Bar code readers help manage tote traffic
By Tom Feare -- Modern Materials Handling, 5/1/1999
Lockheed's automated tote storage system holds up to 14,700 totes in 24 horizontal carousels (White Systems) arranged on two levels. Storage locations are assigned randomly on a best location basis, considering quickest spin time, lowest center of gravity, and a level load for each set of grouped carousels, says Robert Nieto, receiving and stores supervisor. Storage and transfer are on an "any tote, any time, any where" demand basis, he adds.The automation's tote tracking system (TTS) can monitor up to 23,000 totes at the same time. It manages totes much like one controls city traffic, Nieto explains.
TTS has 16 "neighborhoods" with a total of 46 intersections, 36 workstations, 1 elevator, and 6 extractor/inserter (E/I) storage transfer robots. Bar code reading sensors and software are essential to traffic control, however.
Numbering 105 in all, bar code readers are ready, waiting at each intersection (or transfer point) for a tote to arrive. "Like good crossing guards,'' says Nietro, "they wait for a green light and a clear exit point on the other side before allowing the tote to cross the street.''
The readers will remember the last 200 active tote destinations, but will ask help from TTS for any less active tote arrivals. Renegade totes will be reported to TTS, and the readers will redirect a wayward tote back to its proper location.
For the more complex transfers of totes into and out of the carousels, TTS relies upon a more sophisticated reader/sensor and software at each of the six E/I robots.
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