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Tag: sortation

Robot vision and AI combine for advanced automation

Posted on by David Priestman

Robots are gradually becoming an integral part of modern processes in logistics and many other industries. Replacing humans with robots for specific tasks brings many benefits – from higher productivity and efficiency to decreased costs and minimised risk of injuries. Freeing employees from repetitive jobs for more valuable, high-impact tasks that require creativity and critical thinking increases their motivation and eagerness, which, in turn, eliminates the risk of human errors.

Automation is certainly the way to go for any forward-looking business – but how to choose from the immense amount of solutions that are available on the market? What makes a solution better or more advanced than others?

For a robot to be able to perform tasks that were done manually before – and to do it as reliably as humans and even better – robots need to “see” and “understand”. That’s the essence of the most advanced high-tech smart solutions that enable businesses to push their processes to the next level of innovation and modernity.

Automation solutions that boost logistical processes

One of the leading companies in the sector of vision-guided, intelligent robotics for industrial applications is Photoneo. The company combines its in-house developed 3D machine vision systems with advanced AI algorithms to provide smart automation solutions for logistics, e-commerce, and other sectors. Photoneo’s automation systems help logistical companies process large volumes of parcels, boxes, and other items by deploying robots equipped with high-end 3D vision and intelligence.

These systems include the Universal Depalletizer for automated unloading of pallets laden with mixed types of boxes and the Singulation and Sorting System for robotic processing of large, unstructured loads of parcels and envelopes.

The basic principle of both systems is that they first scan an entire pile of items, recognize the individual objects in the pile, localise them and decide which one to pick, and then send a command to the robot to perform the picking action. The robot is equipped with a vacuum gripper with a suction cup and can achieve a picking accuracy of ±3mm.

The cycle time is only limited by the speed of the robot. The Universal Depalletizer can generally unload 1,600 boxes in one hour and the Singulation and Sorting System can process 2,500 parcels per hour.

Robotic vision – seeing in 3D

Photoneo equips robots with its industrial-grade PhoXi 3D Scanners, which provide a point cloud resolution of up to 3 million 3D points and an accuracy of 25-500μm across its five models. Each model is suitable for a different scanning range – from 15cm up to 4m.

The scanners provide superior performance even in demanding light conditions, such as brightly lit halls, thanks to the ambient light suppression technology. Their powering versatility allows users to use a single cable to get both electric power and data connection – the Power over Ethernet. Alternatively, the devices can be powered by 24V. Thanks to the IP65 protection rating, PhoXi 3D Scanners are dust-tight and protected against low-pressure jets of water coming from any direction and at any angle.

Besides PhoXi 3D Scanners, which enable robots to “see” 3D scenes that are static, Photoneo also developed a revolutionary technology that enables a high-quality 3D reconstruction of moving objects. The industrial 3D camera named MotionCam-3D enables a snapshot area capture of scenes moving up to 140km/h with a resolution of up to 0,9Mpx (and 2Mpx in the static mode). It’s five models, ranging from S, S+, M, M+ to L, enable the recognition of small packages as well as large boxes coming on a conveyor belt, for instance.

Robotic intelligence and the most advanced approach to object localisation

After a scan is made, it is transferred to a 3D texture dataset to be processed by Photoneo’s AI algorithms. For object segmentation and localisation on the basis of texture and 3D data, the systems use the most advanced approach to object classification and pattern recognition – a convolutional neural network (CNN). Because the network was trained on a large dataset of objects and thanks to its ability to generalise, it can quickly recognise even objects that it has never “seen” before.

Therefore, the parcels and boxes may come in any shape, size, material, colour, texture, position, or orientation. The objects may be irregularly shaped, deformed, placed randomly, and even tilted at an angle. The systems also master challenging surfaces such as black, glossy, or covered with various pictures, patterns, shipping labels, or protruding tapes. The depalletisation solution is even able to easily differentiate gaps between the individual boxes and those between their flaps.

Photoneo systems for automated depalletisation and singulation and sorting of parcels are universal, which enables them to work with any type of boxes or parcels out of the box, without requiring any further training. Another big plus is that the systems are compatible with a wide range of robot models.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RbGpQWp-O4

 

Vision-based inspection system prevents stock losses

Posted on by David Priestman

A vision-based inspection system designed by AMH Material Handling and developed and installed by Bytronic has brought significant benefits to a major international garment retailer garment conveyor.

