Jinchi Technology specializes in the production of AGV car lithium batteries with stable quality! Detailed introductionWhat kind of robots does the second largest supermarket chain in the UK use in its warehouses?

   Asda is the second largest The supermarket chain (17.9% market share), part of Walmart, offers more than 35,000 products in 550 stores across the UK, including general merchandise, clothing, homewares and electronics. The AutoStore system was installed in two phases at its 92,900 square meter warehouse in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, UK. This is the largest AutoStore project to date, including 70,000 storage bins and 160 robots connected to 8 inbound and outbound container changers. station and 12 goods-to-person picking stations.

AutoStore light-load storage and picking system is Swisslog is promoting and selling a product globally based on market demand. It is an automated storage and retrieval, goods-to-person picking solution that can significantly improve labor efficiency, order accuracy and space utilization. It has outstanding performance in terms of flow rate, flexible expansion, energy saving and environmental protection.

The most important concept of AutoStore is that the more frequent the orders for a certain product, the more likely it is to be sold. So in theory, if 80% of order line operations are related to 20% of the items, then 80% of the time, the material is taken from the top 2-3 layers. If 10% of the items make up 90% of the order lines, then 90% of the order lines require boxes from the top 1-2 layers of each stack. And so on. In fact, case studies show that , 90%-95% of the bins that need to be picked come from the top 2-3 layers. In other words, bins with a long-term low turnover rate will quickly fall to the bottom of each stack, while bins with a high turnover rate will gradually Located on the top of each stack. It is this simple design that makes AutoStore fun and powerful! You save time moving goods because the system continuously optimizes itself.

A group of robots walk horizontally on the aluminum track on the top of the vertical storage grid to store and retrieve the material boxes. Each robot has 8 wheels, 4 of which move along the X-axis and the other 4 move along the Y-axis. The robot is not large and matches the size of the storage box. Each robot is equipped with a telescopic lifting device that can lift the box Lift vertically from each stack to the top of the cargo grid. The robot's lifting device has four steel cables that can extend downward to "grab" the top box in the stack.

How are the boxes in the storage area automatically taken out and sent to the picking station? To achieve this, a robot receives an instruction and automatically moves to a stack of bins and takes out the required bins. The robot takes only one bin from the stack at a time. The robot must continue to work until it takes out the required box. So in the extreme case, the robot must take away 15 boxes to get the 16th box at the bottom of the cargo grid. In this case, in order to improve the working efficiency, Multiple robots work together to store the 15 boxes that have been taken out. The required boxes are lifted by the robot lifting rope to the track on the top of the storage grid. The robot moves the boxes horizontally to the " The container is then lowered by the lifting rope to the designated picking station, where the operator picks the required goods. After confirming that the picking is complete, an idle robot lifts the box to the top of the storage area and places it on an empty shelf. The box returns to the storage grid, but it does not return to the original shelf. , but is placed on the top layer of an empty bin stack. This process is repeated every time the picking station needs to take out the goods.

When the goods are needed again, the box is at the top of the box stack. That is, no matter which layer of the storage grid the box was originally located on, it can only be moved to the top of the stack. The robot can only leave the warehouse after reaching the top layer of the cargo grid, and the picked boxes always return to the top layer of the box stack first. This design concept ensures that the robot only needs to take out the box on the top layer of the box stack in rare cases. The bottom bin.

In summary, AutoStore has the following features:

(1) Modular design makes the system flexible and easy to expand

(2) Stable operation without downtime

(3) Improve order picking efficiency

(4) High-density storage, saving space

(5) Improve order accuracy, order fulfillment rate and order turnover speed

(6) Improve inventory accuracy and safety

(7) Improve the working environment

(8) Reduce operator training time Factors affecting the efficiency of the AutoStore system

The warehouse control system (WCS) controls the movement and actions of all robots in the cargo grid. Each robot is equipped with a cargo grid sensor near the wheels at the bottom. When the robot walks on the cargo grid, the sensor detects its position and communicates with the warehouse control system through wireless control. The WCS knows the real-time position of each robot. Before the robot is asked to go to the picking station, the system will issue task instructions to the robot in advance. To shorten the waiting time of the operator, the material box should be delivered to the order picker as soon as possible so that they can complete the work calmly and accurately. During peak hours, to improve picking efficiency, you only need to quickly and conveniently increase the picking station and robot.

Usually, order pickers pick multiple orders at the same time. They pick the required items/quantity from the material box and put them into the correct order material box with the help of the electronic label system to ensure accuracy. A material box can store multiple items and supply goods for different orders, which is very suitable for slow-moving goods. If the order picker needs to complete other tasks at the workstation (such as value-added services or packaging work), the picking speed will decrease, and the speed of conveying the material box to the workstation will also decrease. If the order picker is required to focus on completing the order picking quantity (without scanning the barcode for confirmation), a box can be delivered to the workstation at the fastest every 3 seconds. This is exactly 1,200 boxes delivered to the station every hour. Assuming that the items in each box can only satisfy one order line, the picking rate can reach 1,200 order lines per hour, which is more than most people can complete with their hands. In fact, this order line fulfillment efficiency is only a conservative estimate, because it is very likely that the goods picked from a box can satisfy multiple order lines.

It is worth noting that the use of AutoStore should also consider the need for certain manual work when receiving goods. In traditional warehouses, a receiving order containing many slow-moving items is received, and the goods are directly put into storage or stored in the picking location after sorting. The receiving staff only needs to open the incoming carton when the carton contains multiple items or the process regulations require inspection. In the AutoStore system, each item stored needs to be managed piece by piece. After each incoming carton is opened, the single piece of goods is placed in a standard container. Therefore, the labor cost of receiving goods needs to be considered when doing a return on investment (ROI) analysis.

The conventional warehousing method is to transport a batch of boxes to the AutoStore system using a pallet or conveyor. The boxes then enter the storage module through one or more receiving stations, and the robot performs the warehousing operation. Because it saves transportation time and the time of manually putting slow-moving inventory into the shelf, it saves a lot of time.

The AutoStore solution is suitable for distribution centers with a large number of split-and-picked items, a large number of single-piece or small-package picking, small orders, and long time to complete customer orders. It can reflect all the key points that an automated logistics system needs to reflect - efficiency, accuracy, flexibility, scalability, ease of use, good working environment, etc. Because in distribution centers with a large number of split-and-picked items, especially those with more than 10,000 split-and-picked items, a large warehouse space is required for inventory and picking. This type of distribution center is most suitable for using AutoStore technology, such as large retailers with many stores, office supply distributors, drug retailers, as well as pet supplies, sporting goods and other small commodities with a variety of varieties.

At the same time, for those distribution centers that require high flexibility, scalability and high requirements, AutoStore can be quickly and easily expanded to support rapid business growth and peak season fluctuations by adding shelves, robots and workstations. AutoStore can also be easily dismantled and reinstalled in another building, avoiding business interruptions caused by relocating major storage and conveying equipment. This is very attractive for e-commerce companies that are currently facing more and more unpredictable growth rates.

In addition, AutoStore is also suitable for any industry that needs to delicately and safely handle large quantities of medium and high-value goods, such as jewelry, high-cost clothing and accessories, pharmaceutical industry, medical equipment, computer and communication equipment, and even document storage industry.

Of course, AutoStore is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and it is not suitable for large-scale full-case or full-pallet delivery.