WO2018154722A1

WO2018154722A1 - Warehouse management system and warehouse management method

Info

Publication number: WO2018154722A1
Application number: PCT/JP2017/007156
Authority: WO
Inventors: 昌晴近藤; 亮太鴨志田; 宏吉武; 頼子風間; 絵美高橋
Original assignee: 株式会社日立物流
Priority date: 2017-02-24
Filing date: 2017-02-24
Publication date: 2018-08-30
Also published as: JPWO2018154722A1; JP6697628B2

Abstract

This warehouse management system includes: a memory unit that holds order information in which types, quantities, and shipping destinations of articles are associated and stock information indicating the types of in-stock articles in each of a plurality of housing racks; a co-occurrence frequency calculation unit that calculates the co-occurrence frequency of different types of articles on the basis of the order information; a simultaneous pick-up frequency evaluation unit that calculates a simultaneous pick-up frequency on the basis of the co-occurrence frequency and the stock information, the simultaneous pick-up frequency being the frequency with which an article to be stocked, which is an article to be housed in one of the housing racks, and an in-stock article different from the article to be stored would be shipped to the same shipping destination under the assumption that at least one such article to be stocked were housed in the corresponding housing rack, and preferentially selects a housing rack with a higher simultaneous pick-up frequency as the housing rack in which the article to be stocked is to be housed; and a stock instruction unit which outputs an instruction for housing the article to be stocked in the selected housing rack.

Description

Warehouse management system and warehouse management method

The present invention relates to a technology that is effective when applied to warehouses and factories.

In a warehouse or factory, an operator collects articles stored according to an order and sorts them to a shipping destination, that is, a picking operation. Conventionally, as a method of picking work, there is a method in which an operator walks in a warehouse where shelves storing articles are arranged and takes out predetermined articles corresponding to orders.

On the other hand, in recent years, an operator does not walk and take out an article, but picking an article from the shelf to which an automatic conveyance device (conveyance vehicle) conveys the shelf to the worker. System operation is thriving. Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for picking by transporting a target article or a shelf in which the target article is stored to a picking worker's place using a transport vehicle in a distribution warehouse.

For example, articles carried into a warehouse are stored in advance on the shelves to be picked as described above. As a method for storing articles on a shelf, for example, there is a method described in Patent Document 2. Patent Document 2 is provided with “a control means for controlling the operation of a conveying means for carrying out an article loading / unloading operation between a plurality of storage sections for storing articles and a plurality of article carrying-in / out sections. When carrying out the work of carrying out goods based on the work order, grouping and managing the carry-in / out part in a state in which those arranged close to each other belong to the same group, the goods carry-in / out part in the same group as the article carry-in / out part When there is an article to be carried in, the article carrying-in operation of the article carrying-in / out unit is performed with priority over the article carrying-in / out operation in the next work order ”.

Further, as a method for selecting a shelf for storing articles in advance, for example, there is a method described in Patent Document 3. Patent Document 3 describes the stage of selecting a shelf as follows: “Selecting an inventory holder from a plurality of inventory holders, at least in part, in the category of inventory items to be stored and in the selected inventory holder. Based on a classification of one or more other inventory items currently stored, wherein the classification of the inventory items to be stored includes the frequency with which the inventory items to be stored are required; The classification of the one or more other inventory items currently stored includes a frequency at which the inventory holder is selected.

Patent Document 1: US Pat. No. 8,805,573 Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-272722 Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-096637

As described above, the operation of storing the articles to be picked in the shelf in advance is the warehousing operation. An example of the warehousing operation is shown in FIG.

In the example of FIG. 1, a plurality of target articles are temporarily placed in the temporary placement area 101. “A” or the like written in each article is item identification information (for example, a product name) of each article. In the following description, for example, an article whose item is “A” is also referred to as “article A”. The same applies to other items. In the example of FIG. 1,

empty storage shelves

104 and 105 are transported to the warehousing work place by transporting

vehicles

106 and 107. The

warehousing workers

102 and 103 sequentially store the articles in the temporary storage area 101 in the

storage shelves

104 and 105. When the warehousing operation is completed, the

storage shelves

104 and 105 are transported to the picking work place by the transporting

vehicles

106 and 107.

Reducing the number of times shelves are transported is one approach to improving the efficiency of picking operations. The picking operation per day is the sum of the time for picking up the goods and the shelf waiting time. If the number of items shipped per day is determined, the time for picking up the goods is almost fixed, while the shelf waiting time is reduced even if the number of goods is fixed. Because there is room for. For example, when creating an order set so that orders with the same identification information of the storage shelf belong to the same set, the goods storage to the storage shelf should also be controlled so that continuous picking work can be realized with one transfer of the storage shelf Thus, the number of times the storage shelf is conveyed can be further reduced.

2 and 3 are used to explain the change in the number of times the storage shelves are conveyed depending on the order of warehousing when there are two picking workers. Specifically, in FIGS. 2 and 3, even when articles are stored in each shipping box based on the same order, the number of times of conveyance varies depending on the order in which the articles are stored in the storage shelves (that is, An example is shown in which the length of time required for the picking operation is different).