AMH Material Handling specialises in the design, installation and integration of automated conveyor and sortation systems for some of the UK’s largest retailers. Since its formation in 2015, the company has quickly become the ‘go-to’ provider for profitable ecommerce and warehouse automation solutions.

It has particular expertise in garment on hanger (GOH) conveyor lines, and it was in connection with this that its engineering team approached Bytronic. AMH wanted to develop a partnership that would help create a new and specialist solution for a major off-price fashion retailer.

The challenge was to create an automated ‘vision-based’ inspection system for the fashion retailer’s GOH conveyors. These conveyors transport up to 140 hanging garments per minute and to work effectively, the solution would have to capture data and process it within milliseconds.

The GOH conveyors developed by AMH Material Handling process millions of garments every year. Overhead GOH conveyors can be designed to transport either single units for sortation or ratio packs and batches for transportation and storage.

Transporting hanging garment ratio packs or batches using GOH conveyors requires separation into single units for accurate sortation. The high-speed separation process can often result in the accidental doubling up of hangers which can often be missed by older item detection technologies.

Over time, the doubling up of hangers can result in stock management issues as the stock information for dispatched items will be incorrect when compared against the stock received at the final destination. For major retailers, this can be a huge problem. To address it, full-time operators were placed on the lines to spot double hanger issues – a costly and labour-intensive fix.

When AMH began developing its bespoke automated solution in 2015, it contacted the manufacturer Cognex and its partner network to supply the machine vision expertise. As one of Cognex’s only UK Platinum Partners, Bytronic was recommended to develop and install the vision solution.

The result is AMH’s vision detection system which identifies double hangers as they pass along the automated single unit sortation line. This solution prevents stock losses without the need for manual checks.

The system combines AMH’s mechanical and electrical installation supported by programmable logic controllers (PLC), Cognex’s cameras and Bytronic’s lighting and vision software programming. The line is able to count each carrier, identify its unique number, track its location, check it is secure and not broken, and identify any double hangers, accepting or rejecting the carrier accordingly.

Bytronic installed and programmed the camera software to capture an image of each carrier when triggered by the line. The camera is detecting several key features including the condition of the carrier and its individual parts to ensure they are maintained and serviced when required to prolong the lifespan of the system.

The image is captured, data processed and an ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ message is sent back to the control system, all within milliseconds. If a doubled hanger or damaged carrier is detected, the ‘reject’ message activates a reject divert, sending the items to a separate defect lane for further inspection.

Managed by AMH, the project was delivered in partnership, with the data captured by Bytronic’s camera and the lighting system being processed by the PLC controls and software solution provided by AMH. The inspection system was calibrated and tested offline before installation, as all factory acceptance testing (FAT) could be done off-site.

Once operational, the savings were immediate. The upgrade has delivered a return on investment in under a year, through significantly reducing operator costs. This meant the ‘inspection’ operators, who were previously on shift 24/6, could now be deployed elsewhere. In addition, the new overhead system has supported a reduction in stock losses by improving both the stock accuracy and inventory being distributed to stores nationwide.

Whilst the project’s primary focus was to detect double hangers, it has delivered a further benefit in identifying possible maintenance issues. The solution now identifies and stores statistics on carrier damage – ready for maintenance engineers to fix and update the system. By removing doubled or damaged hangers from service, it also reduces the risk of tangled hangers and unnecessary downtime due to reoccurring damage.

Barry Pemberton, Solutions Director, AMH Material Handling, said: “We approached Bytronic to help deliver this AMH Material Handling-led solution with us for one of our largest customers. We worked closely together to identify what data the system needed to generate, and how we needed it presenting. From our conversations with Cognex we realised the success of this project would be in the installation of the lighting and vision software, and that’s why we chose Bytronic.”

Fives’ AMRs for small parcel sortation

Posted on by David Priestman

GENI-Ant, Fives’ AMR-based smart parcel sorter, has been further improved to increase sortation flexibility and efficiency.

Fives developed its ultimate parcel sorter based on AMR, named GENI-Ant, to help CEP operators solve how to sort non-compatible or irregularly shaped parcels automatically.

