Understanding the contents of your warehouse and their precise locations is critical for operational efficiency. Steiner Roberts, Business Development Manager at Turck Banner, shares insights on advancing warehouse management to achieve optimal efficiency.
Everyone who runs a warehouse knows that space is expensive, the stock is expensive and even more expensive when it gets moved, and you lose track of it. Some distribution warehouses even have airport-style security to ensure nothing leaves by the wrong exit.
Turck Banner and its sister company, Turck Vilant, have a unique track and trace system that can tell users what is in their warehouse and where it is in real-time.
The simplest warehouses often use shelf locations in alphanumeric order, with one location for each product. This is very inefficient in terms of the space requirement, as a location is required regardless of whether there is currently any stock or not. Gaps must be left for new products to be accommodated between current locations or for larger quantities of the current items to fit in the correct location. This system doesn’t require any form of tracking beyond goods in and goods out but is the most prone to errors and misplaced items.
A chaotic warehouse system has numbered locations that are filled based on quantity and product dimensions, not part numbers. The system keeps track of what product is in which location and directs the warehouse person to either place items in a location or pick from a location. This solution is a much more efficient use of space, as any product can use every location. However, it still relies on someone using the correct location and not moving anything.
Often, these two systems are combined with a barcoding solution, where every product carries a barcode, and the warehouse person scans each item’s barcode when they pick or place the item in a location. This confirms that the correct item is selected but is still vulnerable to items being moved or removed without the system’s instruction. Errors also commonly occur when a warehouse person scans the same item multiple times instead of correctly scanning each similar item. For example, they are instructed to pick three of item A; they scan the first barcode three times but have picked up two of item A and one of a different item, as many products look similar. Barcodes can only be read at close range, one at a time and in direct line of sight, which limits their use where large quantities are involved.
RFID tags can be read from a greater distance, do not need line of sight and multiple tags can be read simultaneously. This allows a whole pallet of goods to be inventoried without removing any items from their containers. There are standards for the data content of RFID tags defining products, shipments and assets, allowing shipments from multiple suppliers to be received without issue. RFID tags are more robust and reliable than barcodes but generally cost more. Bulk quantities of low-value items are often identified with a single RFID tag.
In a busy shipping area, pallets of goods with RFID tags can be passing readers in many directions at the same time. i.e. goods being loaded or unloaded and goods being transported to and from other storage locations. The inventory system must be able to distinguish between all of these cases, accurately identify the tags that it should be reading, and ignore any other tags in the vicinity, including the stray tag that has become stuck to the forklift that is transporting the goods.
RFID tags need to be within a few meters of the reader to be read, and installing enough read heads to cover every location in a warehouse would normally be impractical. RFID warehousing systems still rely upon the operator placing the items in the location they were directed to and not moving an item to create space for another item.
Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), in simplistic terms, use beacons in fixed locations within a warehouse or factory that are used to triangulate the position of the receiver, in a similar way to GPS navigation in cars and mobile phones. GPS can be used to track goods in real-time and is often the choice for use outside and during transport between factories.
Inside factories and warehouses, RTLS typically uses either UWB (Ultra Wide Band) Radio or BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) as both are low power, cover relatively short transmission ranges of 30-200m, are resistant to interference, and are highly accurate, typically pinpointing locations with 50cm to 90cm.
RTLS would seem like the perfect solution to the warehousing problem. Put a ‘tag’ on every item, and you can find its location, wherever it is, in real time. Unfortunately, the RTLS equivalent of a tag is often more expensive than the item it would be attached to and requires a battery. So, typically, RTLS is only used to track high-value assets, vehicles, and people.
However, Turck Vilant has combined these technologies to create an accurate and reliable warehousing solution that integrates seamlessly with a company’s ERP (Enterprise resource planning) and WMS (Warehouse Management System) to automate the track and trace of goods in real-time.
The unique Turck Vilant system tracks the position of the forklift trucks and other transport devices using RTLS, and this is combined with the height data from the position of the forks and an RFID reader mounted on the truck to inventory the pallet. This combined data lets the system know exactly where any pallet has been placed and what is on that pallet. Other systems fail due to the unauthorised movement of goods, whereas any time a pallet is lifted or moved with the Turck Vilant system, it automatically tracks the new location in real-time.
In sectors where track and trace is a legal requirement, such as the medical industry, this unique solution provides a complete, real-time stock inventory at the push of a button.
The solution provided by Turck Vilant offers the next step in warehouse efficiency, combining advanced technologies to ensure accurate and real-time tracking of inventory. This system enhances operational efficiency and meets stringent industry standards, making it an invaluable tool for modern warehouse management.
