Call for Parts at a Furniture Manufacturer
Challenge
A furniture manufacturer has four manufacturing lines: red, green, blue, and yellow. When a line is in need of parts, one of the operators flips a switch that turns on that line’s color on a light tower located centrally in the warehouse. One of the two forklift operators notices the signal light tower and retrieves parts for that line.
This is a large facility and the forklift trucks are mobile, making a wired solution impossible. The customer is also looking for a solution that is easy to install and maintain.
The customer needs a solution that can increase the forklift operator's response time by putting the indicators on the forklift's dashboard and can also allow the forklift operator to acknowledge the request, which eliminates redundant part deliveries by multiple operators.
Solution
The notification system for each line consists of a K50 Illuminated touch button, a K30 Illuminated touch button, a color position on a signal tower light, one PM8 Gateway, and two PM8L Nodes.
The operator requests parts by touching the K50. This turns on the K50, the K30 in the fork lift cab, and the signal tower light line’s color. The fork lift operator acknowledges the request by touching the K30 mounted in the fork lift, turning off all the lights.
The operators see their request has been received. The K30, K50, and tower light are all tied together with Banner’s Sure Cross PM series radios; there is no need for an external logic device. The logic, latch input with a reset line, is built into the K50 light.
