For the trade press
Nuremberg/Offenbach - Thursday, June 09, 2005
Siemens L&A Talks Europe 2005
Siemens L&A implements the first phase in the expansion of the central UPS air hub for Europe - A highly integrated system featuring a sophisticated material-flow design ensures peak throughput
The world's biggest parcel delivery service, United Parcel Service (UPS), operates three central air hubs around the world: in Louisville/Kentucky, USA; in Taipei, Taiwan and in Cologne, Germany. These air hubs form the backbone of the large UPS logistics network. Its high availability and fail-safe features are the primary reasons behind the high quality of its parcel distribution process and its reliable service performance. Due to the continuous growth in parcel volumes, the Cologne hub has in recent years been getting closer and closer to the limits of its capacity. In response, UPS decided to greatly expand the facility. In 2002, UPS signed a general agreement with Siemens to expand the parcel center in three phases, including integration of the existing system. The first phase is now under way and is being tested. The new, expanded system will start operations at the end of 2005. With its enlarged capacity, the hub will then be able to sort 110,000 parcels an hour, rising ultimately to 165,000 per hour.
Siemens L&A, with overall responsibility for the new system, won the order because it offered the most convincing solution at a reasonable price:
* Integrated solution for handling all parcel flows
* High throughput ensured by designed-in fail-safe redundancy
* Proven capabilities in IT, control technology and project management
The world’s largest parcel delivery service, United Parcel Service (UPS), operates three central air hubs around the world: in Louisville/Kentucky, USA, in Taipei, Taiwan and in Cologne, Germany. This picture taken from the air shows the hub in Cologne.
UPS' warehouses at Cologne Airport have gradually been getting too small to cope with the growing volume of parcels being unloaded off planes coming in from all over the world. That's why UPS, the world's largest private express shipment and parcel service, headquartered in Atlanta, decided to significantly expand capacities there by adding a new distribution warehouse. When the expansion is finally complete, UPS will then be able to handle around 165,000 parcels of all sizes per hour.
Siemens won the contract because of its proven capabilities as a full-service systems provider, overshadowing other bidders with its integrated concept for handling "normals" (machineable parcels with maximum dimensions of LxWxH = 1,200 x 800 x 600 mm, weighing up to 70 kg), "irregs" (irregular, non-machineable parcels transported in a container with maximum dimensions of LxWxH = 2,000 x 950 x 800 mm, weighing up to 70 kg), and "Smalls" (small parcels with maximum dimensions of 395 x 320 x 150 mm, weighing up to 8 kg). Furthermore, all the workstations for "Customs" and "No read" have been optimally arranged on one level.
Siemens has come up with an exceptionally well designed system featuring two-stage tilt-tray sorters for handling "normal" parcels. In this system design, the individual sorters are linked up in a manner that significantly increases parcel throughput and provides complete redundancy of the mechanical systems. The same ideas were applied to the concept for handling irregular parcels ("irregs"): These non-machineable parcels are transported in containers (2 x 1 meter) by means of standard container conveyers. This means that, just like the "normals", the "irregs" also only have to be manually handled twice - during unloading from the UPS Unit Load Device (ULD) containers and then when being reloaded into the ULDs.
Siemens Exceeds Selection Criteria
The Siemens single-source solution had impressive aspects that met the key selection criteria in the following ways:
* Integration: - Siemens will integrate the existing warehouses into the new distribution center
* Reliability - Siemens planned for redundant, fail-safe systems, on both the mechanical and IT sides.
* Flexibility and scalability - Thanks to a skillful arrangement of conveyers and sorters, Siemens' engineers were able to greatly simply the conveying/sorting system. At the same time, they applied an intelligent IT control system to ensure flexible, efficient utilization of the conveying/distributing capacities.
This flexibility is particularly critical whenever a system has to be operated asymmetrically, i.e. when the overall sorting volume is not equally distributed across the different system inputs and outputs. With the Siemens solution, system loads are optimally distributed in all situations. Moreover, the concept proposed by Siemens L&A compressed and optimized flows so that some of the planned warehouse space is now no longer needed. As a result, UPS will be able to build the new warehouse smaller than originally planned.
The new facility built by UPS is now 25 meters high, up to 100 meters wide and 300 meters long. The transporting/sorting system, consisting of conveyers, tilt-tray sorters, telescopes and spiral chutes, is set up on three levels: the first level for unloading and loading; the second level for the basic sorting system and the third level for "Smalls" sorting and work areas for "No read" and "Customs"
When it is finally completed, the entire system will consist of 14 tilt-tray sorters, 30 kilometers of conveyors and 250 new outlets. In the first phase, now being completed, there are 6 tilt-tray sorters and around 20 kilometers of conveyors. Two bridge structures, of around 110 and 130 meters in length, connect the new section to the existing halls. These old and new system sections are linked by means of conveyors.
The parcels enter the system at "Airside in" stations, which are supplied by transport vehicles loaded with ULDs taken off the airplanes. Telescopes then guide the "Normals" and "Smalls" into two separate, dedicated conveyor flows. In contrast, the "Irregs" are loaded into the containers by an elevator. Parcel delivery vehicles that transport parcels on overland routes can dock directly to the telescope at "Landside in" stations. The parcels taken off these vehicles are then sorted in the same manner as at the "Airside in" stations.