In FIG. 2, according to the order, one item A and B are in the shipping box 201, one item A and C are in the shipping box 202, two items B are in the shipping box 203, and item D is in the shipping box 204. An example is shown in which picking operations are performed to pack 1 and E, 1 item D and F in the

shipping box

205, and 1 item E and F in the shipping box 206, respectively. In this example, two articles A, three articles B, and one article C are stored in the storage shelf 208 transferred to the picking work place by the transport vehicle 213, and the storage shelf 208 is stored in the storage shelf 208 by the transport vehicle 214. Two articles D to F are stored in advance by warehousing work.

In this case, the

storage shelves

207 and 208 are transported under the picking

workers

209 and 210, respectively, and each picking worker sorts the articles on the storage shelf 207 and the articles on the storage shelf 208 into the

sorting shelves

211 and 212, respectively. The packing operation of the shipping boxes 201 to 206 can be started.

In this example, shelves 211-1 to 211-3 included in the sorting shelf 211 correspond to the shipping boxes 201 to 203, and shelves 212-1 to 212-3 included in the sorting shelf 212 are the shipping boxes 204 to 206, respectively. Therefore, all the articles stored in the storage shelf 207 are sorted into the sorting shelf 211 without excess or deficiency, and all the articles stored in the storage shelf 208 are sorted into the sorting shelf 212 without excess or deficiency.

Note that the mark X superimposed on the article A of the storage shelf 207 in FIG. 2 is stored in the storage shelf 207 by the warehousing operation, but is picked by the subsequent picking operation and transferred to the sorting shelf 211 ( That is, it is no longer stored in the storage shelf 207). The same applies to other articles, and the same applies to FIG.

In the example of FIG. 3, the articles packed in the shipping boxes 201 to 206 are the same as those in FIG. 2, but the receipt of the articles into the storage shelves 307 to 308 is different from that in FIG. Specifically, the storage shelf 307 has three articles B, one article C, and two articles F, and the storage shelf 308 has two articles D, E, and A, respectively. Stored in advance.

In this case, the

storage shelves

307 and 308 are transported to the picking

workers

209 and 210, respectively, and each picking worker simply sorts the items in the storage shelf 307 and the items in the storage shelf 308 into the

sorting shelves

211 and 212, respectively. The packing operation for the shipping boxes 201 to 206 cannot be started. The storage shelf 307 does not store the article A to be sorted into the sorting shelf 211 while the article F remains, and the storage shelf 308 does not store the article F to be sorted into the sorting shelf 212 while the article is stored. This is because A remains.

For this reason, in order to start the packing operation of the shipping boxes 201 to 206, the

storage shelves

308 and 307 are subsequently transported to the picking

workers

209 and 210, respectively, The articles in the storage shelf 307 need to be sorted into the

sorting shelves

211 and 212, respectively. That is, as compared with the example of FIG. 2, the number of times the

storage shelves

307 and 308 are conveyed increases in the example of FIG.

In the method of grouping the objects arranged close to each other in the article carry-in / out section disclosed in Patent Document 2, the efficiency of carrying-in work into the article carry-in / out section and the efficiency of storing goods in the storage shelf are improved. It is possible to plan, but it is not possible to enter a warehouse reflecting some policy, and it does not directly contribute to reducing the number of times the storage shelf is transported.

In the method disclosed in Patent Document 3 in which goods having a similar issue frequency are received on a shelf having a similar call frequency, inventory items having a similar output frequency are collected on a specific shelf, and the inventory having a very high output frequency is collected. Although it is possible to increase the frequency at which articles are picked at the same timing, it is not guaranteed until the frequency at which inventory items that are not so frequently issued are picked at the same timing is increased.

An example of a representative example of the present invention for solving the above problems is as follows. That is, a storage unit that is a warehouse management system and holds order information that associates items, quantities, and shipping destinations of articles, and inventory information that indicates items of articles stored in each of a plurality of storage shelves, Based on the order information, a co-occurrence frequency calculation unit that calculates a co-occurrence frequency that is a frequency at which articles of different items are shipped to the same shipping destination, and based on the co-occurrence frequency and the inventory information, either When it is assumed that at least one warehousing article, which is an article to be stored in the storage shelf, is stored in each storage shelf, the warehousing article and the warehousing article already stored in each storage shelf are Calculate the frequency of simultaneous picks, which is the frequency at which articles of different items are shipped to the same shipping destination, and preferentially select the storage shelf with the high simultaneous pick frequency as the storage shelf of the storage location of the incoming goods And having a pick frequency evaluation unit, and the receipts instruction unit for outputting an instruction to store the goods receipt article storage shelves of the selected storage destination, the controller including a time.

According to one aspect of the present invention, since goods received are stored in a shelf with a high probability of being picked at the same timing as stock goods, it is possible to receive goods reflecting the information of the shipping box, and shipment (exit, inspection) Etc.) can be improved. Problems, configurations, and effects other than those described above will be clarified by the following description of embodiments.

It is explanatory drawing of the warehousing operation | work in a warehouse. It is explanatory drawing of the 1st example of the picking operation | work in a warehouse. It is explanatory drawing of the 2nd example of the picking operation | work in a warehouse. It is a block diagram explaining the hardware constitutions of the controller of Example 1 of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the warehousing procedure of Example 1 of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the specific example of the order data which the controller of Example 1 of this invention receives and stores in memory. It is explanatory drawing of the specific example of the calculation which the co-occurrence frequency calculation part of the controller of Example 2 of this invention performs. It is a figure explaining an example of the warehousing operation | work in Example 4 of this invention.