In 2019, the GENI-Ant was showcased at Parcel + Post EXPO in Amsterdam for the first time.

In 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic had a major impact on consumption patterns. The demand for home deliveries reached new record levels and the small parcel volumes increased up to unprecedented peaks.

As a result, distribution centres have been receiving more and more shipments consisting of irregularly sized or poorly packed items that are difficult to handle automatically, such as polybags, padded envelopes and other odd-shaped packages, most of them containing just one small item.

In this context, Fives’ teams worked hard to develop further the GENI-Ant design by integrating specific innovations and improvements

Most innovative sortation features

The GENI-Ant incorporates two independent sorting units, each of which can be equipped with different types of belt, depending on the product to be handled.

Beside the flat belt conveyor, Fives included a new belt model specially designed for unstable, fragile items and products with uneven surfaces: this innovative belt features edges and gauges that prevent objects from moving or rolling, offering total control on the item during transportation and sortation.

Different available heights have been added: the robot can be from 800 mm up to 1.3 m high to allow discharging into containers and chutes or onto horizontal conveyor belts, depending on the application.

The fleet runs throughout the operational area at different speeds on the straight and in curves, from 1.5 m/s up to 2.5 m/s.

Differently from the AGVs that are guided by cables, magnetic strips or sensors installed inside the warehouse, every GENI-Ant robots can move completely autonomously in a dynamic environment. Using Wi-Fi communication, the system software manages their navigation, defines where each of them should speed up or slow down and calculates the most efficient travel path, according to the position of the vehicle, the nearest loading area, and the assigned destination.

And above all, AMRs never stop, due to the automatic battery recharging system ensuring continuous operation, with no need to arrange a dedicated charging station.

The main benefits for the customers are:

  • Can be effectively used to reduce manual material handling
  • Can be installed in restricted space and adapted quickly to any change
  • Can be moved very easily, as it is not a permanent equipment
  • Can be used as a stand-alone system or added to an existing equipment
  • Can be re-configured simply by changing the layout, without stopping the sortation operations
  • Can be scaled up easily by adding vehicles or destinations, with no disruption
  • Can be combined with Fives’ automatic induction lines

Initial investment

The initial investment can be adapted according to the current layout and performance requirements and then increased at a later stage, also on a RaaS (Robot as a Service) basis.

“Our AMRs are built to be deployed quickly, thanks to standardised vehicles, proven software modules and seamless integration. The system occupies a very low footprint and is therefore the optimal solution for many applications in both large-sized hubs and small distribution centres, such as post terminals, express courier depots and 3PL warehouses,” concluded Fabio SACCHI, New Application Director at Fives Intralogistics SpA.

Boots transforms to omni-channel fulfillment

Posted on by David Priestman

Technology supplied by Witron has enabled High Street retail pharmacist chain Boots achieve high flexibility in response to changing purchasing behaviour, creating an omni-channel model at its Nottingham Store Service Centre (SSC).

Alan Penhale, Supply Chain Director at Boots, is responsible for the supply chain of more than 2,300 stores in the United Kingdom and The Republic of Ireland. Alan’s team also picks and packs orders for the health and beauty retailer’s online business.

After the start of the Coronavirus Pandemic in just three weeks, the Boots and Witron teams converted the processes in their main automated warehouse from store logistics to e-commerce logistics.

Thus, the SSC in Nottingham, UK not only has delivered proven high performance, but also its ability to be able to adapt to rapidly changing conditions. The SSC supplies millions of units a day for store delivery from a range of 37,000 different items, and now the SSC is also supporting the Boots online business.

Boots recorded 150+ percent more orders in its online business in the months of the pandemic with customers choosing to order online during lockdown.  Boots operates its own e-commerce logistics centre and the challenge was being able to adapt to these rapidly increasing order numbers. A solution was needed – not in a few years, but immediately.

Part of the solution was the Store Service Centre (SSC) in Nottingham, designed and realised by Witron. “Here we still had logistics capacities available. At the beginning of the pandemic, customers were still shopping in the stores, but during lockdown, e-commerce figures increased as store footfall declined.” Penhale and his team ship beauty products, cosmetics, perfumes, healthcare items, and even Coca Cola; more than 37,000 products.

