Method for warehousing and delivery of articles

• US 5,403,147 A
• Filed: 06/25/1992
• Issued: 04/04/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/1991
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: KAO Corporation
• Original Assignee: KAO Corporation
• Inventors: Tanaka, Nobuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Bucci, David A.
• Application Number:
  US07/904,346
• Time in Patent Office: 1,013 Days
• Field of Search: 414/786, 414/273, 414/281, 364/478
• US Class Current: 414/807
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1371 with data records

Abstract

A method for storing articles in an automatic storage facility 10 comprises steps of checking whether a scheduled warehousing amount of articles is greater than an available storage capacity of an intended storage facility on the basis of the scheduled warehousing amount and the available storage capacity, and assigning partial amount of the scheduled warehousing articles to warehouse in an overflow area 26 when the scheduled warehousing amount is greater than the available storage capacity, and subsequently initiating warehousing operation for all of articles to be warehoused to the automatic storage facility 10 and the overflow area 26.

Claims

1. A delivery method for delivering articles from a storage including a primary storage facility having specialized storage portion exclusively storing preliminarily registered articles and a common storage portion for randomly storing articles, characterized in that when one kind of articles has an earlier warehousing date than that of the corresponding kind of articles stocked in said common storage portion of said primary storage facility and there is a vacant space in said specialized storage portion of said primary storage facility, the articles in said auxiliary storage facility are delivered after being transferred to said specialized storage portion of said primary storage facility.

2. An article transfer method for transferring articles between a primary storage facility having a specialized delivery port for exclusively delivering preliminarily registered articles and an auxiliary storage facility, characterized in that when a specialized storage portion for exclusively storing preliminarily registered articles becomes vacant, and when the articles having the oldest warehousing date are stocked in said auxiliary storage facility, said oldest articles are transferred to said specialized storage portion of said primary storage facility.

3. A method of warehousing articles collectively in an automatic storage facility comprising the steps of:

collectively arranging kinds and amounts of all articles to be warehoused before initiating the warehousing thereof;

comparing a schedule of articles to a warehoused amount of articles and an empty shelf number in the automatic storage facility;

outputting if the empty shelf number is insufficient, a list containing data of overflow amount, scheduled warehousing amount of each scheduled kind of articles to be warehoused and stock amount of each kind of articles in the automatic storage facility;

selecting articles to be warehoused and those not to be warehoused with reference to the list;

depositing selected articles to be warehoused;

conveying the articles not to be warehoused to a separate storage area with a crane of an automatic storage facility;

outputting if the empty shelf number is large, a restoring list containing data of empty shelf numbers of an automatic storage facility, kinds and amounts of articles stored in the separate storage area and stock amount of each corresponding kind of articles in the automatic storage facilities;

selecting articles to be warehoused from the separate storage area to the automatic storage facility with reference to the restoring list; and

then, initiating the warehousing of articles from the separate storage area.

4. A method of warehousing articles according to claim 3, wherein data of the kinds and amounts of articles are inputted when warehousing the articles, and after completion of warehousing of all the articles, articles are subjected to warehousing inspection by displaying a scheduled warehousing amount and a resultant warehousing amount for each kind of article warehoused.

5. A method of warehousing articles in a storage facility with a plurality of cranes, at least one of the cranes having a rack with a plurality of storage positions for receiving only a registered kind of article,

the method comprising the steps of:

registering a least storage amount of articles stored in a delivery-only position or the rack;

warehousing that kind of article in the rack until the least storage amount is stored;

warehousing that kind of article on an empty shelf, if available, when the least storage amount of that article has been stored in the rack, and when the least storage amount of all kinds of articles have been stored;

subtracting a deficiency of each kind of insufficient article from an empty shelf; and

warehousing that kind of article in an empty shelf, if available, or in a different rack, if a shelf is not available.

6. A method of warehousing according to claim 5, wherein only a kind of article registered for a delivery-only storage portion of a rack is stored in that rack with that delivery-only storage portion.