Case studies amazon

Process Control for Sort Centers

Implementing a secure, uniform site-wide system for enhanced safety and emergency response.

Challenge

Amazon is the world’s largest online commerce and cloud computing company. Founded in 1994, Amazon ships various products through their sort and fulfillment centers located throughout the United States and Europe. Amazon sort facilities organize incoming packages into local area destination groups to be shipped out again to a more targeted area. Products are packaged and shipped from the Amazon fulfillment centers.

Solution

Hallam-ICS designed and implemented a process control system that would integrate into the existing conveyors and track package throughput at various points within Amazon’s manual sort centers.  This project required the following skillsets:

  • Industrial networking
  • Ignition SCADA programming
  • Rockwell PLC programming
  • Microsoft SQL database programming
  • Control panel design and on-site fabrication
  • Electrical design and installation

The control system was required to:

  • Monitor newly installed photo-eye sensors to detect when individual packages flow passed.
  • Count the number of packages for each location using custom add-on instructions within the PLC for each hour, shift, quarter hour, min, and day.
  • Display in real-time the through put for each area of the conveyor system on an Ignition dashboard.
  • Project in real-time downstream throughput based on the upstream throughput.

The project required the use of the following Ignition modules and skills:

  • Custom Python scripting modules to organize and aggregate data from PLC data.
  • Vision module programming to create and display the throughput data on the local HMI client.
  • Reporting module programming to create custom reports showing the through information for the various time increments throughout the day.

Results

Our team accomplished the following:

  • Developed real-time dashboards and throughput projection tools for enhanced visibility.
  • Implemented a reliable control panel system with custom electrical and control design.
  • Delivered actionable reports for operational decision-making, supporting efficiency gains.