“Boots needed a creative solution in spring of 2020,” reports Jack Kuypers, Vice President North-West Europe at Witron. Boots and Witron have been working together successfully for more than 10 years. The leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer is one of the largest retailers in the UK and together the teams have optimised processes for stores in the past. “We have never experienced anything like that – transforming a logistics centre originally designed exclusively for store delivery into an omni-channel logistics centre at record speed,” Kuypers admits.

Store or online customer?

The response: The SSC should become a store. In the past, many customers ordered their goods online but picked them up in the local store, and often picking still took place in the store. Click + collect was the solution in the pandemic. Boots has been using an order management system for several months that is set up above the warehouse management system. IT experts “simply” redefined the SSC to a store – admittedly a huge store with a lot of storage capacity.

“Whether employees pick goods manually in the store in London or with the Dynamic Picking System (DPS), the software doesn’t care,” Penhale laughs.

The heart of the system is and remains the DPS with its 252 workstations. The highly dynamic and automated picking of small parts in DPS is supported by a pick-by-light system. The DPS works according to both the goods-to-person and the person-to-goods principle. Depending on the order structure, the items are arranged in the pick front either permanently or on demand, such that the picking process is optimised at all time. The DPS supports different types of order picking: From tote into tote, from pallet into tote, from tote into the shipping carton, etc.

Regardless of the picking type, the picker is always guided by a pick-by-light system. Large-volume items from the Boots assortment in the SSC are picked by radio data supported and route-optimised by the semi-automated Car Picking System (CPS) onto roll containers. In total, Boots colleagues in Nottingham pick almost 3 million units on a peak day. “Our colleagues don’t even know whether they are picking for the e-commerce customer or for the store”, Penhale reports.

But the teams of Witron and Boots still had to make some physical changes in the SSC. The logistics specialists built a new shipping area for the e-commerce orders. “At the moment, this area is still supplied manually. But we want to establish automation here in the near future as well,” explains the supply chain director. And another idea is the concept of picking orders to be sent to the stores for them to pack for customer. “We currently don’t have a system solution for this, but we will work on it together. It is an option for the future.”

Within three weeks the store logistics centre transformed into an omni-channel warehouse. Did that surprise him? “No, we have been working very well with Witron for more than ten years, always coming up with new, creative processes. I am surprised that we managed to ship over 6,000 online orders per day. It is top-class what we have achieved together during the crisis.”

The pandemic isn’t over yet, but Penhale ventures a look into the future. “Yes, people are shopping in stores again, but e-commerce will continue to grow. Cost-efficient and flexible omni-channel processes as well as the supply of different distribution channels from one logistics centre will become a “must have”. It is essential to align all logistics processes in the supply chain “end-to-end” to a holistic omni-channel structure. We are working on this together with Witron.”

Podcast

For more information, listen to logistics podcast ‘Store fulfilment transformed into Omni-Channel fulfillment’.

https://ideenraum.witron.de/blog/store-fulfillment-transformed-into-omni-channel-fulfillment

Cotton On optimises operations with Vanderlande sortation solution

Posted on by David Priestman

The Cotton On Group, one of Australia’s largest global retailers, has once again selected Vanderlande’s flexible TRAYSORTER solution in order to optimise the processes within its distribution centre (DC) in Avalon Victoria.

The Group’s DC serves both Australian retail stores and online customers. The Cotton On Group acquired its first Vanderlande TRAYSORTER in 2018, and following the success of this project, has now begun live operations with its second TRAYSORTER in the same facility.

The Cotton On Group has eight brands, operates over 1,400 stores in 20 countries, and employs 20,000 team members across the world. In 2018, it issued a tender for a project that would help to enhance the overall performance at its Avalon Distribution Centre. In response, Vanderlande designed a system that was capable of handling any combination of order type and delivery requirements, as well as adapting seamlessly to the Cotton On Group’s strategic objectives.

The system makes use of a TRAYSORTER – a highly flexible flat sorter, also known as a ‘Bombay sorter’. It is suitable for handling a wide range of products, from apparel, accessories and small parcels, to shoe boxes and multimedia items.

The TRAYSORTER’s adaptability (supported by its interchangeable tray types) allows the Cotton On Group to meet its various sorting needs. In addition, its modular design means that it is fully scalable and can be adapted to individual requirements. The solution can also adjust easily to fit into an existing warehouse architecture.

