kardex Integrating Pick and Place Robotics Instructions
- June 1, 2024
- Kardex
Table of Contents
kardex Integrating Pick and Place Robotics
Automated Warehouse Picking
Pick and place robotics are enabling warehouses to manage increased inventory stock, process more orders and meet shorter delivery times. In addition, pick and place robotics are helping counter labor shortages many warehouses are challenged with today.
The increasing global trend of robotics used in warehouses proves the adoption
of pick and place robotics is happening globally. Intralogistics automation
accounted for 9.88 billion US Dollar in Europe in 2021, with growth rates of
over 5% forecast for the coming years.
The opportunities for warehouse robotics in Europe in particular appear ideal:
while its share of intralogistics automation in 2021 was only 1.5%, in Asia it
was already 8.3%.
In addition, the robotics sector within intralogistics demonstrated
disproportionate growth, increasing by 21.9% in Europe last year. The
potential of pick and place robots in intralogistics is clear.
Pick and Place Robotics – Global Market, 2020–2026
How Robotics Ensure Greater Efficiency
Today’s intralogistics require automated picking technologies that deliver
fast and reliable results as well as a proven return on investment. Pick and
place robotics successfully meet the growing demands in a warehouse and in
order processing.
They can fully automate order picking, (de-)palletizing, and
putaway/replenishment by picking, handling and placing individual items as
well as cartons and entire totes.
Pick and place robotics seamlessly integrate with existing systems as needed.
For example, a handling robot that travels along an aisle with lift systems
can easily pick individual items or entire bins from the access opening and
put them in order totes, a conveyor belt or pallet.
Robotics are ideal to support
(De-)palletizing
Replenishment
Order picking
(De-)palletizing
Automated depalletizing after the incoming goods area is one of the most
established applications using pick and place robotics. Robots can pick items
or cartons and place them in standard bins. This process can easily be
combined with replenishment.
Palletizing is often a very critical work step from an ergonomic point of view
and frequently associated with only moderate efficiency. Pick and place
robotics can change that. Many warehouses have fully automated this process
step by using robotics to palletize after packaging. The robots can either
palletize on a pallet, roll cage trolley or a container (which is common in
e-commerce).
Replenishment
Easy to combine with the depalletizing process, pick and place robotics can be
used to complete the replenishing task. They can automatically pick articles
from pallets and store them in an automated storage system (e.g. AutoStore or
Vertical Lift Module). This means one single process step for both
depalletizing and replenishment.
Warehouses often separate the replenishment process from the order picking
process. In this case, the robots will support replenishment before or after
peak order picking times.
In addition to placing individual articles in a storage system, the pick and
place robots can also manage cartons or totes for improved efficiency and
ergonomics.
Tip
Pick and place robots use a single part gripper or a gripper for cartons and entire bins. They can automatically change the gripper when necessary
Order picking
In addition to (de-)palletizing and replenishment, pick and place robotics are
also used for order picking. The robots pick individual parts from a storage
system and place them in a bin or on a conveyor for efficient and fully
automated order picking. Integrating pick and place robotics into an order
picking process provides a fully automated flexible and scalable solution that
can be easily adapted as business requirements grow or change.
In a fast-growing market, such as e-commerce, short delivery times are
critical. Pick and place robotics are often used to achieve much higher
throughput meeting the delivery times the market requires. Further, they are
extremely precise and accurate – reducing the amount of returns caused by
incorrectly picked and delivered goods.
Tip
Combine pick and place robotics with automated transport systems like a conveyor system, AGVs or AMRs. This automates processes even further, reduces manual steps to a minimum and maximizes the robot’s full potential (high picking rates and fast transport).
Learn more about oder picking with robotics
Conclusion
More and more companies are searching for automated picking systems. By
implementing pick and place robotics, they alleviate efficiency and labor
challenges.
As evidenced by the predicted growth rates, this is a trend warehouse managers
should not ignore when optimizing their intralogistics processes. Especially
in the wholesale, retail, e-commerce industry as well as in manufacturing –
pick and place robotics prove to be very efficient. Picking robots are also
profitable for small and medium-sized companies.
Following this trend, Kardex offers smart pick and place robotics in
cooperation with experienced partners. Customers can expect fully integrated
robotics solutions from a single source. The robots use a smart 3D vision
software that enables fast detection, measurement and separation of items as
well as volume-optimized placement into totes or cartons. This enables the
robots to pick and place items quickly and precisely without any teach in
processes.
It is also possible to incorporate cobots (collaborative robots) to combine
manual und automated picking. Implemented within automated picking processes,
cobot technologies work alongside workers to process larger quantities with
fewer personnel, 24/7 and with nearly 100 percent precision.
Kardex is a leading Intralogistics solution provider of automated storage,
retrieval, and material handling systems. Supported by robotics experts,
Kardex develops and delivers robotic applications that help customers lower
operational costs with automated pick and place solutions.
Watch the AutoStore® meets
Robomotive video to learn more
