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Day: 21 August 2019

Teletruks Contribute to Power Generation

Posted on by David Priestman

Two JCB Teletruk 35D 4×4 telescopic industrial forklifts are providing an essential material handling solution at the UK’s largest infrastructure project. Operated by Bylor, a joint venture between French construction company Bouygues Travaux Publics and the UK construction giant Laing O’Rourke, the machines are part of a massive 2,000-strong fleet of equipment working on the Hinkley Point C construction project in Somerset.

Hinkley Point C (HPC) is the first new nuclear power station to be built in the UK for more than 20 years. When the first reactor is commissioned in 2025, the £19.6bn facility will provide secure, low-carbon electricity for 6m homes. As part of a drive towards cleaner energy, the electricity generated by HPC’s two nuclear reactors will offset almost 600m tonnes of carbon emissions, during its 60-year lifespan.

Bylor’s civil engineering contract calls for the construction of up to 60 major structures on the 40ha site. The project will require a diverse range of machines, including 50 tower cranes and 20 giant crawler cranes. This includes one of the world’s largest cranes, a Sarens SGC-250, capable of lifting up to 5,000 tonnes. While the JCB Teletruks boast a fraction of that lift capacity, they are equally vital to the everyday running of the project. The forklifts are used within the reinforcing steel preparation and fabrication section of the project, where more than 230,000 tonnes of rebar will be received, cut, formed into structures and delivered to various areas of the site over the 10-year project. Further duties include the handling of timber, concrete blocks and site waste using an array of attachments including forks, buckets and a sweeper.

Bylor’s general plant manager John McCoppin said: “I have used JCB Teletruks for over ten years – on projects in Asia and now here – and they are a fantastic piece of kit. They have always performed well, have superb power to weight ratio and the forwards reach is an added advantage over traditional counterbalance forklifts.” The Teletruks were supplied by local dealer Holt JCB, as part of a growing fleet of JCB equipment that is working on the contract. This includes a 457 wheeled loader for batching plant work, a 1CX-T tracked compact backhoe loader for confined access, two 714 articulated dump trucks to haul spoil and a number of swivel-tip JCB site dumpers.

Teletruks Contribute to Power Generation

Posted on by David Priestman

Two JCB Teletruk 35D 4×4 telescopic industrial forklifts are providing an essential material handling solution at the UK’s largest infrastructure project. Operated by Bylor, a joint venture between French construction company Bouygues Travaux Publics and the UK construction giant Laing O’Rourke, the machines are part of a massive 2,000-strong fleet of equipment working on the Hinkley Point C construction project in Somerset.

Hinkley Point C (HPC) is the first new nuclear power station to be built in the UK for more than 20 years. When the first reactor is commissioned in 2025, the £19.6bn facility will provide secure, low-carbon electricity for 6m homes. As part of a drive towards cleaner energy, the electricity generated by HPC’s two nuclear reactors will offset almost 600m tonnes of carbon emissions, during its 60-year lifespan.

Bylor’s civil engineering contract calls for the construction of up to 60 major structures on the 40ha site. The project will require a diverse range of machines, including 50 tower cranes and 20 giant crawler cranes. This includes one of the world’s largest cranes, a Sarens SGC-250, capable of lifting up to 5,000 tonnes. While the JCB Teletruks boast a fraction of that lift capacity, they are equally vital to the everyday running of the project. The forklifts are used within the reinforcing steel preparation and fabrication section of the project, where more than 230,000 tonnes of rebar will be received, cut, formed into structures and delivered to various areas of the site over the 10-year project. Further duties include the handling of timber, concrete blocks and site waste using an array of attachments including forks, buckets and a sweeper.

Bylor’s general plant manager John McCoppin said: “I have used JCB Teletruks for over ten years – on projects in Asia and now here – and they are a fantastic piece of kit. They have always performed well, have superb power to weight ratio and the forwards reach is an added advantage over traditional counterbalance forklifts.” The Teletruks were supplied by local dealer Holt JCB, as part of a growing fleet of JCB equipment that is working on the contract. This includes a 457 wheeled loader for batching plant work, a 1CX-T tracked compact backhoe loader for confined access, two 714 articulated dump trucks to haul spoil and a number of swivel-tip JCB site dumpers.