General Manager, Cotton On Group Distribution, Andy Sanderson, explains that the first TRAYSORTER significantly improved efficiency and productivity in the distribution centre: “With the Vanderlande solution, we have been able to dramatically reduce the time between picking items through to delivery, as well as improve picking accuracy. The TRAYSORTER also supports a more efficient picking strategy, will help us to achieve sustainable growth, and most importantly, will allow us to continually deliver an excellent service to our customers.

“Given the success of the first project and the positive impact it has had on our DC, the next logical step for us was simple – to add another one! The second TRAYSORTER became operational three weeks ahead of the agreed schedule and we handled the 2020 peaks with ease. We now look on Vanderlande as being a reliable partner to The Cotton On Group.”

Vanderlande’s MD Warehousing Solutions ANZ, Roald de Groot, adds: “Vanderlande has a focus on solutions for specific industries, such as fashion. As a result, we have an in-depth understanding of the complexities involved in running a successful fashion warehousing business. Our scalable solution was the perfect match for the Cotton On Group’s omni-channel distribution approach. Vanderlande is proud to support one of Australia’s retail icons in further optimising its warehouse processes.”

Minebea Intec widens range of industrial scales

Posted on by Keith McKinley

With the introduction of the Puro series of industrial scales, Minebea Intec says its leading technologies are now available in an affordable range.

With an extensive range and a variety of applications, a large number of innovative industrial weighing solutions are now available as part of the Puro range. Minebea Intec says this means that customers benefit from a high-quality product from a leading manufacturer of weighing and inspection technology, that is available at an affordable price. Every model is created with the customer’s requirements in mind.

Just one look at the industrial scale Puro is enough to see why it pays to choose a globally recognised provider of weighing and inspection technologies: thanks to its decades of expertise, Minebea Intec knows what customers consider important. During development, the primary focus was on making the product easy for customers to operate. This is directly reflected in many of the new weighing solution’s features.

Intuitive operation and optimum customer convenience

Large displays on the front and back with LCD backlight guarantee optimal readability, stabilisation in a matter of seconds provides immediate weighing results, and the tactile buttons ensure intuitive operation. Depending on the requirement profile, there are models offering features such as a rear display enabling users to read from both sides, a traffic light LED for checkweighing, and non-slip feet for use in challenging environments. The user interface is universally compatible, making handling easier for the user, regardless which model they are using.

“With Puro, we have reached another milestone.” explains Minebea Intec’s CSO Frank Wieland. “The innovative weighing solution represents the ideal addition to our portfolio, with fast delivery available anywhere in the world thanks to our smart distribution system: with three supply hubs in China, USA and Germany, we are able to ensure that our partners always have the right model in stock – which, in turn, means that the product is quickly available for the customer.”

With this innovative weighing solution, Minebea Intec is adding a fully portable scale with re-chargeable lithium-ion battery to its range. This gives the product up to 500 hours of service life, thereby delivering precise measurement results in the process. The product also impresses thanks to a weighing industry first: Puro is the first industrial scale in the world that can be charged via USB C.

Features like this truly make the Puro series a weighing solution of the future as customers no longer have to rely on often expensive manufacturer-specific power units and thus can charge their scale economically using the standard plug connector.

Convenience, precision and pure innovation

From the development phase onwards, care was taken to ensure the Puro product portfolio would cover a wide range of applications and customer requirements. The product is primarily suited for use in weighing, unit counting or quality control in the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries and helps increase quality, efficiency and output of the process.

However, there are no restrictions on how you use the new range of scales, so they could also be used in other places such as specialist retailers.

With the Puro range, the customer benefits from a weighing solution that is intuitive and quick to use and, thanks to its robust materials, can also be used in challenging environments. Thanks to the optional Bluetooth or WiFi module, the Puro models can be connected wirelessly to PCs or printers and can be used in a fully location-independent manner.

Available worldwide and with the customer in just a few days

All models have one thing in common, as Product Manager Lena Silies underlines: “Our brand new industrial scale Puro not only impresses thanks to its design, the features and the versatile portfolio: fast delivery is also guaranteed thanks to distribution via certified partners and the Puro online store. Delivery is triggered online at the push of a button, and the customer has the scale within just a few days.” relates Silies.

