Wireless application integration solution makes cold storage "double preservation" a reality

When you enjoy the fresh and nutritious Alaskan salmon, do you know what kind of "hardship" does this taste have to go from the deep sea to the table? Do you realize that temperature control throughout the process has a crucial impact on the quality of the fish? Do you understand the advanced real-time logistics technology behind this delicious? This article uncovers the "secret" behind you.

In the Qingdao Hongdao Aquatic Industrial Park, which was newly put into operation by the Pacific Enli Group, you can see a busy but orderly scene: after the arrival of the vessels of various fishes that have been frozen after being salvaged, the warehouse personnel use the RF terminal. Check the receipt number to confirm the receipt. Immediately, the forklift delivers the goods to the designated position according to the position allocation information sent by the information system, and scans the inventory information with the RF terminal, and the receipt information is transmitted back to the SAP WM, and the storage operation is completed.

The entire warehousing process is methodical, smooth and smooth. Thousands of tons of frozen fish raw materials removed from each boat can be completely entered into the cold storage in a short period of time, thus ensuring the freshness and quality of the fish. At the same time, the warehousing information is detailed and complete, and the bar code includes data such as the name of the variety, the name of the fishing vessel and the date of fishing. These real-time “preservation” data not only meet the needs of the finished product sales, but also make the future delivery, inquiry, inventory and other operations simple and efficient. It is DEMATIC's advanced real-time logistics technology that turns the “double preservation” of fish and information into reality.

Transforming business processes As a world-famous aquaculture giant, Pacific Andes International Holdings' main business is global sourcing, transportation and supply of frozen seafood. Pacific Enli Food Co., Ltd. is a direct company of Pacific Enli Group in Qingdao, integrating water processing, transportation and trade. Its leading product frozen squid series is recognized as a Class A product in the international aquatic industry and enjoys a high reputation in the aquatic industry at home and abroad.

In order to expand production capacity to meet the growing demand, Pacific Enli Group built a new processing plant in Qingdao Red Island in 2007. The total investment of the first phase of Hongdao project is about 90 million US dollars, and the expected processing capacity can reach 60,000 tons per year. The business of finishing products, such as ready-to-eat products, can be operated at full capacity about two to three years after production.

In order to reduce operational errors, improve efficiency, and strengthen management in cold storage operations, Pacific Enli Group decided to transform traditional business processes, implement SAP business systems, and establish a new IT system architecture. Moreover, in order to obtain the greatest advantage from the implementation of the new ERP system, Pacific Enli Group decided to adopt real-time logistics operations in the cold storage, and finally chose to provide expertise and richness in providing large-scale seamless wireless network coverage in high-interference environments. Experienced Dematic is a supplier and integrator of wireless network systems and is responsible for the design and implementation of real-time logistics.

"demanding" requirements

Due to the industry characteristics of the Pacific Enli Group and the characteristics of this project, it brings some difficulties to the design of the project and the implementation of the project: First, the cold storage temperature of Pacific Enli in Red Island is set at -35 °C (currently - At 28 ° C, it can be upgraded to -35 ° C at any time. In such a low temperature environment, ensuring efficient and stable operation itself puts almost "demanding" requirements on the equipment; secondly, the customer requests in a short time (about 1 It is difficult to implement the design and implementation of a wireless solution that seamlessly connects to the SAP system in the month. Without a powerful wireless application middleware system and an experienced work team.

Based on the above requirements, Dematic's total solutions for Pacific Enli Group include: DEMATIC Pick-Director System (integrated drive interface middleware system integrated with SAP system), Siemens industrial grade wireless AP and room temperature AP, combined with LXE's low temperature wireless mobile terminals, Bluetooth scanners and bar code printers, as well as waterproof and freeze-resistant electronic tags.

The framework of the design can be visually compared to the adult body operating mechanism: SAP is equivalent to the human brain, wireless terminals and the like can be compared to adult hands and feet, and the DEMATIC Pick-Director System (hereinafter referred to as "PDS") acts as a nerve. system. The SAP WM module unifies the underlying wireless device through DEMATIC PDS and feeds the device's execution to the WM module via the middleware. When performing operations such as warehousing/outbound, the SAP WM module issues corresponding instructions. How to drive the device flexibly and efficiently to achieve optimal system utilization is the main function of the middleware.

Take the warehousing process as an example: After the goods arrive at the warehouse, the SAP system issues the warehousing instructions. The DEMATIC PDS downloads/receives the receiving operation instructions of the WM module and automatically distributes the instructions to the underlying device driver hardware to complete the task. The PDS will be flexibly configured according to the busy condition of the system. Immediately, the warehouse personnel use the RF terminal to scan and record the pallet serial number barcode to confirm the receipt. The forklift delivers the goods to the designated position according to the position allocation information sent by the information system, and scans the inventory information with the RF terminal. The receiving result is sorted and summarized by the middleware and then transmitted back to the SAP WM module (Fig. 1).

