Patent ID: 7158856
Filing Date: 2007-01-02
Classification: G05B,Y02P

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for enabling part picking in a manufacturing facility, the apparatus comprising: a conveyor for transporting containers each bearing a machine readable code defining a plurality of parts to be placed in the container; a plurality of code readers disposed at intervals along the conveyor, each of the plurality of code readers being capable of reading the codes borne by the containers; a plurality of part stores for containing parts to be placed in the containers; a plurality of displays, at least one of the plurality of displays being a component of a client computing device, the client computing device containing a web browser; and, a control system for selectively assigning the code readers, part stores and displays to one or more zones each including at least one active code reader, at least one active display and at least one part store, the control system in operation further displaying on at least one active display of each zone the parts to be picked from the at least one part store of the zone according to the machine readable code read by the at least one active code reader of the zone, the control system including a server which is responsive to an active code reader reading a code borne by a container to send to the client device information to be displayed indicating part(s) to be picked, the control system including a web server, the control system being responsive to an active code reader reading a code borne by a container to send a URL to the client device causing the browser to connect to the URL, the URL defining said information indicating part(s) to be picked and the web server constructing an HTML page containing said information and sending the HTML page to the client device for display.