A wide range of different models is available, covering a variety of applications. At the time of the market launch, the product portfolio covers compact scales, tabletop and floor scales as well as platform scales for tabletops. The individual models are available in different sizes, capacities and resolutions, thus covering wide range of applications. This is just the start: more products will soon be added to the Puro portfolio on an ongoing basis, so that we can provide our customers with the best possible selection of products.

New Split Tray Sorter Launched

Posted on by David Priestman

Interroll has launched a new drop tray sorter to its range of automated sortation solutions – the Split Tray Sorter MT015S.

The new product makes it easier for companies to enter the e-commerce market or can be used as a flexible addition to existing sortation solutions, for example in the fashion industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and for parcel service providers.

The new Split Tray Sorter ensures maximum availability, very long service life, and fast payback times for the automatic sortation of conveyed goods weighing up to 12 kilograms. This makes these compact and flexibly expandable systems particularly suitable for system integrators who want to enable their customers to implement e-commerce or omnichannel strategies that are as powerful as they are economical, for example in the fashion or pharmaceutical industries. In addition, the new Split Tray Sorter in combination with Interroll’s crossbelt sorters provides logistics service providers and courier, express and parcel service providers with an ideal solution for making customer-oriented distribution centers even more productive by efficiently separating small parts sortation from other transport goods.

Even during the planning and development of the new Interroll Split Tray Sorter, special consideration was
given to efficient manufacturing processes in order to realize optimum benefits for customers and end users.
“Because short project lead times give our customers a decisive competitive advantage, we focused not only
on technical performance and quality but also on very short delivery times for our customers,” says Steffen
Flender, Managing Director of Interroll Automation GmbH.

Interroll announced a new CEO in January – click here to read more.

Multi-million Automation Contract Win

Posted on by David Priestman

Following on from the previously announced lamb automation system, Scott has been awarded a second large contract by Alliance Group, this one to design and build a carton handling, sortation and palletising system in frozen environment (-28°C).

The system will increase product handling efficiencies by allowing more flexible, high speed carton sortation and management. This project will utilise proven technology developed by Scott Europe (Alvey) and deployed with European based customers.

Scott will also utilise technology provided by Savoye, the global player in design, manufacturing (Europe and US) and integration of automated systems for intralogistics, following the recent signing of a global partnership agreement.

This project will demonstrate the benefits of combining Savoye and Scott (Alvey) technologies to deliver „state of the art“ end of line solutions to food producers. Scott Automation nv (formerly Alvey) is based in Deerlijk, Belgium. It is a part of the global Scott Group and have several sites around Europe, supplying industrial automation systems, especially related to the materials handling and logistics.

Mini Yellow’ sortation robots help ZTO meet the demands of ‘singles day’ 

Posted on by David Priestman

With a client list that includes such e-commerce giants as Alibaba, PDD and JD.com, ZTO Express’s share of the Chinese express parcel delivery market is approaching 20 per cent, which makes it one of China’s most significant parcel handling businesses.

The company operates a highly scalable partner network model – in effect a ‘hub and spoke’ system ­­- that enables it to provide online retailers with cost-efficient, countrywide reach.

ZTO’s network partners are responsible for first-mile pick-up and last-mile delivery services, while the mission-critical transportation and sorting processes that take place in between pick-up and parcel delivery are undertaken by ZTO.

At one of its many smaller satellite sortation facilities that serve the city of Hangzhou, ZTO processes between 10,000 and 50,000 parcels each day using a system that, until recently, had relied heavily on manual labour.

However, with the number of parcels passing through the site increasing, the manual approach was beginning to struggle and incur additional costs. For example, at peak periods such as the hugely popular annual shopping festival initiated by Alibaba known as ‘Double 11’ or ‘Singles Day’ (which, this year, saw a mind-boggling 580,000 online orders placed every second at the busiest times), the workforce at this Hangzhou unit had to be supplemented by temporary staff to ensure that throughput targets were met – which, course, meant an increase in operational overheads.

Clearly a new approach was required but with the site’s typical daily throughput not considered sufficient to justify the introduction of a traditional (and costly and inflexible) automated cross-belt sortation system, alternative technologies were appraised.

After a comprehensive review of its needs, ZTO introduced ‘Mini Yellow’ autonomous mobile robots (AMR) technology from LiBiao Robot at the Hangzhou site.