Hereinafter, examples will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the controller 400 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

The controller 400 constituting the warehouse management system of this embodiment is a general computer, and includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 401, a memory 402, an input / output device 403, a network interface 404, and an auxiliary storage device 405. The CPU 401, memory 402, input / output device 403, network interface 404, and auxiliary storage device 405 are connected to each other via a bus 406.

The CPU 401 executes various arithmetic processes. The auxiliary storage device 405 is a non-volatile non-transitory storage medium. Various programs and various data stored in the auxiliary storage device 405 are loaded into the memory 402, and various programs loaded into the memory 402 by the CPU 401. To read / write various data loaded in the memory 402.

The CPU 401 includes a co-occurrence frequency calculation unit 407, a storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408, and a warehousing instruction unit 409. In the memory 402, a program corresponding to each of the co-occurrence frequency calculation unit 407, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408, and the warehousing instruction unit 409, warehousing goods information 410, stock information 411 and order data 412 for each storage shelf. Is memorized. When the CPU 401 executes these programs stored in the memory 402, the functions of the co-occurrence frequency calculation unit 407, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408, and the warehousing instruction unit 409 are realized.

In the warehousing goods information 410 stored in the memory 402, identification information of warehousing goods and the warehousing quantity are registered. The goods that can be received are articles that can be the object of a warehousing operation to be performed in the future, for example, articles placed in the temporary storage area 101 in FIG.

In the inventory information 411 for each storage shelf stored in the memory 402, an identification number of the storage shelf, items of inventory items stored in the storage shelf, and respective inventory quantities are registered. As will be described later, when the order data 412 includes information indicating an article category, the inventory information 411 may further include information indicating an inventory article category.

In the order data 412 stored in the memory 402, identification information of the delivered item, the number of delivered items, a delivery destination, and the like are registered. Details of the order data 412 will be described with reference to FIG.

The network interface 404 is an interface that communicates data with a customer system (not shown) or the like via the network 413, an interface that communicates data with a work instruction device (not shown) installed at a work station, and a transport vehicle 414 and data. Is an interface for communication. The controller 400 and the work instruction device may be connected by wire or wirelessly, and the controller 400 and the transport vehicle 414 are wirelessly connected. Although FIG. 4 shows one transport vehicle 414, a plurality of transport vehicles 414 may actually be connected to the network 413, and these transport vehicles 414 are

transport vehicles

106, 107 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3. 213 and 214.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the warehousing procedure of the first embodiment of the present invention.

First, the controller 400 receives the warehousing goods information 410, the inventory information 411 of each storage shelf, and the order data 412, and stores them in the memory 402 (step 501).

Next, the controller 400 picks the co-occurrence frequency for each item pair, that is, the item pair from the order data 412 and the inventory information 411 stored in the memory 402 by the function of the co-occurrence frequency calculation unit 407 at the same timing. The frequency is calculated based on the items stored in each shipping box (that is, shipped to each shipping destination) or the items and quantities of the articles stored in the shipping box in the past (step 502). Details of this calculation will be described later (see Example 2).

It should be noted that in all embodiments of the present invention, two items of goods stored in the same shipping box (ie, shipped to the same shipping destination) are picked at the same time (ie, simultaneously). Express that. That is, in all embodiments of the present invention, “same timing” and “simultaneous” do not necessarily mean that they are temporally the same.

Next, from the calculation result of the co-occurrence frequency for each item pair, the controller 400 determines the simultaneous pick frequency of any of the warehousing goods and any of the stock goods in the storage shelf by the function of the simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408. The evaluation is made in advance for all empty storage shelves (step 504). Here, the simultaneous pick frequency of a certain storage shelf is such that when the warehousing item is stored in the storage shelf, the warehousing item and the inventory item of the storage shelf of a different item are shipped to the same shipping destination. It is frequency. The simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 calculates the simultaneous pick frequency when it is assumed that the incoming goods are stored in each storage shelf. Details of this evaluation will be described later (see Example 3).

Next, the controller 400 selects a shelf in which the article is received based on the simultaneous pick frequency of any of the warehousing goods evaluated in advance in Step 504 and any of the stock goods in the storage shelf (Step 505).

Next, the controller 400 instructs the system to enter the selected shelf through the work instruction device having the function of the entry instruction unit 409 (step 506). Specifically, the controller 400 gives priority to a storage shelf having a high frequency of simultaneous picking when storing a stored item (for example, at least one item that is a target of a warehousing operation to be performed in the future). May be output via the input / output device 403 or the terminal device (not shown) of the warehouse operator connected to the network 413 from the network interface 404.

Furthermore, in step 506, the controller 400 may transmit an instruction to transport the selected storage shelf to the storage work place to the transport vehicle 414. In accordance with this instruction, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, the transport vehicle 106 or the like transports the storage shelf 104 or the like, and the warehousing worker 102 or the like can start the warehousing operation using the storage shelf 104 or the like.

Steps 504 to 506 are repeated until there are no scanned goods that can be stored (loop starting from step 503). A newly scanned article that can be received may be added during the warehousing operation.