The best tool for integration

Pacific Enli Group's cold storage in Hongdao mainly stores raw fish and fish products, and the cold storage temperature is set at -28~-35°C. The low temperature environment makes the selection and operation of the equipment quite special: for example, steel structure drive-in shelves and fully enclosed forklifts are used in the warehouse, workers need to scan the barcode through the forklift glass, and the vehicle is equipped with the vehicle terminal. At the same time, in order to enhance flexibility, each car terminal is equipped with a portable wireless Bluetooth scanner. When necessary, workers can walk out of the car and carry a wireless scanner to scan the barcode. In the freezing environment, the device's outer casing, battery, As well as the internal circuit board structure, etc., special processing is required, and the equipment is required to have anti-condensation effect (Fig. 2).

Figure 2 Enli Group cold storage real-time logistics operation diagram

The biggest highlight of the solution is the use of the DEMATIC PDS system. In many integration projects in the industry, it is often encountered that multiple sorting technologies and tools coexist and manage difficulties; ERP/WMS needs to make device-driven interfaces for each device separately; multiple optimization algorithms are complicated, and the running-in time is long; A series of challenges such as lack of scalability and inconvenience in upgrading. To solve these problems, Dematic's proprietary intellectual property PDS/WCS is the best tool to solve these problems. As the unified driving interface middleware of the equipment, PDS can not only manage the order execution instruction actions of all RF, picking trolley, voice picking terminal and electronic label in the warehouse. Moreover, when PDS decomposes and distributes WMS orders, it automatically performs path optimization, load balancing and other intelligent optimization, which not only makes the system achieve the highest efficiency, but also integrates all the automation equipments in Dematic's fully automated DC in the whole system, such as Automated stackers, intelligent conveyors, efficient sorting lines, etc., make the system highly scalable and upgradeable (Figure 3).

Improve efficiency and reduce energy consumption

The system designed and implemented by Dematic has met the needs of Pacific Enli Group, improving daily business operation costs such as improving business processes, improving customer service levels, improving operational efficiency, reducing energy consumption, and meeting the system's rapid launch. Both demand and other aspects will achieve significant results.

Figure 3 Technical highlights of the Dematic wireless application integration solution

Business Process Operations: This system enables Pacific Enli Group to manage orders and related inventory data in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. Through this system, Pacific Enli Group reduced the cost of error rate and processing errors, improved data integrity, inventory visibility and order availability, increased sales and improved customer service levels, enabling customers to lower costs. Enjoy more adequate and timely delivery.

In terms of performance improvement, the most obvious benefit is to reduce the demand for cold forklift trucks. Since the RF terminal system in the wireless environment can present the instructions in front of the operator in real time, the time for searching and waiting for the forklift is greatly reduced. Currently, one forklift per library (with an area of ​​1 km 2) is sufficient.

In addition, the hardware equipment and construction process adopted by this solution can effectively reduce the daily operation and maintenance costs such as system maintenance and energy consumption: the traditional cold storage wireless network construction method is to install the wireless AP outside the cold storage and then penetrate the wall of the cold storage. The antenna is only placed inside the cold storage. The disadvantage of this is that the cold air is leaked after the cold storage wall is perforated. The DEMATIC professional solution adopts a non-through-wall design, that is, all APs are installed inside the cold storage of -28~-35°C, which avoids the leakage of cold air and saves energy consumption. In order to achieve this goal, the solution not only uses the most stable and reliable Siemens low temperature resistant AP, high industrial grade LXE frozen configuration of handheld and vehicle wireless terminals, but also uses professional high gain antennas, low temperature feeders and AP power supply. Modules; and special treatments in cable cabinets such as protective cabinets and optical fibers, while ensuring high-quality wireless signal coverage, greatly improving the overall stability of the system and saving energy consumption, thereby achieving a reduction The purpose of daily system operation and maintenance costs (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Language picking technology integrated into the entire system process

It is worth mentioning that it is because of the mature middleware system products of Dematic and the experienced work team working hard. In a very short period of more than one month, the system has completed the software customization development and SAP interface. Commissioning work. Or because of the core middleware of DEMATIC PDS, the system has a high degree of application scalability and the ability to integrate multiple picking techniques. In the future, in addition to the integration of automated equipment such as automatic sorting lines, Dematek's picking technology, which is suitable for use in another cold storage environment, can be integrated into the entire system process at any time. The voice picking technology can liberate the operator's hands and eyes, so that it can get rid of the inconvenience of operating the wireless handheld terminal with gloves in the cold storage. It can also make the operator focus on the two-hand handling and picking points, giving the work efficiency and Further improvements in accuracy have greatly helped.

Dematic's PDS system design original intention

An analysis of the order fulfillment operation shows that, in addition to picking, the operator actually spends most of the time on things that cannot create value, such as moving from one location to another. In addition to the integration of the system through a unified interface layer, the original intention of PDS development is to help eliminate the part of the chores that do not create value in the operation (for example, accepting instructions, taking equipment, locating and identifying goods, replenishing goods). , packaging, inspection, text work, and error correction, etc.).

Dematic is the first to have project implementation capabilities to support Chinese voice picking technology

Dematic China has always been committed to creating logistics performance for its customers. It is currently the leading voice picking solution integrator in China. The company has mature Chinese speech recognition technology and rich industry application experience. With Dematic's voice picking solution, the order picking efficiency of the user's existing logistics system and equipment can be greatly improved, the order accuracy rate can be significantly improved, the inventory quantity is reduced sharply, and the employee productivity evaluation is also scientific and fair.


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