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40 DC VELOCITY AUGUST 2016 www.dcvelocity.com
robots are able to pick directly from cer-
tain suppliers’ cartons after the carton’s
top has been cut off. (A second miniload
system handles cases that will ship as full
cases, but design flexibility also allows
these cases to feed the robotic picking
stations as needed.)
To fill orders, the totes and cartons are
removed from the second miniload and
taken to automated stations, where 16
robots perform picking and sorting at the
same time. Each robot is equipped with
three cameras that “see” the products as
they lie in their source tote or carton.
Software then determines the best way
for the robot to reach into the container
to gather one product at a time using an
end effector with air suction and eight
“fingers.” The 16 robots are collectively capable of picking 10,000 individual
items per hour.
As the containers move beneath them,
the robots pick the
required number of
items. The robot then
places the picked items
onto one of three
subconveyor belts
that flow past it. The
items are merged and
directed to a particular customer order on
two main conveyors.
Items are then sorted
onto four conveyor
belts. Those four lines
feed staged order totes
positioned at the end
points of the belts,
where the items slide
down a flexible plastic sheet and gently
drop inside. The software coordinates the
picking sequence so that heavier items
are deposited into the order totes first
and lighter products are added on top.
The tote is then weighed to verify that the
weight of the accumulated items matches
the expected total weight.
Morikubo says the design for both
picking and sorting with the robots was
“very impressive,” but notes that there
were some concerns. “We knew it would
be a challenge, as it was the first time that
Daifuku had integrated robotic picking of
this sort into a system,” he says.
That challenge clearly has been overcome. Originally, Daifuku designed
the robotic systems to handle about 50
percent of the facility’s total throughput. However, Toho Pharmaceutical
improved its operations and systems, and
now 64. 5 percent of its output volume
passes through these stations. Morikubo
says this 14. 5 percent improvement in
productivity has saved even more labor
than initially planned.
GETTING ORDERS READY TO SHIP
While the automated system is able to
handle the majority of the DC’s stor-
age and picking activities, some items
either cannot pass through the automated
equipment due to size or fragility or are
picked too infrequently to justify their
occupying such valuable space. These
products are placed into static shelving
that can hold 24,000
SKUs for manual
picking. They include
many of the original
suppliers’ cartons con-
taining multiple SKUs.
The manual pick-
ing stations are locat-
ed on the building’s
third floor. Radio-
frequency units direct
workers here to batch-
pick items for several
orders at a time into
totes. The associate
then takes the batch
tote to one of 20 sort
stations, where 10
order totes are staged to receive the prod-
ucts. The picker removes the first item
from the tote and scans it. This causes a
door above a staged tote to swing open
to indicate that this is the tote where
the item should be placed. The process
continues in the same manner, with the
worker scanning items and doors open-
ing above the proper order tote until all
items in the batch tote are sorted.
Finished order totes from this manual
area are conveyed to a holding buffer,
where they marry up with totes from
the automated picking areas. Once gath-