Next, the order data 412 according to the first embodiment will be described.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a specific example of order data 412 received by the controller 400 according to the first embodiment of the present invention and stored in the memory 402.

The order data 412 includes an ID 601, an item 602, a number 603, a delivery destination 604, a delivery work date 605, and an article category 606. Identification information of each row (order row) of the order data 412 is registered in the ID 601. In the item 602, identification information of an article to be delivered is registered. The identification information of an article is information for identifying the type (item) of the article. In the number 603, the number (quantity) of articles to be delivered is registered. In the delivery destination 604, the delivery destination of the article (for example, when the handled article is an article shipped to a store) is registered. In the delivery work date 605, the execution date of the delivery work of the article to be delivered is registered.

The article category 606 is a classification of items of delivered articles, and it is determined in advance which category each article belongs to. Although the method for determining the category to which the article belongs is arbitrary, it is desirable that the article having a similar tendency in quantity to be shipped should be determined to belong to the same category. For example, an article having the same attribute such as food or clothing, or an article that can be substituted for each other may be determined to belong to the same category.

Note that FIG. 6 is merely a specific example, and the order data 412 may not include all of the ID 601 to the article category 606. For example, the order data 412 may not include the item category 606.

Here, one order is associated with one delivery destination with identification information of at least one article delivered to the delivery destination and the number of the articles. Since one line is set for one article, one order may be registered in a plurality of lines. For example, one order for the delivery destination “C2” is registered in two rows with IDs 601 “2” and “3” shown in FIG.

According to the invention described in Patent Document 2, although it is possible to improve the efficiency of the work for carrying in and out of the goods carrying-in / out section and the efficiency of the work for storing the goods in the storage shelf, I can't do it. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, it is possible to reflect the order data, that is, information relating to the correspondence between the delivery destination and the article at the time of warehousing, so that it is possible to improve the work efficiency up to shipping (shipping, inspection, etc.). .

According to the invention described in Patent Document 3, it is not taken into consideration to increase the frequency of picking stock items that are not so frequently issued at the same timing. On the other hand, in this embodiment, since articles that are frequently picked at the same timing are easily stored in the same storage shelf regardless of the shipping frequency, the articles stored in one storage shelf in subsequent picking operations. Are frequently picked at the same time. This makes it possible to improve work efficiency up to shipment.

In this embodiment, in addition to a distribution warehouse that stores and sorts articles shipped to each store, for example, a warehouse that stores articles delivered to a factory and delivers them to the factory, or is shipped from the factory. The present invention can be applied to any type of warehouse as long as it is a warehouse that stores goods, sorts them, and ships them, such as a warehouse that stores articles. The same applies to Examples 2 to 4 described later.

In this embodiment, as a specific example of the co-occurrence frequency for each item pair, a method for calculating the co-occurrence frequency calculated from the order data when all the order data on the day is known will be described. Unless otherwise specified in the following description, each part of the system of the second embodiment has the same function as the parts denoted by the same reference numerals in the first embodiment shown in FIGS. Description of is omitted.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a specific example of calculation executed by the co-occurrence frequency calculation unit 407 of the controller 400 according to the second embodiment of this invention.

This process is executed in step 502 of FIG. This example shows the co-occurrence frequency when the order data 412 shown in FIG. The shipping boxes 701 to 706 in FIG. 7 correspond to the delivery destinations C1 to C6 in FIG. 6, respectively. In this example, the shipping boxes in which the goods A and the goods B are bundled are 3

shipping boxes

702, 705, and 706 out of 6 shipping boxes 701 to 706. Therefore, P (A, B) = P (B, A) = 3/6 can be calculated. Similarly, the co-occurrence frequency P (B, C) of the combination of the article B and the article C = P (C, B) = 4/6, and the co-occurrence frequency P (C, A) of the combination of the article C and the article A = P (A, C) = 2/6 can be calculated.

It should be noted that the co-occurrence frequency for each item pair is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and includes various modifications. Further, not all order data used for calculating the co-occurrence frequency is known. For example, if it is necessary to calculate the co-occurrence frequency when at least a part of the order data on the current day (ie the day when the goods are shipped) is unknown, only the known part of the order data is used. Thus, the co-occurrence frequency may be calculated, or the co-occurrence frequency may be calculated using the estimated order data.

Specifically, for example, when a part of the order data of the day is known and the rest is unknown, the co-occurrence frequency may be calculated from the contents of the goods in the shipping box composed of the known order data. . If all the order data on the day is unknown, the article content of the shipping box may be constructed from the order data past the shipment work date, and the co-occurrence frequency may be calculated from the article content. In this case, the past order data corresponds to an estimated value of unknown order data on the shipping work date. The controller 400 may estimate unknown order data by a method other than the above.

If all the order data of the day can be acquired (that is, all the order data of the day is already known), the co-occurrence frequency can be calculated using the order data, and the work efficiency of the day can be improved. In addition, if the tendency of co-occurrence frequency is assumed to be similar even if the shipping date is different, even if at least part of the order data for the day is missing, in addition to (or instead of) the past By calculating the co-occurrence frequency using the order data, the work efficiency of the day can be improved.

