Introduction
In the dock zone area of warehousing technology, automatic dock and dock associated zone refers to the receiving and shipping areas which addresses from “truck at dock” to “ready for put away” and also from “getting ready to ship” to “shipping”. This is frequently the last area that is automated and receives the minimum of automation. The low level of automation is usually related to minimum improvement in space utilization, a need for maximum flexibility. If you include inbound inspection and prepping for stock put away, there can be some headcount reduction possibilities.
Dock Zone Equipment
The simplest material handling equipment in this area is a pallet jack (shown in Figure 1.), which is used to manually move skids to and from trucks and to various locations in the warehouse. For moving boxes various carts (shown in Figure 2.) are available.
From this basic material handling equipment various levels of automation are possible. This includes:
Forklifts
- Side loaders
- Turret trucks
- Straddle trucks
- Powered pallet jacks (walkies)
- Extendable conveyers and rolls, automated guided vehicles system (AGVs)
- Various conveyers (possibly including sortation conveyers) and rollers to deliver goods to inbound inspection, receiving operations and put away drop areas or stage areas for shipment
- Repackage products, count them and perform some inspection activities both inbound and outbound.
- Robots that can de-palletize loads, palletize loads and wrap them for shipping and automatic truck loading and unloading systems (shown in Figure 3.)
Some of this equipment is flexible enough to serve multiple purposes such as related to stock picking for customer fulfillment and stock put away and other internal stock movement. Some of this equipment may have automatic direct or indirect ability to interface with the warehouse management system (WMS) for reporting, tracking, and being directed by the WMS and sub systems for specific equipment or functions. If not, usually some tools such as barcode scanners are used in conjunction with the equipment. Sometimes the sensors necessary for highly automated equipment may link the apparatus to interface with the WMS.
Conclusion
The proper management and utilization of above mentioned equipment used in dock zone can efficiently handle the high inbound and outbound volume at the warehouse. Efficiency is improved through reducing the distance between the dock and stock and through use of multi-purpose equipment such as programmable depalletizer-palletizer robot, which in turn saves storage space for the equipment. Reduction in equipment storage space can open up valuable area in the warehouse, together with cost saving opportunities.
Disclaimer:
Avicast does not guarantee any results and does not incur any liability with regards to the information provided in this article. Avicast cannot and does not warrant the accuracy, correctness or completeness of the information and interpretation in this article.
