Supply Chain Opinion
Extricom provides seamless mobility for Kiva Systems’ Mobile Fulfilment System
S
peed and efficiency are critical business metrics in all logistics operations, none more so than in retail distribution centres. How fast and accurately an order is fulfilled
often determines whether customers come back for more. Ultimately, that efficiency can mean the difference between success and failure for an online retailer. Pushing these metrics to their limits is the driving force behind Kiva Systems Mobile Fulfilment System (MFS), a robotic automation system that can reportedly double worker productivity and streamline the fulfilment process dramatically. WLAN infrastructure is an important part of this formula, as the system requires the careful orchestration of hundreds of continuously mobile robots by Kiva’s centralised control software. To ensure that their infrastructure measured up, Kiva integrated Extricom WLAN, with its robust connectivity and seamless mobility as key solution components.
A moving picture
The MFS solution from Kiva Systems combines mobile robotic drive units and mobile inventory shelves or ‘pods’ to bring ordered items to work stations rather than making order pickers go find the inventory at
the shipping dock to as little as 15 minutes, and pick accuracy approaches 100 per cent. For enterprises shipping thousands of different SKUs this translates into customer satisfaction and bottom-line results.
fixed locations within a warehouse. Gone are the myriad workers, the forklifts, and airport levels of noise. Instead, the warehouse quietly hums in a sort of mechanical ballet as squat orange robots whir along the floor non-stop, shuttling pods to workstations. There, order pickers directed by laser pointers take the items from the pod, pack the order, and it’s on a waiting truck for shipment. Kiva has reduced the elapsed time between order placement from the internet and fulfilment on
“
The Extricom wireless network self-adapts to a constantly changing RF environment created by pods and drive units in continuous motion, so there’s no need to tune APs and client transmission power levels.” – Matt Verminski, Kiva Systems.
The wireless backbone
Every drive unit is intensively managed by the Kiva Control System (KCS), with constant wireless communication between the drive units and KCS to allow many fast-moving parts to work together. This overarching management through
wireless is key to an enterprise’s ability to
dynamically adjust operations in real-time to meet fluctuating market demand. Having a wireless infrastructure that supports uninterrupted mobility is therefore essential. “WLAN is the basic element of connectivity that spans all the elements of the Kiva system,” said Matt Verminski, Kiva’s VP of Hardware Engineering. “It’s the backbone to making all the robots do the work that they need to do. The wireless network controls hundreds of elements, and an interruption could stall a drive unit, or degrade system performance.” For Kiva, its choice revolved around mobility. “Especially in the fault conditions we looked into, Extricom performed effortlessly compared to other technologies,” recalled Verminski. “Seamless mobility is very important to us, and Extricom technology is what makes that possible.”
The channel blanket difference
The Extricom solution is based on a fully centralised WLAN architecture in which the switch makes all of the decisions for packet delivery on the wireless network.
52
MANUFACTURING &LOGISTICS
IT July 2011
The Extricom solution is based on a fully centralised WLAN architecture in which the switch makes all of the decisions for packet delivery on the wireless network. In this configuration, the APs simply function as radios, with no software, storage capability, MAC or IP address. Even the basics of connecting are different: clients associate directly with the switch, not with the AP. The AP acts as an ‘RF conduit’ to rapidly funnel traffic between the clients and the switch. In essence, the Extricom architecture has centralised the 802.11 logic in the switch, while distributing only the wireless electronics in the APs. Centralisation of the Wi-Fi environment
www.logisticsit.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56