The company that I have been very closely involved with over the past 10 years has grown from $18 million to $70 million last year and projected to be $95 million in 2020.
To feed that demand I am in the midst of a major capital expansion program, beginning with a new building and host of new machines.
One of the more interesting is a prime example of AI. I installed the first of these systems in the US in 2008. I had become familiar with them in Europe. The system is a fully integrated and automated material storage, material retrieval (AS/RS) and automated saw.
The storage (in my case 4850 individual boards) is completely random. As the machine adds inventory it places it where it "thinks" best. That is normally done at night---in an empty building with the lights out . The only light needed---a small one on the head to read the identifying bar code on the panel it is about to pick up. If not using bar codes the product description and sequence must be entered into the machine control before hand. The system knows what size board it picks up, as well as it's weight. If what it has picked up does not agree with what it was told to expect it will put that board in a quarantine area.
The machine is self teaching. It "learns" the use patterns and places high use products near the saw, low use to the back of it's "warehouse". The stacks are nominally 6' high, for 3/4" boards that is 96 boards in a stack--and everyone of those boards can be unique SKUs. The system knows where each SKU is within it's warehouse.
During the working shift(s) the demand is sent, as a production list to the control. Individual boards are pulled as directed and delivered to the automatic CNC saw. The saw shares the production list and down loads the required cut program for each board.As time permits the system will "look ahead" at demand and place needed boards as close as possible to the saw bed. If a board is at the bottom of a stack of other SKUs it will "dig" for the one needed and place the ones on top of it wherever it finds room to do so.
The saw prints a bar code label and places it on each part it cuts. The operator then places the individual parts in appropriate groups to move to the next stage of production.
Total cost of the system $550,000 plus I am allocating another $150,000 for installation, training, and managing the learning curve.
I am also adding two more major automated "cells" that if interested I will share as time permits.