In this embodiment, as a specific example of the simultaneous pick frequency evaluation executed by the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408, a method for evaluating the simultaneous pick frequency of one item A and one of the stock items in the storage shelf will be described. The present embodiment is an example in which a scanned article that can be delivered has a special condition of only one article A. In other words, when the article A is placed in the temporary placement area 101, a storage shelf for storing the article A is selected regardless of whether other articles are placed in the temporary placement area 101 or not. This example can be evaluated. Unless otherwise specified in the following description, each part of the system of the third embodiment has the same function as each part denoted by the same reference numerals in the first and second embodiments shown in FIGS. Therefore, the description thereof is omitted.

The storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 inputs the co-occurrence frequency P (•, •) for each item pair, information for identifying the storage shelf, and inventory information of the storage shelf, and inputs “article” expressed by the equation (1). "Simultaneous pick frequency of A and any of inventory items in storage shelf" is evaluated. This evaluation is performed for all storage shelves that can receive one or more incoming goods.

The storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 evaluates the expression (1) for all storage shelves that can receive one or more warehousing items, and then selects a storage shelf having a large evaluation value in step 505.

Here, a specific example of simultaneous pick frequency evaluation will be described with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG. In this example, the order data 412 registers information instructing sorting of the articles A to F into the shipping boxes 201 to 206, as shown in FIG. As an example, three articles B and one article C are stored in the storage shelf 207, two articles D and two articles E are stored in the storage shelf 208, and the articles A and F are still in any storage shelf. The simultaneous pick frequency evaluation when the storage shelf for storing the article A is selected at the time when the article A is not stored will be described.

In this example, the co-occurrence frequency P (A, B) of the article A and the article B is 1/6. Similarly, P (A, C) is 1/6, and P (A, D), P (A, E), and P (A, F) are all 0. Since the articles B and C are already stored in the storage shelf 207, the simultaneous pick frequency calculated by the equation (1) for the set of the article A and the storage shelf 207 is 1- (1-1 / 6). ) × (1-1 / 6) × (1-0) × (1-0) × (1-0) = 11/36. On the other hand, the simultaneous pick frequency calculated by the equation (1) for the set of the article A and the storage shelf 208 is 1- (1-0) × (1-0) × (1-0) × (1-0). X (1-0) = 0.

In this case, the storage shelf 207 having a higher simultaneous pick frequency is preferentially selected as the storage shelf to which the article A is to be received (step 505), and an article storage instruction is transmitted so as to store the article A in the storage shelf 207. (Step 506). As a result, an article whose storage destination is to be selected (article A in the above example) is already stored with an article having a higher probability of being packed in the same shipping box as that article (that is, shipped to the same shipping destination). The storage shelf (the storage shelf 207 in which the article B and the article C are stored in the above example) is easily stored, and transport for replacing the storage shelf is less likely to occur as shown in FIG. , Work efficiency is improved.

Note that the evaluation method of “simultaneous pick frequency of the article A and any of the inventory items in the storage shelf” is not limited to the above formula (1), and includes various modifications. The second term of the equation (1) is a product of probability values, and information on the accumulation result is obtained depending on the processing system due to an increase in the number of items in inventory, that is, an increase in the probability value accumulated in the equation (1). (Specifically, as a result of the value of the second term becoming so small that it cannot be expressed by the number of significant digits of the processing system, it may be treated as 0). Therefore, the expression (2) corresponding to the logarithmic value of the second item of the expression (1) may be used for the simultaneous pick frequency evaluation. In this case, since the magnitude relationship is reversed between Formula (1) and Formula (2), it is necessary to select a storage shelf with a small evaluation value in Step 505. This makes it possible to select an appropriate storage destination even when, for example, the number of items in inventory is large.

Further, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 changes, for example, P (A, X) in Formula (1) or Formula (2) to P (A, X) ^{n (A)} (where n (A) is the quantity of goods A received) may be evaluated. Specifically, the warehousing goods information 410 acquired in step 501 includes the warehousing quantity of the goods A (for example, the quantity of the warehousing goods A placed in the temporary placement area 101), When all of the items are to be received, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 can perform weighting with the above information. Under the condition that the article A may be shipped to the same shipping destination as the other various articles, the article of the item that may be shipped to the same shipping destination when the quantity of goods A is large It is considered that the frequency of simultaneous picking in actual work is improved when the article A is stored in a storage shelf in which more items are stored. Therefore, by weighting based on the quantity of goods A received as described above, as the quantity of goods A increases, the number of goods that can be shipped to the same shipping destination as the goods A increases. Since the evaluation value of the stored storage shelf is increased, work efficiency is improved.

In addition, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 stores in advance the threshold value of the difference of the warehousing date for each article pair in the system for the purpose of adjusting the delivery timing, and uses the threshold value to formula (1) Or you may correct | amend P (A, X) in Formula (2). Specifically, for example, in the inventory information of each storage shelf acquired in step 501, information on the actual warehousing date of inventory items already stored in each storage shelf (that is, the date stored in each storage shelf) May be included. The storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 sets T _SH (A, X) as the threshold value of the difference between the receipt date of the receipt item A and the receipt date of the inventory item X, and the actual receipt date of the receipt item A and the inventory item X. When the difference from the actual warehousing date is expressed as T (A, X), the co-occurrence frequency P (A, X) of the warehousing item A and the inventory item X in the equation (1) or the equation (2) is, for example, _{P (a, X) (Arctan} (50 (T SH (a, X) -T (a, X))) / π + 0.5) may be corrected as. In this case, the corrected co-occurrence frequency of the incoming goods A and the stock goods X approaches P (A, X) when the difference T (A, X) of the incoming dates becomes smaller than T _SH (A, X). (a, X) is abruptly reduced near the _T SH (a, X), closer to T (a, X) is _T SH (a, X) from the increases as 0.

