Non-stop automation
April 1st 2009 A long-term collaboration between Jungheinrich and furniture distributor Häfele UK has
seen ongoing efficiency improvements through virtually continuous automation projects
HHäfele UK is a distributor of
furniture fittings, hardware and
architectural ironmongery and its
client base includes furniture
manufacturing companies, planners &
fitters, architects, building companies, DIY
retailers and independent stores.
One of the challenges for Mark Batchelor,
the company's operations director has been
to manage the continued expansion of the
company's UK business from an existing
site evolving and growing with the
developing needs of the company. This has
seen use and adaptation of the widest
range of technologies from manual
through semi-automated to fully
automated solutions.
Jungheinrich UK's Systems & Projects
Division is Hafeles' partner and the two
companies have forged a close working
relationship over the 12 years they have
worked together. During this time, Häfele
has engaged Jungheinrich in a virtually
continuous series of development projects.
Today, product arriving at the facility is
either fed into the system on pallets at one
of four pallet in-feed points, or loads are
broken down into totes and trays,
depending on weight, volume and quantity
and entered into the system at one of six
tote in-feed stations. Plastic totes are being
used to replace troublesome cardboard
containers.
Once goods are booked into the
warehouse management system, pallet
loads are transported by conveyor to either
'high bay 2' or 'high bay 3', whereas totes
are conveyed to one of three storage areas
in 'high bay 1'.
Prior to the partnership with
Jungheinrich, the crane aisles of 'high bays
1 and 2' had been served by an automated
shuttle car system. This had limited
throughput capacity and was considered to
be a concerning single point of failure to
the operation. So when Jungheinrich was
asked to commission 'high bay 3', Eddie
Rowlinson, project manager for
Jungheinrich's Systems Division, and his
team replaced the shuttle car system with
input conveyors at ground level and
outfeed conveyors at an elevated level. Like
so many of the preceding system upgrades,
this was no easy task as the overall system
had to remain operational
'The roof of the adjacent building [the
low bay area] which was to accommodate
the take off conveyor was too low, we had
to build up above the roof on the low bay
to accommodate it,' explains Rowlinson.
This was a major exercise that required the
closing of the goods-in conveyors for three
weeks and involved transporting incoming
stock around the outside of the building in
order to access the highbay stores, via a
temporary infeed. This was all achieved
without causing any disruption of service to
customers.
In 'high bay 3' – the first major
involvement for Jungheinrich, completed in
1999 – four manual man-up order picking
cranes sit alongside four fully automated
cranes. The last aisle can accept CHEP
pallets but the building had only originally
been designed to accommodate Euro
pallets. Under the expert project
management of Jungheinrich, a CHEP pallet
solution was 'shoehorned' into the available
space.
The 'X-system' in 'high bay 1' is the latest
system upgrade, commissioned just before
Christmas 2007. Here three fully automated
tote cranes operating over 8000 locations,
service requirements of 800 x 600 mm
totes. The cranes are designed for a
maximum carrying weight of 75 kg. A robot
is used in this area to move totes from a
pallet to replenish the store and provide
empty totes to the picking operators.
On a mezzanine area adjacent to the 'XSystem'
is a forward picking operation with
bespoke operator stations. Stock totes are
drawn from the system and accumulated in
order sequence for the picking operatives.
Instructions for the picker are given via
terminals integrated into the warehouse
Management System.
The Zip system for small items stored on
trays consists of just one aisle at present,
although plans are in place to expand the
system by a further aisle, when capacity
demands. This automated mini-load
system, handles two trays at a time and
has the storage capacity for almost 16,000
allocations of stock.
The mezzanine forward picking
operation has similarities to the X-System
and is also of a bespoke design for Hafele.
This however has been designed to
facilitate simultaneous picking and
replenishment of stock. At the station three
conveyor points are positioned above one
another, aligning totes for action: The order
tote at the bottom, the donor tote in the
middle, and the replenishment tote on top.
Each station has two such points, ensuring
that the operator is never left idle. While he
picks from one station the secondary
station is replenished with a new donor
tote. If a space becomes available in the
donor tote, the operator is told to replenish
by the computer, which has already
automatically presented the correct
replenishment tote.
All instructions are indicated to the
operator in a simple graphic form. All the
operator has to do is follow the instructions
and scan for confirmation. This process of
replenishing during the pick cycle is highly
efficient and was specifically designed by
Jungheinrich for Häfele.
Once goods have been picked from their
various zones orders are presently
consolidated by a manual process. This is
soon to change, an automated order
consolidation system is under construction
and this will use a pick-to-light system to
guide the operator through the
consolidation process. Mark Batchelor
insists that, "The methodologies of 'pick-toorder'
and where appropriate, 'goods-toman',
are fundamental to the future vision
of Häfele in the UK." More articles from Chemstore Engineering: | 