Can WMS help Future Proof your Business?

Posted on by David Priestman

As organisations embrace 24×7 warehousing in response to customer led demands for unprecedented levels of immediacy and visibility, intralogistics operations are increasingly taking centre stage. In a bid to drive productivity, increase efficiency, improve accuracy and reduce costs, automation is now a key consideration for many businesses. Steve Richmond, Director – Logistics Systems, at Jungheinrich UK (pictured), looks at the role of the Warehouse Management System (WMS) in today’s supply chain and why it has to be able to adapt to the evolving needs of a business.

For those planning to implement automation, semi-automation, or indeed optimise their manual processes, one of the most important products to have in place is a robust WMS. Why? Because businesses need to be able to manage existing core logistics processes, along with future proofing business software platforms so that as the company expands, it can respond to change and add automation such as Automated Guided Vehicles, other types of automation or more complex customer-driven picking strategies.

Additionally, recent innovations within the warehouse have seen an increased demand for voice technology and wearable devices. To ensure that businesses are able to introduce the latest technology they must be able to expand the capabilities of their legacy WMS. The initial design and specification of the WMS will determine how flexible a facility will be going forward. For example, if you currently operate a manual warehouse and employ conventional order picking technology, could your WMS adapt if you were suddenly faced with an upsurge of online orders, which brought about a dramatic shift in your typical order profile, such as during peak sales periods?

Order processing profiles and picking requirements may change significantly. For example, a facility may suddenly be required to shift from a bulk or unit load-based operation by a customer-driven need to fulfil single item picks at a much higher frequency. But what if the WMS couldn’t accommodate this change? Within a temperature controlled facility the job of the WMS is, arguably, even more crucial. If, for instance, personnel time within the storage unit is restricted because of the temperature, it is doubly important to make sure workers are as productive as possible. And, with many temperature controlled sites using multi-depth storage systems, it is essential to choose a WMS that has the functionality to recognise and support such methods.

5 Key Points to Consider:

* Recognise where the system’s boundaries are – and ensure that they are flexible enough to move with your demands. If you do not have flexibility in your WMS, your ability to adapt your business model is very limited and your chances of moving with the changing demands of your business will be greatly diminished.
* Select robust software that has an established track record – rather than a system that has been developed uniquely for your use.
* Try to choose a suite that is feature rich – you may not need many of the built-in functions now but it is reassuring to know that they are there and can be switched on in the future should you require them.
* Investigate fully Enterprise Resource Planning systems that boast extensive WMS functionality – in some cases, the WMS can be limited.
* Ensure that your WMS allows for semi- or fully-automated materials handling systems to be introduced in the future.

More and more businesses are optimising their processes and looking at more flexible solutions so that they can remain competitive. What Jungheinrich is seeing is pre-existing WMS systems working hard to ensure that the functions they provide are scalable and able to work with the latest technology. Jungheinrich’s WMS is designed in such a way that it is highly configurable to the needs of each user. In its standard form, the WMS supports an extensive variety of functions as well as centralised master data management. It controls and optimises a range of processes such as incoming and outgoing goods management and order picking.

The software supports the complete transparency of all processes through its extensive reporting features and analysis options. It can be linked to numerous system environments using standard interfaces and can be redesigned to fit with existing systems. The system also offers a series of special functions and extensions for complex logistics processes or automated warehouse facilities. For instance, route management, hazardous substance storage, multi-client capability and material flow modules can be simply added as required.

 

 

Can WMS help Future Proof your Business?

Posted on by David Priestman

As organisations embrace 24×7 warehousing in response to customer led demands for unprecedented levels of immediacy and visibility, intralogistics operations are increasingly taking centre stage. In a bid to drive productivity, increase efficiency, improve accuracy and reduce costs, automation is now a key consideration for many businesses. Steve Richmond, Director – Logistics Systems, at Jungheinrich UK (pictured), looks at the role of the Warehouse Management System (WMS) in today’s supply chain and why it has to be able to adapt to the evolving needs of a business.

For those planning to implement automation, semi-automation, or indeed optimise their manual processes, one of the most important products to have in place is a robust WMS. Why? Because businesses need to be able to manage existing core logistics processes, along with future proofing business software platforms so that as the company expands, it can respond to change and add automation such as Automated Guided Vehicles, other types of automation or more complex customer-driven picking strategies.

