Transport Shuttle Eliminates Tray Handling in Logistics Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing logistics systems for product storage and order-picking require extensive space, time, and resources due to the need for trays and manual handling of product units, which limits efficiency and increases costs.
Innovation Solution
A method utilizing a transport shuttle that acts as both a carrier and conveyor, capable of loading, depalletizing, and palletizing products, eliminating the need for trays and optimizing paths to minimize time and energy usage, with integrated vision systems for quality control and sequencing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If product units are stored and handled individually on trays in a high-bay warehouse, then product units can be stored and retrieved, but a large amount of time is required and extensive equipping with apparatuses and a large amount of space are necessary
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple product units on a single tray instead of storing them individually. The tray warehouse stores trays with multiple product units, and the system handles trays as complete units rather than individual products. This merging approach reduces the number of handling operations and apparatuses required, directly addressing the time loss and equipment complexity issues.
Solution Approach 2:
The transport units serve multiple functions: they act as both storage containers in the high-bay warehouse and as conveyors in the tray warehouse. The same transport units that carry products into the warehouse are used to move trays through the system, eliminating the need for separate handling apparatuses and reducing overall system complexity.
2Ease of operation
If packing units are depalletized in layers from a pallet onto a correspondingly dimensioned tray and stored in a tray warehouse, then order-picking can be performed, but a relatively large unit has to be moved and stored requiring considerable space
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the storage space by implementing a two-level structure: a high-bay warehouse for bulk storage of transport units and a tray warehouse for active order-picking operations. This segmentation allows the majority of storage capacity to be utilized in the compact high-bay warehouse, while the tray warehouse maintains only the trays currently needed for order fulfillment, significantly reducing the volume of the actively used storage space.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes vertical space by implementing a high-bay warehouse that stores transport units in multiple levels. This three-dimensional storage approach maximizes the use of vertical volume rather than horizontal footprint, allowing considerable product capacity to be stored in a compact spatial footprint, thereby reducing the overall space requirement for the storage system.
3Productivity
If product carriers that are not completely empty have to be handled and moved to and fro, then product units can be transported, but this signifies a considerable effort
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by completely emptying trays at the depalletizing station before they are returned to the tray warehouse. This ensures that when trays are retrieved for new orders, they start empty and are only loaded with the specific products needed for that order. This preliminary emptying action prevents the need to handle and move partially filled trays, reducing the energy and effort required for transport operations.
4Productivity
If a plurality of picking orders are combined (batch) to increase the probability of complete emptying of a tray, then product units can be efficiently processed, but the product units have to be sorted again later into individual orders by complicated technology and sequences
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of combining multiple picking orders into batches and then sorting them later (the conventional approach), the system inverts the process by maintaining individual order separation throughout the workflow. Each tray is dedicated to a single order from depalletizing through storage to picking, eliminating the need for complex batch sorting operations while still achieving complete tray emptying through the individual order processing approach.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for storing and/or order-picking product units in a storage and/or order-picking installation (P1), in which incoming transporting units are stored on an interim basis in a store, are supplied, if required, to a depalletizing station (4) and are individually stored on an interim basis in a buffer store (6) for product units. Thereafter, branch-specific mixed pallets (16) are automatically set up, supplied to the delivery zone (11) and loaded onto lorries. The system solution is distinguished, in particular, in that it can dispense entirely with transporting aids such as shelves for product units, rows of product units or for entire layers of transporting units. The transport shuttles (8) provided and the rail installation (8a) perform largely the functions of transporting aids, storage means and conveying systems.