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Edward Lowton
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Optimising efficiency and space
08 February 2017
An automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) is enabling the Lear Corporation factory at Coventry to triple the output of car seats to more than 300,000 sets a year in hundreds of different specifications and meet customers' just-in-time delivery schedules.
Designed and installed by Gebhardt European Conveyor Systems, the ASRS takes components from multi-level storage racking to the production area with minimal manual handling and replenishes stock, freeing floor space and improving productivity and safety.
The racking can store more than 20,000 trays of products in two sizes and is served by 14 multi-level shuttles (MLS) in four of the aisles and a single mini-load crane in the central fifth aisle.Potential throughput is 770 trays/hour to picking stations. Totes with completed orders are delivered by conveyor to a specific drop point in the assembly area.
The ASRS system also enables 185 trays/hour to be delivered from an incoming induction area into the racking. Shuttles and crane are compact and fast-moving, and all products can be stored in all parts of the system.
A Gebhardt warehouse control system controls all high-level functions in the automation, such as the routing of the trays on the ASRS and the conveyor systems, the location of the trays in the ASRS, the linking of products with the tray identification, and it also manages the HMI screens on the system.
