Logistics management

PICK AND SORT SYSTEM

(PICKING)SPACE COST Medium-high

FLEXIBILITY Medium, you can change the number of picker and modify n of zones

ACCURACY Medium, at the end of the conveyor you can weigh the tote and compared to the expected value in a scale, if it's difference you stop the tote, but you need data about the weight of each item.

We can subdivide the picking area in zones; the size of each zone is not fixed (as in pick-to-box) as it is function of the workload assigned to the pickers.

Pickers retrieve the quantity of each single item resulting from the batching of multiple orders (wave) and place these onto a takeaway conveyor connecting the picking area to the sorting system. In some cases, the takeaway conveyor is not implemented.

Benefit: we put in one sub-order items that are in nearby locations, for example items stored in the first aisle, thus reducing the travel distance. Pickers act as in the picker-to-part system, but they put cartons and pieces into the take-away conveyor that goes to a machine.

called sorter (a closeloop with n channels dedicated to customer orders).You have n waves per day, one wave is composed by thedifferent orders aggregated.Several, different technologies are available for automated sorting systems. The choice between thedifferent discharge mechanisms is based on amount of goods to be sorted and the physicaldimensions of the items to be sorted and is influenced by factors such as the weight, size, andfragility of the items.

- Cross-belt system, a chain with cross-belt conveyor with 90° orientation, diverting units tothe left or right.

- Tilt-tray system,It’s possible to have a conveyor also inside the aisle.

Pick and sort

INVESTMENT COSTS high

PRODUCTIVITY high(PICKING)

SPACE COST High, the main drawback because they occupy more space

FLEXIBILITY Medium, you can modify the length of the sorter and add

ACCURACY High, you check items many times during the path (best performance)

PARTS-TO-PICKER system: to reduce the pickertravel.Storage are with usually

a high AUR. Then pickingbays with stationary pickers. And then a handling system that connects these two functional areas.The products and components which are not picked in the picking area, return back to the storagearea.Here the main aim is to make the TT equal to 0. TT shifted from people to the handling system.The pickers work in one or more picking stations. The unit loads of the items detailed in the pickinglist are retrieved from the storage area and carried in sequence to the pickers who pick only thequantity required in the picking list. Then the unit loads, unless finished (empty), are put to storeagain.We have a significant flow from the storage area to picking station, it’s proportional to the numberof order lines.Classification framework:

1. Large size Unit Loads: picking from AWH (Perfetti Vander Mel)+picking (and sorting) bays. S/R machines pick afull pallet load, then AVG/conveyors/shuttle/ (forklifttrucks) bring them to the picking stations and finally

pickers retrieve the cartons and the pallet is stored again. We eliminated the travel time, but now we have to reduce the time to feed the picking station. In addition, there are 40 locations outside the AWH, that are dedicated to class A items, whose flows represent the main part. You work with the feeding system and not with the AWH.

2. Small size Unit Loads: (cost: about 50-100000€)

- Miniload AS/RS (automated storage and retrieval system): it's possible to calculate the cycle time of the picking with the same method of the storage. It is used for small-sized UL, maximum dimensions are 0.6 m x 0.4 m and height of 0.4/0.5 m, and you can store item inside the tote box, or you store the carton, the constraint of weight is 50 kg. This solution is expensive, racks + machines + I/O is about 500.000€. we have very high utilization rate, so the use of space is good, and it's useful when you manage a lot of items. At least we have one item in a tote, and 3-4 totes per item.

Relationship

between storage area and picking station.

Manual end of aisle picking station.

In this case we don’t have the movement of pickers from the different aisles, when they pick the item, they put it on a conveyor that goes to the shipping area. The replenishment could be expensive, because you receive a pallet from the supplier or from the storage area and you have to fill all the totes.

Design variables:

• The length of the aisle: the longer the aisle, the longer the cycle time, but you can reduce the number of aisles and so the investment cost.
• Size of the picking station, the aim is to minimize the space occupied of the station.
• Choice of the picking policy:

• batch picking policy, you have n locations and each tote represents a customer order, we are reducing the number or movements, because the same item is requested by different customers. We reduce the number of movements for the retrieval of totes.