This makes it easier to store items close to the storage date in the same storage shelf. Generally, articles stored in a storage shelf are preferentially delivered (shipped) from the one with the earliest receipt date. As described above, by storing items close to the receipt date in the same storage shelf, in the actual picking operation, the frequency of picking the items stored in the same storage shelf at the same time (that is, to put them in the same shipping box) is increased. Work efficiency can be improved.

In the above example, the example of the correction based on the difference of the warehousing date is shown, but if the difference is at the time of warehousing, for example, the difference of the warehousing time can be used for the correction.

Alternatively, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 uses Equation (1) or Equation (2) using the product filling rate of the storage shelf for the purpose of suppressing the incoming goods from being distributed to many storage shelves. P (A, X) may be corrected. When the product filling rate of the storage shelf S is expressed as R (S) (0 ≦ R (S) ≦ 1), the co-occurrence frequency P of the incoming goods A and the stock goods X in the formula (1) or the formula (2) For example, (A, X) may be corrected as P (A, X) (1-R (S)). In this case, the corrected co-occurrence frequency of the incoming goods A and the stock goods X approaches P (A, X) as the product filling rate R (S) decreases, and approaches 0 as R (S) increases.

Specifically, for example, the stock information of each storage shelf acquired in step 501 may include information indicating the product filling rate of each storage shelf. Alternatively, the controller 400 holds information indicating the total capacity of each storage shelf and information indicating the size per unit quantity of each article, and the inventory information of each storage shelf acquired in step 501 includes the storage shelf information. Information indicating the quantity of stock items may be included, and the controller 400 may calculate the product filling rate of each storage shelf based on the information. This makes it easier to store incoming goods in storage shelves with a low product filling rate (ie, a large vacancy) and suppresses the distribution of incoming goods to many storage shelves. The frequency can be increased and work efficiency is improved.

When there are a plurality of storage shelves with the maximum evaluation value of Formula (1) (or the minimum evaluation value of Formula (2)), it is free to select which storage shelf from the plurality of storage shelves. For example, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 may select a storage shelf at random from the plurality of storage shelves, or may use another evaluation value for the plurality of storage shelves.

As the above-mentioned “another evaluation value”, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 may adopt the number of types of inventory products in the storage shelf. Specifically, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 calculates an evaluation value so that a storage shelf having a larger number of items of articles already stored has a higher value, and selects a storage shelf having the largest evaluation value. Also good. As more items are stored in one storage shelf, it is considered that the replacement of the storage shelf as shown in FIG. 3 is less likely to occur, so that the work efficiency is improved.

Alternatively, when the order data 412 includes the item category 606 and the inventory information 411 similarly includes the item category information, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 uses the expression (1) (evaluation value) for the item category. The calculation may be performed according to an equation equivalent to the selection of the largest storage shelf) or equation (2) (select the storage shelf with the smallest evaluation value), and the result may be adopted. Specifically, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 does not use the co-occurrence frequency P (A, X) of the article A and the article X, but the article category to which the article A belongs and the article category to which the article X belongs. The simultaneous pick frequency obtained by calculating the co-occurrence frequency with the article and calculating the formula (1) or the formula (2) using the frequency may be used as the evaluation value.

Thus, for example, when trying to select a storage shelf for storing the article A, since the article A is a new product that has never been shipped, the article A is stored in any storage shelf. Even if not, it is possible to calculate the evaluation value of the simultaneous pick frequency between the article A and an article of a different category.

In this embodiment, as a specific example of the simultaneous pick frequency evaluation executed by the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408, a method for evaluating the simultaneous pick frequency of any of a plurality of warehousing goods and any of the stock items in the storage shelf is described. explain. In the third embodiment, the scanned article can be stored under special conditions with only one article A (in other words, when the article A is placed in the temporary placement area 101, other articles are also placed in the temporary placement area. This is an example of calculation (which is performed to select a storage shelf for storing the article A regardless of whether or not the item A is placed), but this embodiment is a generalized example. A plurality of scanned goods that can be stored is assumed to be, for example, an article in a predetermined work area or a group in which articles to be stored are grouped in advance. Unless otherwise specified in the following description, each part of the system of the fourth embodiment has the same function as the parts denoted by the same reference numerals of the first to third embodiments shown in FIGS. Therefore, the description thereof is omitted.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining an example of warehousing work in the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

The difference from FIG. 1 is that the goods received are moved to the front of a predetermined work area (for example, temporary placement area 101) by the belt conveyor 801, and the worker 802 moves the goods received from the belt conveyor to the temporary placement area 101. In addition, a scanner 803 for notifying the system of goods received in the middle of the belt conveyor 801 is provided.

