TRANSITIC® has developed a real-time remote control WCS solution for conveyors and sorters.
Logistic platforms are increasingly operating in tight and seasonal supply timeframes (textile industry for example), resulting in sorting rates that can accelerate or decrease rapidly. An unplanned shutdown during the peak collection season can result in a significant shortfall.
The lifespan of its equipment often exceeds twenty years, and their performance can decline rapidly if upgrades or preventive maintenance are not performed in a timely manner.
The performance of an automated sorting installation largely depends on the control of the equipment. Ensuring the continuity of these performances throughout the life of the installation is a difficult.
Therefore, TRANSITIC has developed a WCS module that allows remote interaction with the platform’s equipment and controls its performance through statistical analysis.
This WCS module is available from any smartphone, tablet or PC on the market. It allows the platform manager to view and remotely access each section of the installation, using a camera. As a result, it is also possible for operators, maintenance personnel or logistic managers to remotely perform a quick intervention.
OpenWCS traces the production data of the installation, component by component, equipment by equipment, item by item, operator by operator over several time intervals (hour, day, month …).
The interface has been formalised so that data exploitation can be done by the client. The data analysis tools are provided as standard and can also be configured as needed.
Examples of applications:
Based on the number of items processed by any given workstation, OpenWCS can allocate adequate resources to maintain or increase the rates and then measure over time the real impact of this adjustment on production.
The exploitation of the data also makes it possible to measure the incidence and impact of a breakdown in the production line. Different types of equipment performing similar operations can be compared too in order to identify which equipment to choose and when.
Finally, the production data make it possible to calculate the average transit times of articles between reception and dispatch. This allows operators to organise the day in reverse time: for any given loading time, they can calculate the start time of production in order to ensure the dispatch of packages in time.
