DC Velocity - March 2019

28 DC VELOCITY MARCH 2019 www.dcvelocity.com newsworthy

Sick AG sees “indoor localization” as key to DC efficiency

German sensor manufacturer Sick AG makes camera tunnels that can read bar codes on parcels riding the high-speed conveyors used in many UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp. facilities, but the company foresees a future with much wider tracking applications that will enable the tracing of assets throughout the DC.

By using an array of sensors attached to mobile assets in and around the warehouse, Sick could provide “indoor localization” services that enable users to track pallets, lift trucks, yard trucks, and other moving assets, the company said during a recent press tour of its offices in Waldkirch, Germany.

Sick would accomplish that by using laser-based lidar range-finding scanners and ultra-wideband (UWB) data communication technology to generate geopositioning data on objects that move far beyond the controlled environment of the conveyor belt, said Bernd von Rosenberger, Sick’s vice president of global industry center logistics automation.

Collecting that information could provide benefits far beyond just locating those items, enabling businesses to analyze the data and improve the flow of goods throughout the building, Rosenberger said. “The objective is to get more efficiency, not just to get more transparency,” by identifying places like a certain station where vehicles have a long docking time or finding ways to reduce their retention time, he said.

Sick sees indoor localization as one step in its plan to enable a suite of Industry 4.0 services, which refers to the production (and distribution) of single, personalized items as opposed to bulk handling and mass manufacturing.

The trend can be seen in the progression from single-unit production to assembly line flow and finally to flexible production of single items, according to Bernhard Muller, Sick’s senior vice president for Industry 4.0. “The goal is to have a lot size of one, at the speed and cost of mass production,” Muller said.

—Ben Ames

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