NodeX™

DCA worked closely with Attabotics to develop their next generation stock picking workstation to maximise efficiency, ergonomics and operator safety during the picking operation.

In the Attabotics system, product bins are retrieved from the store, transported to the workstation and presented to the operator for order picking on wirelessly controlled trolleys, known as Ants. Attabotics were concerned that any disruption to the wireless communication could result in an Ant moving in an unexpected and uncontrolled manner. If this occurred while the Ant was at the picking station, there was a risk of serious injury to the operator, despite the presence of protective safety light curtains.

To address this concern, DCA developed a concept in which the product bins were separated from the Ants before being presented to the operator at the picking station. The mechanism by which this was achieved is powered and controlled via a hard wired system, removing the uncertainty associated with wireless communications, while the bins are physically locked in position at the picking station, removing any risk of unexpected movements.

We then worked closely with Attabotics and their manufacturing partner to create a detailed design for the next generation workstation incorporating the new layout and structure in which the Ants pass through the rear of the workstation and each bin is separated from its Ant, carried forward to the picking station by the new transfer mechanism, before being returned to its Ant and carried back into the store once the operator completes their picking task.

Dual picking stations were introduced to avoid unproductive dwell times while bins were being transferred to and from the Ant, thereby optimising system efficiency.

We were also asked to improve the ergonomics for operators reaching into the picking bins, particularly in the case of smaller users reaching for objects held in the rear most locations in the deeper format of bin. The REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) ergonomic assessment tool was employed extensively to aid the selection of the best layout to address this issue. 3D CAD models and physical ergonomic mock-ups were then used to help verify the ergonomic layout that was integrated into the overall workstation design and developed for manufacture.