The combination of the belt conveyor 801, the worker 802, and the scanner 803 is an example of a method of moving the goods received to a predetermined work area and notifying the system, and material handling other than the belt conveyor such as an automatic warehousing machine. Devices and incoming goods detection methods may be used. Further, the order of movement of the goods received by the belt conveyor 801 is arbitrary. For example, the articles to be received may be grouped in advance, and the articles to be received in groups may be moved by the belt conveyor 801. In addition, the worker 802 who moves the warehousing article moved to the temporary placement area 101 in advance to the temporary placement area 101 may be a robot instead of a person.

In addition, the incoming goods that move to the temporary storage area 101 may be those stored in the automatic warehouse. In that case, when the automatic warehouse moves the incoming goods to the temporary placement area 101, priority is given to an article having a high simultaneous pick frequency with any of the incoming goods already moved to the temporary placement area 101, based on the simultaneous pick frequency. The order of moving to the temporary placement area 101 may be determined.

In the case of the present embodiment, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408 receives the co-occurrence frequency P (•, •) for each item pair, information for identifying the storage shelf, and inventory information of the storage shelf, and inputs an expression ( 3) Evaluate the “simultaneous pick frequency of any of the articles included in the set G of warehousing articles and any of the inventory articles in the storage shelf”. This evaluation is performed for all storage shelves that can receive one or more incoming goods.

After evaluating the expression (1) for all storage shelves that can receive one or more warehousing items, a storage shelf with a large evaluation value is selected in step 505.

In addition, the evaluation method of “the simultaneous pick frequency of any of a plurality of warehousing goods and any of the stock goods in the storage shelf” is not limited to the above formula (3), and includes various modifications. . The second term of the equation (3) is a product of probability values. Like the equation (1) already explained, the number of articles, that is, the probability value to be integrated increases, so that the information on the integration result falls depending on the processing system. There is a fear. Therefore, Expression (4) corresponding to the logarithmic value of the second item of Expression (3) may be used for the simultaneous pick frequency evaluation. In this case, since the magnitude relationship is reversed between Formula (3) and Formula (4), it is necessary to select a storage shelf with a small evaluation value in Step 505.

Similarly to the third embodiment, the storage shelf simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit 408, for the purpose of changing the weight according to the quantity of goods received, for example, P (A, X in the formula (3) or the formula (4). ) May be changed to P (A, X) ^{n (A)} (where n (A) is the quantity of goods A received).

For example, when the first to third embodiments are applied in a situation where a plurality of items are placed in the temporary placement area 101 as shown in FIG. 8, the controller 400 uses the items of the items placed in the temporary placement area 101. Each time, the processing described in the first to third embodiments is executed to calculate the evaluation value of each storage shelf corresponding to each article. However, in that case, there is a possibility that a different storage shelf for each item may be selected as the storage destination, so that the worker needs to work while confirming the storage destination corresponding to the item. On the other hand, according to the fourth embodiment, the evaluation value of the storage shelf that decreases the frequency of simultaneous picking when the articles of all items placed in the temporary storage area 101 are stored increases. For this reason, by selecting a storage shelf having a high evaluation value as a storage destination, the operator can store the articles placed in the temporary storage area 101 in the selected storage shelf without confirming the item. Work efficiency is improved.

In addition, this invention is not limited to the above-mentioned Example, Various modifications are included. For example, the above-described embodiments have been described in detail for better understanding of the present invention, and are not necessarily limited to those having all the configurations described. Further, a part of the configuration of one embodiment can be replaced with the configuration of another embodiment, and the configuration of another embodiment can be added to the configuration of one embodiment. Further, it is possible to add, delete, and replace other configurations for a part of the configuration of each embodiment.

In addition, each of the above-described configurations, functions, processing units, processing means, and the like may be realized by hardware by designing a part or all of them with, for example, an integrated circuit. Further, each of the above-described configurations, functions, and the like may be realized by software by interpreting and executing a program that realizes each function by the processor. Information such as programs, tables, and files that realize each function is stored in a non-volatile semiconductor memory, a hard disk drive, a storage device such as an SSD (Solid State Drive), or a computer-readable information such as an IC card, SD card, or DVD. It can be stored on a temporary data storage medium.

Also, the control lines and information lines indicate what is considered necessary for the explanation, and not all the control lines and information lines on the product are necessarily shown. Actually, it may be considered that almost all the components are connected to each other.

