System and method for handling returned goods in an order-picking system

• US 20100198391A1
• Filed: 12/18/2009
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SSI Schaefer Peem GmbH
• Original Assignee: SSI Schaefer Peem GmbH
• Inventors: Schäfer, Gerhard
• Granted Patent: US 8,634,954 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/216
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1378 the orders being assembled on fixed commissioning areas remote from the storage areas

Abstract

A system and method for storing returned goods (56) of different type of goods in an order-picking system (10), wherein the order-picking system (10) comprises a container warehouse (12) for providing a plurality of storage containers (52, 54), and at least one workstation (14) at which the returned goods (56) in the storage containers (52) from the container warehouse (12) are, in a return mode, delivered, the method comprising the following steps: providing (70) at least one returned good (56) of a first type of goods at a delivering station (16), detecting (72) of each of the returned goods (56) and, preferably separately, delivering the returned goods (56) to a returned-goods conveyor (32) conveying the returned goods (56) to the workstation (14), identifying (74) the type of goods of each of the detected returned goods (56), identifying (76) a storage container (52) with which the respectively identified type of goods is associated, retrieving (78) the respectively associated storage container (52) from the container warehouse (12), and conveying this storage container (52) to the workstation (14), and at the workstation (14) delivering (80) the returned goods (56) to the associated storage container (52).

Claims

1. A method for storing returned goods of different type of goods in an order-picking system, wherein the order-picking system comprises a container warehouse for providing a plurality of storage containers, and at least one workstation at which the returned goods are, in a return mode, delivered in the storage containers from the container warehouse, the method comprising the following steps:

providing at least one returned good of a first type of goods at a delivering station;

detecting each of the returned goods and delivering the returned goods to a returned-goods conveyor conveying the returned goods to the workstation;

identifying the type of goods of each of the detected returned goods;

identifying a storage container with which the respectively identified type of goods is associated;

retrieving the respectively associated storage container from the container warehouse, and conveying the retrieved associated storage container to the workstation; and

delivering the returned goods, at the workstation, to the associated storage container.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the returned goods are separately delivering to the returned-goods conveyor conveying the returned goods to the workstation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieved storage containers are stored back into the container warehouse after a completed delivery of the returned goods.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the container warehouse comprises at least one horizontally rotating container rack.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a length or transporting velocity of the returned-goods conveyor towards the workstation is selected such that sufficient time is remaining for sequencing the storage containers to be retrieved.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein, during the step of detecting, additionally a number of returned goods of the same type of goods, which is to be delivered to the returned-goods conveyor, are additionally detected.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the workstation, in a picking mode, is configured for picking goods from the storage containers into order containers.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising the additional steps:

providing a storage-container conveyor between the at least one workstation and the container warehouse for supplying and transporting away storage containers; and

providing an order-container conveyor for delivering and transporting away order containers to and from the workstation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the order-container conveyor is arranged, at least in a region of the workstation, lower than the storage-container conveyor.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the storage-container conveyor is the returned-goods conveyor, and in the return mode the storage-container conveyor is operated in an opposite direction in comparison to the picking mode.

11. An order-picking system for handling returned goods of different types of goods comprising:

a container warehouse for providing a plurality of storage containers;

at least one workstation;

at least one delivery station having a detecting device, where returned goods are provided and detected;

a returned-goods conveyor arranged to convey returned goods from the delivery station to the workstation;

a storage-container conveyor arranged to convey storage containers to the workstation; and

a warehouse-management system being configured, in a return mode, to identify detected returned goods with respect to the type of goods thereof, in order to retrieve storage containers, which are associated with the identified type of goods, from the container warehouse, and convey them to the workstation, where the identified returned goods are delivered to the associated storage containers.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the delivery station is coupled to the storage-container conveyor, which in the return mode is used as the returned-goods conveyor, wherein a conveying direction is reversed in comparison to a picking mode.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the returned-goods conveyor represents a separate conveyor relative to the storage-container conveyor.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the returned-goods conveyor comprises a handing-over location at each of the workstations, where the returned goods can be delivered from the top to the bottom into the associated storage containers.

15. The system of claim 11, further comprising an order-container conveyor, on which substantially order containers are conveyed, if the system is operated in a picking mode, and on which, in the return mode, substantially associated storage containers are conveyed.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the returned-goods conveyor comprises a returned-goods sequencing device.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the conveyor, which is provided for the conveyance of the associated storage containers in the return mode, comprises a storage-container sequencing device.