ROBOTIC PICKING STRATEGIES FOR E-COMMERCE … Piece Picking Success Stories_Kumar.pdfcarts by...

ROBOTIC PICKING STRATEGIES FOR E-COMMERCE FULFILLMENT

DHL Supply Chain

Robotics & AI Summit, Boston

Presented by: Adrian Kumar, Vice President, DHL Supply Chain

June 19th, 2018

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Agenda

• DSC Digitization Initiative

• E-Commerce Profile

• Robotic Picking

• Swarming Deep Dive

• Automated Picking

• Conclusions

Robotic Picking Strategies | June, 2018

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DSC Digitalization Initiative

DHL is actively driving a Digitalization agenda from assessing promising

concepts to industrializing innovation

• Digitalization is changing the face of logistics,

our customers are increasingly looking to help

them navigate this fast evolving technological

landscape.

• Trend communities have been formed with

SME‘s across the business, these

communities are categorized into: Physical

Objects, Communication, Data Analysis and

Enabling Technologies

• Today will talk about some of the work taking

place in warehouse robotics and AGV trend

community (Adrian Kumar – trend

Champion)

BLOCKCHAIN

SUPPLY CHAIN

VISIBILITY

AUTONOMOUS &

AUTOMATED

GUIDED

VEHICLES

ROBOTICS

PROCESS

AUTOMATION

IOT &

WEARABLES

3D PRINTING

MOBILE

TECHNOLOGY

DIGITAL INFRA-

STRUCTURE

AUGMENTED &

VIRTUAL

REALITY

UAV/DRONES

TRANSPORT

OPTIMIZATION

ANALYTICS/

BUSINESS

INTELLIGENCE

PHYSICAL

INFRA-

STRUCTURE

SOLUTION

CENTRIC

SUPPLY

CHAINS

WAREHOUSE

ROBOTICS

WAREHOUSE

OPTIMIZATION

MACHINE

LEARNING

DIGITAL

SECURITY

DSC

Digitalization

Agenda


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E-commerce Warehouse


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Office Supplies

Paper clips Post-it notes USB drives File folders

Back to School

Gym shorts Spiral notebooks Backpack Penny loafers

Household Purchases

Clothes Paper towels Gloves Cleaning wipes

Typical E-Commerce Order


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E-commerce operations have a challenging profile, small order

quantities, large number of SKUs, rapid turn times

Manual Operations


Manual cart solution usually involve picking multiple

orders at a time by pushing the cart through the

aisles, picking the required items and sorting to the

corresponding order on. Assignments begins at the

cart-prep station and end at the pack-out area.

OVERVIEW DEMONSTRATION

Benefits Low capital cost

Flexible solution

Challenges Productivity challenges and congestion

Limited by WMS on order grouping and pick-

path. Long travel paths

Long cycle time

BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES

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Manual Operations

Conventional pick instructions are usually communicated via an RF Gun,

requiring the user to have a certain amount of familiarity with the

environment

• The RF Gun is a flexible piece of equipment, used for multiple functions thus requires

set up time for each task, sometimes > 10 input fields are required

• Picking requires the user to understand a slot location numbering convention, usually an

alpha numberic code, not necessarily easy for off the street associates

• A considerable amount of time is spent interacting with the pick assist device


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80% 20%

Manual

Operations

Mechanized /

Automated

• Manual cart picking is the

predominant method used in

piece picking operations

• While larger operations can

justify mechanization /

automation options

• Smaller to mid size operation

can enhance cart picking

through various options to drive

efficiencies

Traditional Warehouse Automation


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Traditional Warehouse Automation

• Traditional warehouse

automation often requires its

own infrastructure for:

1. Storage

2. Movement

3. Systems

• Often appropriate for larger

installs where profile is known

and set

• Automation with out

infrastructure opens the space

up to more operations


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Why Robotics?

In the warehouse, picking is the most important function in fulfilling an order. But unit picking – handling

individual items – is labor intensive. And today, 3 factors are driving companies to seek out more

intelligent picking methods to drive efficiency and reduce costs.

The answer? Mobile collaborative robots that can

fit to existing infrastructure without costly

investment and major structural change,

with free-form navigation.

The supply chain

talent gap is making

labor harder to find.

2

With the rise of eCommerce

customers expect faster

deliveries – making unit picking

even more labor intensive.

1

Companies need

flexible solutions –

without large

investment.

3


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Robotic Picking Strategies - Cart Solutions

Follow-me carts remove the need for pickers to push

carts by following them as they work.

Lead-me carts remove the need for a pick assist

device, leading the pickers to the next location with

the navigational guidance and pick task information.

Each robot then travels automatically to the pack-out area, and the picker is met

by the next robot ready for picking.


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Robotic Picking Strategies - Zone-Based Solutions

Swarming robots carry an

order tote and travel to the

location the order needs an

item from. The pickers pick

items to the robots that arrive

in their zones via a display,

keeping them completely

hands free.

