Golf equipment manufacturer implements PTL devices

In a recent pick-to-light (PTL) application, a golf equipment manufacturer sought to improve the process of picking equipment components to assemble its final product and fulfill its customers’ orders.

Fully manual picking was slow and prone to error, however. After all, the various components were challenging to quickly distinguish from one another visually, and workers struggled to keep up a fast pace without sacrificing quality.

As a recognized and respected brand, the manufacturer needed to meet its customer’s high expectations. Slow delivery times and incorrect orders were unacceptable and could damage the brand’s reputation and reduce repeat or referral business.

A solution was needed to help assemblers quickly and accurately pick golf equipment components to ensure customers received the correct order in a timely manner. Therefore, the golf equipment manufacturer worked with a local integrator to create a powerful PTL system, using PTL devices from an industrial automation provider.

The picking system for this application used several functions of the PTL devices to enable faster, more accurate picks, including:

• Bright, colorful LED indicators that guided workers to the right bin to pick the correct component;
• An on-board alphanumeric display, which indicated how many of each item should be picked; and
• An optical sensing function, which confirmed (in real time) that the correct picks were made.

In addition, if employees noticed that inventory was running low, they could press the touch button on the device to call for more parts. As a result, they’d be able to restock inventory quickly, while also reducing wait time and improving efficiency.

Together, this easy-to-understand picking system ensured that final products could be quickly assembled with the correct components and shipped out to the customer with confidence. The new solution resulted in fewer errors, faster shipping and improved customer satisfaction.

The industrial automation provider’s PTL devices easily attach to existing infrastructure with a variety of brackets or standard cable ties. Each PTL device has two M12 connectors for quick and secure installation of multiple devices—with no additional cables required.

Furthermore, the devices can be fastened to existing tubes, extrusion and rail with an array of brackets or standard cable ties. And, they can be quickly moved and replaced with no tools, rewiring or reprogramming required.

PTL devices are powered by a purpose-built, modbus compatible serial bus protocol, which uses a Common ID to reduce the typical latency that results from polling multiple devices. In turn, an improvement in speed and functionality leads to faster implementation, lower project costs and quicker results.

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