Additionally, recent innovations within the warehouse have seen an increased demand for voice technology and wearable devices. To ensure that businesses are able to introduce the latest technology they must be able to expand the capabilities of their legacy WMS. The initial design and specification of the WMS will determine how flexible a facility will be going forward. For example, if you currently operate a manual warehouse and employ conventional order picking technology, could your WMS adapt if you were suddenly faced with an upsurge of online orders, which brought about a dramatic shift in your typical order profile, such as during peak sales periods?

Order processing profiles and picking requirements may change significantly. For example, a facility may suddenly be required to shift from a bulk or unit load-based operation by a customer-driven need to fulfil single item picks at a much higher frequency. But what if the WMS couldn’t accommodate this change? Within a temperature controlled facility the job of the WMS is, arguably, even more crucial. If, for instance, personnel time within the storage unit is restricted because of the temperature, it is doubly important to make sure workers are as productive as possible. And, with many temperature controlled sites using multi-depth storage systems, it is essential to choose a WMS that has the functionality to recognise and support such methods.

5 Key Points to Consider:

* Recognise where the system’s boundaries are – and ensure that they are flexible enough to move with your demands. If you do not have flexibility in your WMS, your ability to adapt your business model is very limited and your chances of moving with the changing demands of your business will be greatly diminished.
* Select robust software that has an established track record – rather than a system that has been developed uniquely for your use.
* Try to choose a suite that is feature rich – you may not need many of the built-in functions now but it is reassuring to know that they are there and can be switched on in the future should you require them.
* Investigate fully Enterprise Resource Planning systems that boast extensive WMS functionality – in some cases, the WMS can be limited.
* Ensure that your WMS allows for semi- or fully-automated materials handling systems to be introduced in the future.

More and more businesses are optimising their processes and looking at more flexible solutions so that they can remain competitive. What Jungheinrich is seeing is pre-existing WMS systems working hard to ensure that the functions they provide are scalable and able to work with the latest technology. Jungheinrich’s WMS is designed in such a way that it is highly configurable to the needs of each user. In its standard form, the WMS supports an extensive variety of functions as well as centralised master data management. It controls and optimises a range of processes such as incoming and outgoing goods management and order picking.

The software supports the complete transparency of all processes through its extensive reporting features and analysis options. It can be linked to numerous system environments using standard interfaces and can be redesigned to fit with existing systems. The system also offers a series of special functions and extensions for complex logistics processes or automated warehouse facilities. For instance, route management, hazardous substance storage, multi-client capability and material flow modules can be simply added as required.

 

 

Who Defines the Robot?

Posted on by David Priestman

Martin Stich, CEO of Witron Logistik + Informatik GmbH blogs:

We have been experiencing a robotics hype in intralogistics for several years – at least according to the many magazines and trade show appearances of some companies. At every trade show, companies present classic six-axis multi-link robots that are supposed to make their way from the manufacturing to the logistics sector. Small parts picking is the plan.

Please do not misunderstand, I am a friend of automation and robotics – and every bit of ergonomics improvement supports people in the supply chain – but I ask myself: how broad is the range of parts that can be covered with a classic robot? What should the all-rounder multi-link robot achieve in logistics and particularly in retail logistics and food retail – depalletizing, stacking, and picking? Economically and technologically, this is still difficult to achieve with the classic industrial robot.

From my point of view, it is decisive to find topics to discuss in this context. The focus is on questions such as should the robot grip the goods, use suction, or work with vacuum technology – or a combination of everything? I think this thought-process is missing the point because for users and operators it is all about the process as a whole – end-to-end – and not just about a single step in the entire chain.

The same applies to the topic of whether 50%, 60%, or 70% of the product range can be picked with a robot. The decisive factor is not the percentage itself – in this case it is to have two parallel material flows – and that complexities arise in terms of flows, inventory, synchronization and consolidation, family groups, etc. Even a simple referral to Cobots does not solve this issue – the whole business case has to make sense – the individual consideration of the specific pick process is just a partial aspect. Ultimately, it is crucial for our customers to implement cost-efficient solutions – with the necessary products, performance, availability, and service life.

