Milking the benefits of automation: dairy supplies get the high-tech treatment with robotic order picking system

Milking the benefits of automation: dairy supplies get the high-tech treatment with robotic order picking system

A unique automated system has seen robot order picking applied to one of the most basic of products. At the Tyrstrup dairy of European logistics award winners MD Foods, the 60 fastest moving dairy products are picked for distribution to more than 600 customers throughout southern Denmark.

In the unique solution, which is a complex Univeyor system (see Plate 7)together with four AAB multi-axis robots, 14,000 crates of milk and milk products are picked between 11pm and 7am each day. The investment, which provides considerable speed and efficiency along with very high levels of accuracy, has been introduced to reduce the heavy, monotonous manual handling previously required in chill stores overnight.

 Plate 7Advanced handling including a Univeyor system is used for picking dairy products.

Linked directly to a dairy, the system also takes product from outside suppliers. From the production area, palletised loads arrive via conveyor as stacks of 32 crates in eight layers. They are automatically de-palletised and transferred by shuttle car into eight conveyor lanes which feed one side of the automated picking area (see Plate 8).

 Plate 8Robots pick crates of dairy products from gravity conveyor lanes onto output conveyor

Products from other dairies and external suppliers are delivered as crates in roll cages. These are automatically removed and stacked by a robot onto an automated conveyor, which feeds eight picking lanes of the automated picking area via a Univeyor shuttle car.

In the main automated picking area itself, three robots are each mounted on a shuttle car giving them full movement across several picking lanes. Specialised attachments allow these robots to automatically pick crates, one or two at a time. For customer orders that require whole crates of products, these are placed on to belt conveyors, one running each side of the automated picking area, for onward load assembly.

For orders where crates are required with mixed products, the robots transfer crates to lanes of gravity roller conveyor which supply a manual pick face. Here crates of multiple products are assembled under the direction of a highly efficient pick by light system, which maintains accuracy, speed and efficiency in a paperless operation. Completed crates are then transferred by conveyor to automatically join those from the fully automated area.

The conveyor system assembles all crates from the manual and fully automated areas. They are then stacked into loads using a fully automated Univeyor crate stacking unit and automatically transferred to roll cages for labelling and movement on to a slower movers picking zone or directly to despatch.

The system is supervised by a PC controller operating as a server for all operations, information and host communications. This directs the operations of the PLC conveyor system which is responsible for movements throughout the automated picking area.

The entire system is flexible enough to handle 400 X 300 X 270mm and 400 X 300 X 90mm crates, both of which are used in the MD Foods supply chain.

In addition to achieving high throughput and accuracy, the fully automated picking system has substantially reduced manual handling, removing both costs and problems from distribution centre operations.

For more information please contact: Peter Brotherton, Conveying Systems Ltd, Edwards House ­ B, Grange Business Park, Enderby Road, Whetstone,Leicester, LE8 6JL. Tel: +44 (0) 116 278 6999.