Photo/Illutration Blue cases containing screws rotate in a carousel and deliver the ordered screws to workers at the bottom of a warehouse in Higashi-Osaka, Osaka Prefecture. (Kazuhiro Nagashima)

When a trading company receives an order for screws, a massive carousel goes in motion and the required pieces are delivered to waiting workers below. 

This eliminates the need for workers at Sunco Industries Co., a trading company that handles 1.94 million kinds of screws and bolts, to scurry about searching for them. 

“The need to rush around the warehouse within limited hours has decreased, resulting in a reduced physical burden. So, we’ve seen an increase in female applicants, making our recruitment process smoother,” said Sunco President Yoshihide Okuyama, 49.

Amid an increase in online shopping, automation is lessening the workload in warehouses and logistics, with companies using technology to streamline processes and reduce manual labor.

ROTATING CAROUSEL DELIVERS THE GOODS

Sunco uses automated systems to deliver the company's screws to workers in its warehouse in Higashi-Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, an area hosting many industrial plants.

Around 7,000 blue cases are stored in a rotating carousel, which measures 6 meters in height and 17 meters in width and can move in all directions--up, down, left and right. Each case contains small boxes holding about 15 types of screws.

When an order is placed, the carousel moves and the required screws are delivered to workers.

Sunco has been using this system since 2013, which was developed by Okamura Corp., a developer and seller of logistics systems based in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. 

The 14-meter-high automatic warehouse, which has been operating since November last year, efficiently utilizes vertical space, helping to conserve storage area.

The surge in orders of single screws prompted the introduction of such systems.

After the 2008 Lehman Brothers crisis, customers became reluctant to have too much inventory on-site. To sell screws individually, employees had to move back and forth in the warehouse to procure them.

But the automatic systems have significantly reduced the amount of time required for such work.

LENDING A HELPING ROBOTIC HAND 

Progress is also being made in the development of a robot hand dedicated to smoothly handle the picking-up process.

Bridgestone Corp., a major tire manufacturer, is gearing up to implement a soft robotic hand capable of picking up delicate foods such as peaches, grapes, cakes and cream puffs, which robots previously had difficulty grasping. 

The company, which manufactures rubber tubes for hydraulic controls to operate shovel loaders, utilized this technology.

It combined a rubber tube with a metal plate and successfully created “artificial muscles,” which are as flexible as human fingers and can pick up objects when air is pumped into the tube.

By changing the size of the tube and the air pressure inside, the robot hand can pick up anything from small, soft and light, to large, hard and heavy.

Furthermore, the company is conducting a demonstration test using artificial intelligence to grasp items more accurately by having the robot discern an object’s shape, size and hardness based on the images captured by a camera.

“Artificial muscles can now do many things but there are some things they struggle with, such as picking up flat items like paper,” said Norikazu Otoyama, 49, the Bridgestone project manager.

“We aspire to create a future in which humans and robots work together,” he said.

(This article was written by Kazuhiro Nagashima and Shigetaka Kodama.)

Related News