Mushiny has added its new MIX ALL-in-one-goods-to-person solution to the market. The industrial automation company’s co-founder and CTO, Tony Huang, speaks to MHD about its unique advantages.
As Mushiny settles itself into the Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) market, it continues rolling out innovative labour-saving autonomous products for logistics warehousing – including its new MIX All-in-one-goods-to-person (GtP) solution.
The MIX is a flexible solution that integrates the storage and picking of pallets, shelves and totes within the same system. This allows the seamless picking of products that are large and small, or fast and slow moving, into a single consolidated order.
It is also adept at handling both larger retail and e-commerce orders simultaneously. It can be deployed in a range of industries including 3PL, retail, e-commerce, fashion FMCG, medical equipment, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical.
Unlike a traditional GtP system, the MIX solution relies on AMRs to move PODs from the inventory area to the picking station, allowing the operator to stand at the station and directly pick the product from the tote or shelf.
REACHING NEW AUTOMATION HEIGHTS
The MIX station enables products to be easily decanted into tote boxes, which are then robotically loaded into tote storage PODs. AMRs are deployed to transport these PODs for storage and retrieve them again when customer orders are available.
The MIX station unloads the totes with the required SKUs to enable ergonomic, productive, and highly accurate order fulfilment. Shelf and pallet PODs can also be processed via the MIX for picking of larger or faster moving products.
“There’s no need for the operator to face the shelf, which makes it easier to use,” explains Tony.
“There’s less manual labour and a reduction of walking time. The operator doesn’t need to travel to 20 or 30 different locations in the warehouse. The operator simply needs to stand and pick products.”
Because SKUs are scanned into barcoded tote boxes there is no need to scan products at picking which promotes productivity.
“Operators can fit more products in the same footprint due to the AMRs ability to carry up to 1,500kg,” says Tony.
One of the many reasons why the MIX solution has a wide range of applications within intralogistics is because it can deal with small, medium, and large orders, totes, PODs, and pallets.
“Some orders involve both large and small products. If the product is too big for the tote, we can store it on a pallet or shelf and transport it to the pick station automatically,” adds Tony.
“Having separate pick processes for different-sized SKUs and then manually consolidating is costly, but with the MIX solution, operators can pick the goods directly into one pre-consolidated order.”
It can also be used in refrigerated facilities dealing with cold chain due to its ability to operate in temperatures of minus 14 degrees.
GUARANTEEING SAFETY AND SUPPORT
In terms of safety, the MIX solution has a double-light guard protection at its workstations to ensure operator safety and that no goods are damaged.
“The decentralised nature of AMR solutions results in high operational fault tolerance; however, all equipment is at ground level and therefore very easy to access and service,” says Tony.
“Each MIX station has dual independent robotic tote handling mechanisms and tote buffering, so there is no single point of mechanical failure. Mushiny can provide maintenance support for both software and hardware to its customers, with the local team in Australia able to install, update, and service the MIX solution.”
Software engineers at Mushiny’s headquarters in China can update the MIX solution’s cloud-based system and its support team is available 24/7.
POWERING EFFICIENCIES WITH ALGORITHMS
Adaptability is one of the MIX solution’s strengths. It can be customised to various heights, support mixed PODs, interface with conveyor lines, and is flexible for various application scenarios.
With an AMR capacity of 1500kg and totes up to 30kg, the resultant POD maximises storage capacity and provides a high-density storage solution. The ability of Mushiny’s R-WMS to analyse SKU volume history and future demand enables PODs to be stored multi-deep, further maximising storage density.
The MIX station includes 42 tote locations to buffer hot products, eliminating the need for transportation to and from storage between batches. Combined with the high storage capacity of the tote POD and tote handling rate of the robots, pick productivity and throughput is maximised.
Full implementation from Order to Go Live typically only takes six months, and the modular design means there’s limited disruption to expand capacity or reconfigure the layout. It also makes it easier to configure a solution to an existing warehouse with layout constraints.
Investment for expansion is limited to adding robots, workstations or PODs, and can be enacted as the customer’s business grows.
Tony concludes: “Overall, if a business wants to have a flexible and adaptable GtP that’s safe, sustainable, efficient, saves on labour, and increases ROI, our MIX goods-to-person solution should be the number one on their list.”
For more information on Mushiny, click here.