An Innovative Solution to Singulation
The technical highlight of the new system is the parcel singulators especially developed for the UPS project. They make sure that the huge amount of parcels, up to 6,000 per hour, flowing from the existing system into the new distribution center are "singulated". Basically, the singulator consists of a camera system and matrix of 12 x 7 narrow, individually actuated belts. The camera system constantly records the current positions of the parcels and sends this information to the main computer. Based on mathematical calculations performed there, the belts required for singulation are selected along with their optimum speed and run time. In this way, each parcel is eventually brought into the "desired position" or singulated state, so that it can now be separately routed as required. The new parcel singulator has a footprint that takes up only a fraction of the space of the standard, traditional mechanical singulation systems. What's more, it's able to handle parcels very lightly.
Design Features Enable High Throughput
Two important design features incorporated by the engineers at Siemens ensure that the "Normals" only require a few minutes to reach their destination. At first, all parcels are transported on 8 presorters (4 in the initial phase of system expansion). From there, they are distributed to 6 main sorters (2 in the initial phase) in the customs area, in the existing older system as well as the "No read" area. The second clever idea concerns the efficient arrangement of the main sorters. The two main sorters are stacked on top of each other, with each one rotating in the opposite direction of the other!
In this way, each destination can be reached by using two main sorters. By taking the current load profile and system availability into consideration, the IT system selects the optimum path for each parcel. The contra-rotating system considerably increases parcel throughput at the main sorters: each parcel only has to travel half the length of a main sorter at most before it reaches its destination, which immediately frees up capacity for new parcels to be channeled into the sorters. Even if the system is being fed with parcels asymmetrically, the handling system design results in a high sorting performance.
The irregular parcels ("Irregs") follow their own special path: they go through the induction station and a conveyor line to a similarly redundant "highway system." The highway is a belt conveyor system running along the entire length of the building and comprising two levels: this is where the "Irregs" are transported in containers to their destination area and then ejected. At the destination, there is an operator-guided, semi-automatic tilting station, where "Irregs" are deposited on to a conveyor that goes right by a loading group for ULD containers. Here, an operator manually removes the irregular parcel from the conveyor and places it into the correct ULD. In this way, each irregular parcel has to be handled only twice by hand.
The Heart of the Distribution System: Intelligent IT
Two IT systems work hand-in-hand so that each parcel "knows" the way it has to go: the control system for the conveying/sorting system and the higher-level material handling information system (MIS). These form the heart of the distribution center. The computer programs establish the links between the logical and physical destinations. In doing so, they allow for the existing load distributions and the availability of system components. At the entrance to the system, parcel barcodes are read by camera systems; in addition, the size of each parcel is recorded. The barcode data are relayed to the UPS computer which then informs the MIS System online of the logical destination. The MIS system uses this information to determine the optimum physical routing path for a given parcel. After this, the main computer records this routing data and feeds it "downstairs" to the controller level which then sends status report data "upstairs" to the main system. The MIS is thus always able to provide information about operating modes and the capacity utilization of the sorting system.
In designing the system, Siemens paid particular attention to high availability. Both the computer and control systems as well as critical parts of the mechanical systems are set up in a redundant, fail-safe manner. In the event of a malfunction, a switch on the backup computer ensures that the system can continue operating after only brief interruption. A visual display system allows the entire system to be continuously monitored at the main computer. The display system allows the complexity of a huge system made up of thousands of components to be depicted clearly and understandably. The entire system is shown, from the overall structure right down to its detailed views. A hierarchical structure allows the operator to drill down through system levels to check on individual conveyer units or, for example, to track down the photoelectric barrier that has reported that a parcel did not actually go down a conveyor route as expected. In the event of an error, supervisors can immediately localize the problem so that the correct personnel can be assigned to rectify the error.
Economical and Reliable
At the end of this year, UPS in Cologne will be reaping the benefits of a highly integrated parcel sorting system, with the existing system fully integrated into the new, overall one. This impressive achievement will enable the world's largest parcel service to continue to guarantee its customers the highest rates of delivery reliability. The concept of a single-source solution implemented by Siemens L&A at UPS in Cologne not only cuts down on the amount of space needed for the new system, but it also leaves reserve capacity for greater expansion (two more expansions are planned), great flexibility in ensuring a balanced load distribution and almost 100% reliability.
With its highly innovative logistics structure, Siemens L&A has created a new dimension in parcel distribution and singulation. It is all based on a cleverly designed system featuring two key elements: tried-and-tested mechanical systems and intelligent information technology, all from Siemens L&A.
Siemens Logistics and Assembly Systems Group (L&A), based in Nuremberg/Germany, is the world's leading supplier of logistics and factory automation equipment. As a systems integrator, L&A supplies the whole range of products and services, from individual products and systems right up to complete turnkey facilities as a general contractor. L&A consists of four divisions: Postal Automation, Distribution and Industry, Airport Logistics and Electronics Assembly Systems. The company, with some 10,000 employees worldwide, has a business volume of around 2.6 billion euros. For more information about Siemens L&A go to www.siemens.com/logistics-assembly/presse