Claims

A storage unit that holds order information that associates items, quantities, and shipping destinations of articles, and inventory information that indicates items of articles stored in each of a plurality of storage shelves;
Based on the order information, a co-occurrence frequency calculation unit that calculates a co-occurrence frequency that is a frequency at which articles of different items are shipped to the same shipping destination;
Based on the co-occurrence frequency and the inventory information, the warehousing article when it is assumed that at least one warehousing article that is an article to be stored in any of the storage shelves is stored in each storage shelf; and Calculate the simultaneous pick frequency, which is the frequency with which the goods of the item different from the warehousing goods already stored in each storage shelf are shipped to the same shipping destination, and give priority to the storage shelf with the high simultaneous pick frequency A simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit to select as a storage shelf of the storage destination of the goods received,
A warehouse management system, comprising: a controller including an warehousing instruction unit that outputs an instruction to store the warehousing article in the storage shelf of the selected storage destination.
The warehouse management system according to claim 1,
The simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit determines the sum of the values obtained by subtracting from 1 the co-occurrence frequency of each article of an item different from the incoming goods already stored in each storage shelf and the incoming goods from 1 A warehouse management system, wherein a reduced value is calculated as an evaluation value of the simultaneous pick frequency, and a storage shelf having a large evaluation value is preferentially selected as the storage shelf of the storage destination.
The warehouse management system according to claim 1,
The simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit calculates a sum of logarithms of a value obtained by subtracting the co-occurrence frequency of each item of the item different from the warehousing item already stored in each storage shelf and the warehousing item from 1. A warehouse management system characterized by calculating as an evaluation value of a simultaneous pick frequency and preferentially selecting a storage shelf having a small evaluation value as the storage shelf of the storage destination.
The warehouse management system according to claim 1,
The storage unit further holds information indicating the quantity of goods received;
The said simultaneous pick frequency evaluation part selects the storage shelf of the said storage destination based on the said co-occurrence frequency weighted according to the quantity of the said goods goods, The warehouse management system characterized by the above-mentioned.
The warehouse management system according to claim 1,
The warehouse management system, wherein the order information is information associating an item, a quantity, and a shipping destination of an article shipped on the day when the received article is shipped.
The warehouse management system according to claim 1,
The warehouse management system characterized in that the order information includes information associating items, quantities, and shipping destinations of articles shipped on a date prior to the date on which the received goods are shipped.
The warehouse management system according to claim 1,
The warehouse management system, wherein the warehousing article is an article placed in a predetermined work area.
The warehouse management system according to claim 1,
The at least one warehousing item includes a plurality of items.
The simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit is a simultaneous pick that is a frequency at which the received goods of the plurality of items and the goods of an item different from the received goods already stored in each storage shelf are shipped to the same shipping destination. Warehouse management system characterized by calculating frequency.
The warehouse management system according to claim 8,
The simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit determines the sum of the values obtained by subtracting from 1 the co-occurrence frequency of each article of an item different from the incoming goods already stored in each storage shelf and the incoming goods from 1 The reduced value is calculated for each item of the warehousing item, the sum of those is calculated as the evaluation value of the simultaneous pick frequency, and the storage shelf with the large evaluation value is preferentially selected as the storage shelf of the storage destination. A warehouse management system characterized by that.
The warehouse management system according to claim 8,
The simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit calculates a sum of logarithms of a value obtained by subtracting the co-occurrence frequency of each item of the item different from the warehousing item already stored in each storage shelf and the warehousing item from 1. A warehouse that calculates for each item of goods received, calculates a sum of them as an evaluation value of the simultaneous pick frequency, and preferentially selects a storage shelf having a small evaluation value as the storage shelf of the storage destination Management system.
The warehouse management system according to claim 1,
Further comprising a plurality of transport vehicles that communicate with the controller and respectively transport the plurality of storage shelves according to instructions received from the controller;
The warehousing instruction unit instructs the transport vehicle that transports the storage shelves selected by the simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit to transport the selected storage shelves to a predetermined place where the work of storing the warehousing articles is performed. A warehouse management system characterized by transmitting.
The warehouse management system according to claim 1,
The order information and the inventory information further include information indicating a category to which the item of each article belongs,
The co-occurrence frequency calculation unit calculates the frequency at which articles of items belonging to different categories are shipped to the same shipping destination as the co-occurrence frequency,
The simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit, as the simultaneous pick frequency, ships the goods received and goods of items belonging to a category different from the goods stored in the storage shelves to the same shipping destination. Warehouse management system characterized by calculating frequency.
The warehouse management system according to claim 1,
The inventory information further includes information indicating a point in time when an article already stored in each storage shelf is stored in each storage shelf,
The simultaneous pick frequency evaluation unit decreases as the difference between the time when the incoming goods are stored in the storage shelves and the time when the articles already stored in the storage shelves is stored in the storage shelves increases. The warehouse management system characterized in that the simultaneous pick frequency is calculated based on the co-occurrence frequency corrected to be.
The warehouse management system according to claim 1,
The inventory information further includes information indicating a filling rate of articles already stored in each storage shelf,
The said simultaneous pick frequency evaluation part calculates the said simultaneous pick frequency based on the said co-occurrence frequency correct | amended so that it may become so small that the said filling rate is large, The warehouse management system characterized by the above-mentioned.
A warehouse management method executed by a warehouse management system having a processor and a storage unit connected to the processor,
The storage unit holds order information that associates items, quantities, and shipping destinations of articles, and inventory information that indicates items of articles stored in each of a plurality of storage shelves,
The warehouse management method includes:
The processor calculates a co-occurrence frequency based on the order information, which is a frequency at which articles of different items are shipped to the same shipping destination;
When the processor assumes that at least one warehousing article, which is an article to be stored in any one of the storage shelves, is stored in each storage shelf based on the co-occurrence frequency and the inventory information. A procedure for calculating a simultaneous pick frequency, which is a frequency at which an incoming goods and an article of an item different from the incoming goods already stored in each storage shelf are shipped to the same shipping destination;
A procedure for the processor to preferentially select the storage shelf having a high frequency of simultaneous picking as a storage shelf for storing the incoming goods;
A procedure for the processor to output an instruction to store the received goods in the storage shelf at the selected storage destination.