Page 14 - Energize November 2022

NEWS

Improving order picking with robots

Together, shipping, receiving and storage count for less than half of all warehousing
activity costs. The lion’s share of expenses - a whopping 55% - is in order picking

reaking down the various activities Some potential downsides of this Strategy #3: Transporting items
associated with order picking, we method include high up-front investment to a robot (Goods to robot)
Bfind that over 60% of the time is costs, a relatively long integration and/ This method has the dual advantages
spent walking, with writing, searching or installation time, and the likelihood of high accuracy and low dependence
and picking tasks consuming the other of infrastructure changes to the facility. on labour availability (making it a good
40%. Still, logistics facilities by and large find option for companies struggling to hire
Given the data, it’s safe to say that that the productivity benefits heavily personnel). Slight downsides include
automating the “walking” portion of any outweigh the initial costs of deployment. high investment costs and the possibility
order picking operation will have a strong of lower throughput relative to manual
positive impact on overall warehouse Strategy #2: Transporting picking.
activity. OMRON Logistics Strategic items between zones (Person Nonetheless, collaborative robotic
Account Manager, Yaqing Sun, recently to goods) technology is advancing by leaps and
discussed some strategies for using This strategy involves breaking up bounds, and solutions that connect an
autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for the warehouse into separate order autonomous mobile robot with a cobot
the purpose at the Automate 2022 show. picking zones, each of which will have a are going to just get more and more
Let’s consider a few methods for dedicated employee. Since a single order efficient. Furthermore, both AMRs and
replacing unnecessary walking time with might involve picking from more than cobots can work around the clock with
AMRs. one zone, an autonomous mobile robot minimal downtime.
will move between the zones, stopping
Strategy #1: Transporting items whenever an employee needs to retrieve As a leader in industrial automation,
to employees (Goods to person) a particular item. OMRON has extensive lines of control
By having an AMR autonomously move Although each employee still must components and equipment, ranging from
goods to a warehouse associate, you do some walking, having AMRs traverse vision sensors and other input devices,
can reduce the amount of time that the long distances between zones cuts to various controllers and output devices
associate spends walking, which in turn down on the walking by a significant such as servomotors, as well as a range of
reduces fatigue and generally improves amount. The main downside of this safety devices and industrial robots.
work satisfaction. In addition, it improves method is that employees must still scan By combining these devices via
traceability by automating the QR code items manually, so traceability isn’t fully software, OMRON has developed a variety
scanning process. automated. of unique and highly effective automation
solutions for manufacturers worldwide.
Based on its reservoir of advanced
technologies and comprehensive
range of devices, OMRON set forth a
strategic concept called “innovative-
Automation” consisting of three
innovations or “I’s”: “Integrated” (control
evolution), “Intelligent” (development
of intelligence by ICT), and “Interactive”
(new harmonisation between people
and machines). OMRON is committed to
bringing innovation to manufacturing sites
by materialising this concept.

Contact Omron Electronics,
Phone 011 579-2600,
info.sa@omron.com,
www.industrial.omron.co.za

energize | November 2022 | 14