Automating the picking of plastic crates with MultiPick

Cimcorp Oy’s resolute work on developing the control system, the stacker gripper - and indeed the whole MultiPick concept - has created an entirely new perspective on customised automated picking.
The gantry robot technology has been developed to meet changing practical needs.

According to sales manager Tero Peltomäki, the automation of dispatching departments has previously been very much based on fixed-conveyor warehousing.

“The concept was therefore often quite inflexible. Over the same time, though, the purchasing behaviour of customers has changed rapidly and nowadays food processing factories, for instance, must be able to implement highly individualized customer pricing. Converting conveyor systems to match changing needs is difficult. In the worst scenario, they have become obsolete even while being installed.”


Leading edge picking technology

The transition period for operating methods in dispatching departments occurred at the end of the 1980s. The pressure on modernising was fuelled by the need to phase out manual inventory control - stickers and labels had to be replaced because there were just too many mistakes and, as requirements stiffened, more precise information was needed on the inventory.

“Cimcorp commissioned an objective study and we found that the results confirmed our assumptions. Cimcorp developed a picking system based on gantry robots, where the product storage was on the floor below the robot. We were already aware of the problems in this sector, so we were well prepared to start developing the system,” declares Tero Peltomäki.

The robot unit moves on overhead rails high in the warehouse and can utilize all the floor space below. The benefits contributed by this approach are really substantial. The MultiPick gripper developed and patented by Cimcorp can pick a stack of crates from anywhere below the robot. The control system for the robot receives the information needed for picking directly from the factory’s sales management system and controls the picking according to that information.

“The system adapts itself to differences in days, order distributions and products. A significant advantage - especially in the food industry - is the ease of cleaning the floor storage area. The overhead structures do not hinder frequent cleaning in the same way as fixed floor structures,” Peltomäki stresses.

The solution is widely suited to the meat industry, bakeries, breweries, dairies - in fact to all industries that use plastic crates to distribute their products.

“Developments of crates is also moving ahead. Transbox type crates are becoming the standard and there are only two models of them. Eliminating the wide array of crates will smooth the path of development work on the MultiPick concept.”


Solid proof of success

Prominent among the order picking systems Cimcorp Oy has delivered in Finland are those in Oy Aga Ab’s production facilities in Riihimäki and in Hartwall’s Lahdenhovi logistics centre. An order picking system is currently being built for Pouttu Oy. Newer customers include Broilertalo Oy, based in Eura, and Fazer Bakeries in Vantaa, who have ordered a 3-D simulation of their dispatching departments.

“At present we are aiming at exporting picking systems, particularly to Nordic and Central European countries, as well as supplying the domestic market,” states Tero Peltomäki.

“Naturally, we are continually working on enhancing the whole configuration and we are honing its finer details. We are particularly focusing on aluminium technology that will enable us to reduce the weight of the masses that must be moved. Cable entries are also disappearing as data will soon be transmitted optically. Also the control system will be developed to make it more user-friendly. The important thing is, though, that we already have firm proofs that our concept works very well in practice and is effective.”

Juhani Lukka

The Cimcorp order picking system supplied to Hartwall’s Lahdenhovi logistics centre The entire order picking area of the picking system supplied to Hartwall’s Lahdenhovi logistics centre is based on the floor storage of stacks under gantry robots. Hartwall’s production delivers products to pallets, which are stored in a high-bay warehouse. Cimcorp’s order picking system calls for product pallets from high-bay storage as replenishment batches, which the conveyor system supplied by Oy Algol Ab delivers to the roller conveyor section feeding the order picking system. The empty pallets needed for order picking are dispensed to the system in stacks in the same way. After removal of the top binding and an inspection, the product pallet is moved to a transfer car which delivers it to the centre of the order picking area. From there, Cimcorp’s gantry robot replenishing the order picking area picks half a pallet load - four full stacks, maximum 28 crates - at a time. The inventory control system has informed the replenishing robot to which empty storage location the stack is to be taken. The laser sensor in the robot checks that the storage location is actually empty to ensure there are no collisions. The replenishing robot serves two order picking robots, ensuring they are kept busy. Order picking is based on specific orders. The database program controlling the activities of the robot receives orders one at a time from Hartwall’s sales management system. The database queues the orders to form pallet loads. The pallets are made up according to different criteria, such as stacking rules. The software checks that the products for the order can in reality be found in the picking area before sending its “virtual” pallet. When order picking commences, the transfer car transports the empty brewery pallet to the robotized order picking position. The robot picks crates from storage and places them in stacks. The stack can be made up either of different product crates or simply the one product. When the stack is complete, it is automatically transferred to the correct position on the pallet. The robot picks stacks until the pallet for that particular customer is full. A pallet dispenser changes the pallets as needed. The transfer car transports the pallet for that customer to an area near the operator with space for three pallets of picked orders. The pallet is manually labelled and transferred to the roller track where the top of the pallet is secured with binding. The pallet is then ready for the overhead conveyor system to take to the dispatch area for loading onto a truck.

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