LiBiao’s ‘Mini Yellow’ range has been developed as a flexible alternative to fixed tilt-tray and cross-belt conveyor-based sortation systems and can be quickly and easily deployed at sites where space is restricted for a fraction of the cost of old-style conveyor-based parcel sorting technology.

At the Hangzhou facility where LiBiao technology has been adopted 20 LiBiao robots operate on a simple platform which has been erected in a floor area measuring less than 50 sq metres. The LiBiao  sortation robots process around 2,000 parcels per hour, however, if required, additional AMRs can be introduced to increase handling capacity at the site to 7000 parcels every hour.

The sorting procedure is incredibly straightforward: each parcel arrives at the sorting platform and is simply placed on to the first available ‘Mini Yellow’ robot, the parcel’s destination code is scanned and the information transmitted to the ‘bot which then travels along the ‘table’ platform and deposits the package into the appropriate bagging station. Just a single worker is required to operate the system.

Apart from the obvious savings in labour costs, a further benefit to ZTO is the ‘Mini Yellow’s’ flexibility: additional robots can be introduced as and when they are needed and the technology is fully portable – meaning systems can be switched between sites if required.

Thanks to the operational benefits delivered by the LiBiao solution combined with the rapid payback on its investment at this relatively small site in Hangzhou, ZTO is planning to roll-out additional ‘Mini Yellow’ systems at other sortation facilities across China.

LiBiao Robot’s founder and chief executive, Xia Huiling, comments: “Such are the high levels of customer satisfaction with ‘Mini Yellow’ technology, that some 70 per cent of the businesses that have introduced the system so far have become repeat customers.

“Online shopping is growing at a tremendous pace across China and driving up the number of parcels handled, so companies such as ZTO are looking to invest in technology that will ensure that they keep pace with the needs of the market. Companies that install the ‘Mini Yellow’ sorting system recover the cost of their investment very quickly.”

More than 10,000 LiBiao autonomous mobile robots are in operation at ‘blue-chip’ client facilities worldwide – including Walmart in the US, Uniqlo in Japan and Kmart in Australia ­– and it is estimated that some two billion parcels a year are processed using LiBiao AMRs.

LiBiao Robot recently announced that two models from the ‘Mini Yellow’ range are now available in Europe  – a 5kg tilt-tray robot and a 30kg cross-belt model. Both types have CE certification.

 

Game on for Bulgarian e-commerce

Posted on by David Priestman

With lockdowns around the world this year, many have relied on e-commerce as a way to shop, and even with many physical stores now allowed to re-open, consumer behaviour continues to change at unprecedented speed.

A leading e-commerce business in Bulgaria, ozone.bg, cited a 55% increase in online orders a few weeks into March compared with pre-lockdown sales. Other events, such as Black Friday and seasonal peaks has led the company to modernise its distribution centre near Sofia.

With a wide product range within the gaming industry, Ozone.bg needed a partner who could deliver an order picking solution that could collect multiple products in different areas or floors. Engineering company, STAMH was selected.

STAMH’s engineering and software teams re-organise the centre to allow areas and systems for the storage of palletised goods, space for small goods storage and a sorting area for orders. In addition, the team built packing areas.

STAMH also build an automated and mechanized storage system that would work on 3 different levels. In order to do this STAMH built a gravity roller conveyor to connect the second and third storage levels as well as the packing and sorting areas on the ground level (pictured above).

Once, the pre-assembled order or package is packed and ready for shipment, it’s placed along a motorized roller conveyor. This conveyor line drives the package to the area, where it’s automatically sorted and leaded to the area of each courier company. Each package can be placed anywhere along the conveyor line for boxes and trays.

The distribution centre now has a barcode scanning system to allow for faster order processing and sortation.

Nadezhda Blagoeva, Technical Director in STAMH says, “The conveyor system connects different areas and speeds up all processes in the logistics base. In a very intuitive way, conveyor lines organize orders preparation processes.

“Warehouse operators no longer have to carry heavy trays and packages across long distances. They are organized in different areas and manual work is significantly reduced. Now, thousands of new orders are prepared much faster and in a more efficient way”.

Based in Sofia, STAMH built a new mobile racking system earlier this year for ice cream business, CERMAT. For more information on this project  click here.

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