racks and the carrier loading position. This intermediary buffer allows products to be supplied from different racks in any order, then reorganized into the correct groups for loading, thereby reducing logistic facility requirements while maintaining spatial pattern accuracy.
3Manufacturing precision
If an additional sorting step is introduced, then the desired loading order is realised, but the facilities requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The sorting function is achieved through segmentation into groups rather than through a dedicated sorting facility. By organizing products into groups that can be supplied in any order within the group, the system achieves accurate loading sequences without requiring additional sorting equipment, thus reducing facilities requirements while maintaining loading precision.
Data Source
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AI summary
Method for automated loading of products from a warehouse onto a carrier (11) comprising the steps of - determining a desired spatial pattern in which the products are to be collected on the carrier (11), - determining a hypothetical loading sequence (1-16) so as to obtain the desired spatial pattern, - dividing successive products within the hypothetical loading sequence (1-16) into successive groups of products (1-9; 10-13; 14-16), wherein the size of each group is limited such as not to allow that the addition to the group in question (1-9) of a next product (10) could mean that when the carrier (11) is loaded in random order with products (2, 5, 7, 10) belonging to the group in question (1-9), including the next product (10), at least one product (6) belonging to the group in question (1-9) cannot be loaded onto the carrier (11) on account of the carrier (11) having previously been loaded with the aforesaid next product.