You have to consider the buffer part, in which pieces wait to be

The storage system. But selectivity is low.- Robotic compact storage and retrieval system (=autostore?)In this case totes are placed one on the top of the other forminga block stacking, a column of totes, on the top there is a grid witha fleet of vehicles that can only move horizontally, with a specialequipment to pick-up and lower-down the tote. (autostoreswisslog)We are eliminating the aisle, we have compact system withreduction of space and increasing the picking density, in addition,it’s scalable, by adding new vehicle. The drawback is the lowselectivity, it works well for spare parts.

KIVA robots: they move the right rack from the storage area tothe picking area. Here there is the operator who pick the right product form the rack and then therack move back to the storage system. So, the pieces are singularized.Design/management issues:

• Capacity of the handling system
• Use of batching policy (connected to the right sizing of the capacity of the handling

1. Ergonomics of the picking stations
2. Example of sizing the capacity of handling system in pa-to-pi

Let's assume that the batching policy is 5 orders:

The batch order line consists of 20 cases on average.

So now 10000 p/d 2000 p/d and 9000 p/d 1000 p/d. non ho capito

Picker-to-parts Part-to-picker (miniload)

INVESTMENT COSTS: Low high

PRODUCTIVITY: Low, high incidence of travel high(PICKING) time

SPACE COST: Medium, dep on the type of Low, high vertical development solution (mezzanine)

FLEXIBILITY: high

ACCURACY: Low-medium

High, sensor that checks picking AUTOMATION in order to improve a part of the manual systems:

We always use the terminal and people have to scan barcode and read the mission

1. Radio Frequency Communication between the Warehouse Management System and the pickers: Mobile devices aboard the picker trucks or hand-held mobile devices (terminals, headphones, finger-wearable...).
2. Voice speaking: we use headphones instead

ofterminals→ transmission of information take place between WMS and pickers by means ofvoice. We can have more than 100 languages for this type of technology.

Benefits:

• Pickers work hand free→ increase of productivity
• We eliminate the bar-code scanning and we can perform some activities in parallel insteadof having activities in sequence➔ Increase of productivity by 10%. Used by esselunga. Typical in gross industry (retailer).

2. Google glasses: pickers instead of listening a message read instructions using glasses.

3. Display and lights on the picking locations: ‘pick lo light’→ we use lights to communicatethe items to be picked.‘put to light’→light display is placed on a location that represents the customers’ order. Weare at the end of the picking activities and we are performing batch picking: pickers scan thebar code of the unit loads and all the light displays of the customers’ order that require thosespecific items are illuminated.

We put the goods inside the tote.

4. Scale during the fulfilment process to check the number of items (on the picker truck, on the picking station) → at the end the conveyor in the pick to box system, we can introduce tote to check the accuracy of picking checking weight. It can be used in ‘parts to picker’.

5. Automatic identification of the items

• Bar Code Scanning
• Radio Frequency Identification (forthcoming). RFid: last type of technology that we can use to automate transmission of information. Instead of scanning the bar code we read the RFid code.

• RFI tag that we put on the object (carton, pallet…) that we want to identity
• Read antenna to read the tags automatically. Pallets pass through a place where there is the antenna that automatically reads all the tags of pieces put in the unit loads.

Benefits: We eliminate bar code scanning and we increase the accuracy in traceability of goods

AUTOMATED PICKING SYSTEMS: all automated tasks are performed by

machines.

Two types of technology: dispenser and robots(palletizers).

- Automatic Dispensers:

A-Frame: consists of a set of vertical channels where inside each channel you can manage only one item. The same item can be managed in more channels. At the basis of this system we have a conveyor placed in the middle of the system: during the picking activity, the pieces are pushed on this conveyor and at the end of the conveyor the pieces fall inside totes, where each tote represents the customer's order.

Difficulty: synchronise the flow of pieces and the flow of totes.

Two type of configuration: 'A shaped' or 'V shaped' but in both cases the conveyor is in the middle of the