We need specialists for processes in retail intra-logistics. Yes, Witron also builds robots. Our COM palletizing machine, for example, is one of these specialists. Developed for food retail logistics, completely integrated into the entire material flow through the logistics center, and interacting with semi-automated and manual sub-systems. When looking at the topic in this way, we have been working with robots since 2003, because a robot is a handling device that supports people and is controlled by a computer. This means that the COM from the OPM system also belongs to the robot category – even if the classic robotics suppliers won’t like to hear this.

For me, a robot is not just the classic six-axis multi-link robot”, explains Prof. Dr.-Ing. Birgit Vogel-Heuser from the Technical University of Munich at the ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Assocation) annual congress in Berlin. There are many robotic applications, for example in the packaging industry, says the scientist from the Chair of Automation and Information Systems. She talks about “specific robots” as a competitive advantage of German companies. That’s exactly what it’s all about: finding a solution for a problem. Unfortunately, this does not always work with standard components that are already on the market.

And against the hype: A robot alone – however it looks optically – does not make the user ‘happy’. I am firmly convinced that it takes more to replace a human being at a workstation with a machine – this is again missing the point. If it is going to be automated – then it should be done properly – only then it’s ground breaking and can count as rethinking and interpreting the whole process – technically, economically, and ecologically!

Who Defines the Robot?

Posted on by David Priestman

Martin Stich, CEO of Witron Logistik + Informatik GmbH blogs:

We have been experiencing a robotics hype in intralogistics for several years – at least according to the many magazines and trade show appearances of some companies. At every trade show, companies present classic six-axis multi-link robots that are supposed to make their way from the manufacturing to the logistics sector. Small parts picking is the plan.

Please do not misunderstand, I am a friend of automation and robotics – and every bit of ergonomics improvement supports people in the supply chain – but I ask myself: how broad is the range of parts that can be covered with a classic robot? What should the all-rounder multi-link robot achieve in logistics and particularly in retail logistics and food retail – depalletizing, stacking, and picking? Economically and technologically, this is still difficult to achieve with the classic industrial robot.

From my point of view, it is decisive to find topics to discuss in this context. The focus is on questions such as should the robot grip the goods, use suction, or work with vacuum technology – or a combination of everything? I think this thought-process is missing the point because for users and operators it is all about the process as a whole – end-to-end – and not just about a single step in the entire chain.

The same applies to the topic of whether 50%, 60%, or 70% of the product range can be picked with a robot. The decisive factor is not the percentage itself – in this case it is to have two parallel material flows – and that complexities arise in terms of flows, inventory, synchronization and consolidation, family groups, etc. Even a simple referral to Cobots does not solve this issue – the whole business case has to make sense – the individual consideration of the specific pick process is just a partial aspect. Ultimately, it is crucial for our customers to implement cost-efficient solutions – with the necessary products, performance, availability, and service life.

We need specialists for processes in retail intra-logistics. Yes, Witron also builds robots. Our COM palletizing machine, for example, is one of these specialists. Developed for food retail logistics, completely integrated into the entire material flow through the logistics center, and interacting with semi-automated and manual sub-systems. When looking at the topic in this way, we have been working with robots since 2003, because a robot is a handling device that supports people and is controlled by a computer. This means that the COM from the OPM system also belongs to the robot category – even if the classic robotics suppliers won’t like to hear this.

For me, a robot is not just the classic six-axis multi-link robot”, explains Prof. Dr.-Ing. Birgit Vogel-Heuser from the Technical University of Munich at the ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Assocation) annual congress in Berlin. There are many robotic applications, for example in the packaging industry, says the scientist from the Chair of Automation and Information Systems. She talks about “specific robots” as a competitive advantage of German companies. That’s exactly what it’s all about: finding a solution for a problem. Unfortunately, this does not always work with standard components that are already on the market.

And against the hype: A robot alone – however it looks optically – does not make the user ‘happy’. I am firmly convinced that it takes more to replace a human being at a workstation with a machine – this is again missing the point. If it is going to be automated – then it should be done properly – only then it’s ground breaking and can count as rethinking and interpreting the whole process – technically, economically, and ecologically!

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