METHOD OF HANDLING PARCELS, AND A LOGISTICS CENTER FOR HANDLING PARCELS

摘要

A method of handling parcels (2) and a logistics center (1) for handling parcels, use is made of superposable racks (5) and motor-driven shuttle carts (6) that are remotely controlled by a central processing unit (7) to travel in freely guided manner and that are suitable for docking with each rack (5), each parcel (2) is unloaded onto a rack (5) and the destination of the parcel is identified (103), a specific location is assigned (104) to said rack (5) using an outward shipping plan, and said corresponding shuttle cart (6) is caused to move (105) so as to store said parcels (2) side-by-side and in superposed manner, and then, using an inward delivery plan, each rack (5) is docked (110), and each parcel (2) is transferred (111) from said stowage zone (11) to a loading point (3) so that parcels (2) are presented in their order of delivery.

主权项

1. A method of handling parcels (2) in a logistics center (1) for handling parcels (2), the method comprising the steps consisting in unloading the parcels (2) at an unloading point (3) of the center (1), in moving said parcels (2) and in stowing them in organized manner in various segments (12) of a stowage zone (11) of said center (1), each segment corresponding to a shipment of the parcels (2), and then in transferring said parcels (2) waiting for loading from each segment (12) to a loading point (3), said method being characterized in that, in order to move and in order to stow said parcels (2), it further consists in using racks (5) of the nesting type on legs and of different formats (heights and widths), suitable for nesting together by being superposed on one another, and in using independent self-propelled motor-driven shuttle carts (6) suitable for docking (100) with each rack (5), which shuttle carts are controlled individually and remotely to travel in freely guided manner, and in that it further comprises the steps consisting in:
unloading (102) each parcel (2) onto a rack (5) of known format that is docked with and that is motor-driven by a shuttle cart (6); identifying (103) the destination of each parcel (2); using an outward shipping plan associating each destination of a parcel (2) with a shipment so as to allocate (104) a specific location of a segment (12) to said rack (5) carrying said parcel (2), taking account of the format of said rack (5) so as to enable said parcels (2) to be superposed, and causing said shuttle cart (6) to move (105) towards said specific location so as to store said parcels (2) side-by-side and in superposed manner; and using an inward delivery plan specifying the delivery sequence for said parcels (2) within the same shipment so as to cause a shuttle cart (6) to dock (110) with each rack (5) carrying a parcel (2) and so as to cause said parcel (2) to be transferred (111) from said stowage zone (11) to said loading point (3).