Retrieval robots bring items by bin to the picker at the put-station.

The picker takes the items and transfers them to the order tote. The

robot then takes the bin back to storage, and retrieves the next item

needed.

Shuttle robots move order totes from

one zone to the next, as the order is

fulfilled. The pickers stay in their

zones with pick assist devices, picking

to the order totes that arrive in their

zones.


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Robot Picking Strategies

Expensive Programed Caged and

Fixed Expensive Programed

• One order picker sees

through the entire order(s)

assigned to them from

start to finish

• Pick cart design can vary,

depending on the order

profile it is targeted for

PICKING CART SOLUTION

• An order picker is assigned to a

specifically defined zone in a

pick area and responsible for all

the orders required an item in

the zone

• Often enabled by conveyors

ZONE BASED SOLUTION


Robotic Picking Strategies

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Robot Picking Strategies - Demonstration


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Robotic Picking Strategies - Summary

Various robotic picking strategies discussed have different

trade offs with respect to operating vs capital costs. In

general, higher capital results in higher productivity but at a

diminishing rate


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Swarming Approach

• Leverages WMS and works in

a ‘task to person’ manner

- User friendly

- Works within existing

infrastructure

- Scalable

• Middleware supports zone,

cluster and batching strategies

common in e-fulfillment


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Swarming Approach - Maneuverability & Autonomy

Multiple

robots in

same

aisle can

“leapfrog”

each

other

Two-way

navigation

allows

two

opposing

robots to

pass

Ability to turn

around and

switch

direction

shortens

travel

distances

Robots

autonomously

maneuver

around people

and obstacles

instead of

waiting

Robots

autonomously

re-plan their

path if the

optimal path is

blocked

One-

Way

option

is much

longer


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Swarming Approach - Communication

Provides associates with the ability to determine the closest robots based upon proximity to

enhance productivity.

Where are the

robots? Check

the on the top of

your pick

screen!

Real time color indicator

reflects the status of the

robots:

– blue all traveling,

- Green at least 1 pickable

bot.

Optional robots location

grid, red marker is current

location

Shows the

closest aisles &

robots

In this case:

pickable bots in

NJ, NH, ND,

NC, MD


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Swarming Approach – Order Cycle Time

• Order cycle time is an increasing critical metric

• Typical order cycle time in batch pick

operations modeled at 4+ hours from waving to

shipping

• Swarming solutions have the potential to

reduce the order cycle time due to the

following factors:

– Orders are cluster picked, thus eliminating

consolidation touches with batch picking

– Assignments have only 3 orders on them,

resulting in faster turn times

– Optimized clustering of ‘like’ orders,

minimizing the travel

• Est cycle time (from waving to loading), for

orders handled by Locus modeled at <2 hours

a 50%+ reduction Key touches eliminated with

Locus vs batch picking

Cycle time reduced by

more than half versus

conventional picking


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Sorting Robots

• Robotic solutions can also be an alternative for traditional conveyor, sortation

equipment

• These solutions reduce the cost of entry for traditional sortation equipment

and similar to collaborative piece picking robots have advantages in terms of

scalability


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Sorting Robots


• Sorting robots are not constrained but a linear flow, induction points can be

interspersed with sortation points, providing the opportunity to minimize travel

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Sorting Robots

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Automated Robotic Picking

• The complexity associated with sorting and

picking through scattered items of varying

weight, size and orientation is extremely

challenging to automate

• Practical solutions are still at their infancy,

but results from the Amazon Picking

Challenge show exponential annual

improvements

Year/Item 2015 2016 2017

Winner RBO Delft ACRV

Pick Rate 40 100 120

Accuracy 77% 83% 94%

2015 - Team RBO 2016 - Team Delft 2017 - Team ACRV


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• Automating this final step requires robots that can

essentially think and draw on history for learnings

• Kindred, a San Francisco-based robotics and artificial

intelligence startup, is bringing its human-assisted

robotic arms and putwall “Sort” solution to companies

like GAP

• This is a unique approach as humans assist the robots

from central control rooms to help perform tasks the

machine is incapable of, while generating data for the

whole system to improve in the future (AI techniques)

• Over time algorithms should take over more and more

complex tasks.

• Also unique is the commercial arrangement, a pay-per-

intelligent action, which prices the use of the AI and

hardware combined. Tasks which require more

processing power, human intervention cost more

Kindred Sort putwall solution


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Conclusions

• DHL engaged in various digitization initiatives

• Advances in robotics supporting various warehouse pick

strategies

• DHL seeing significant productivity and cycle time

advantages associated with “swarming” approach

• Automated picking next evolution in robotics

“ Both humans and machines have their strengths. It

is up to us to combine them harmoniously and, in so

doing, make our world simpler, more flexible and

more livable.”

Frank Appel, CEO,

Deutsche Post DHL


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