Controls add to performance
Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 10/2/2001
Home Shopping Network reaches over 154 million households. The TV shopping network offers 21,000 products and ships 110,000 packages per day. Quality, accountability, and a customer focus are pursued 24/7. And accurate and on-time deliveries are crucial.
A new distribution center in Fontana, Calif. had to be designed to accomplish these goals. A tilt tray sortation system and a parcel manifest system were vital to this DC's performance.
High-speed parcel sortation and manifesting require fast and precise control over relatively long distances. The brains, the electronic controls, are critical in system optimization.
For the Fontana DC the software residing in a PC which runs the automatic induction conveyors and the tilt tray sorter communicates with system hardware through an industrial bus system, the Interbus.
Hundreds of devices are hooked into this bus system. Communications between the PC and sensors must occur within fractions of a second. As well as being fast, the Interbus is a deterministic system. Being able to calculate a consistent response time is critical when there are only a few milliseconds to determine the correct divert destination for a package.
This control system also offers a high-density, compact solution. Controls for the Fontana DC required 40% less panel space than the equivalent legacy system. Reducing the cost of the system is one advantage. Another benefit is that there is now floor space for future control system expansion or for increased functionality. The modularity of the electronics hardware makes Home Shopping Network's system very flexible and expandable.
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