Case history - Intermec

Case
history
B A Y E R A G & I N T E R M E C
Fine company:
11 robots and the
Intermec ScanPlus
1800 Vista offer
Bayer AG high plant
equipment performance
and absolute safety
for the distribution
of research substances
in its agricultural centre
at Monheim.
The Monheim agricultural centre
is 15 kilometres from the Bayer
headquarters in Leverkusen.
It is the largest of its type in
the world. The research and
development activities of Bayer
Crop Science and Animal Health
are accommodated on the
550,000 m² site. It is decided here
whether substances are good
enough to be brought onto
the worldwide market as new
pesticides in a few years time.
Pesticides should work
optimally with minimal dosages
and therefore burden the
environment as little as possible:
this is the demand of scientists
in the Botanical Diseases Institute.
The expense involved in
developing a new product is
immense. This is because the
chance of successfully finding
a new ready-for-market product
from among all the tested
chemical substances is 1: 50,000.
Development lasts eight
to ten years. Bayer invests
approximately EUR 270 million
in pesticide research annually.
A trial substance logistics system
has been set up in Monheim.
It distributes all new biological
testing trial substances to
the internal laboratories. The
substances themselves come
from the most varied sources: both
in-house synthesis research and
external co-operation.
Highly sensitive robot-based
technology is used for weighing
and filling and includes the
Intermec 1800 Vista scan
engine with a special casing.
Approximately 3.5 million bottles,
containers and micro-titre plates,
all with individual barcode coding,
must be scanned error-free by
robots as each No-Read leads to
a plant disruption, which requires
manual post-processing and lowers
the plant equipment performance
massively. Each container must be
weighed in advance to identify
the actual content, which falls into
the mg range. Subsequent filling
and stock-checking is followed
by storage, external storage or
portion removal with consignment
in the relevant target container.
It is normal in this case for the
barcode label on the corresponding
vessels to have to be read error-free
up to 10 times during processing.

Case
history
The fully automated
stacked shelf
warehouse with
3.5 million containers.
Prior to the entry into service
of the equipment, the refilling of
already available substances and the
attachment of barcode labels were
outsourced to an external company,
with the labelling contractor only
scanning the first and last barcode
of a batch for readability. Intermec’s
1800 SR standard scanner is used
for in-company quality control.
Dr. Wolfgang Röben: “Problems
increased suddenly with the entry
into service of our plant equipment.
Although extremely expensive laser
scanners made by a competitor were
installed on our robots, relatively high
‘No Read’ rates occurred. We were faced
with a puzzle, particularly as no errors
could be detected and the barcodes
were perfectly identifiable with a
normal Intermec standard scanner.
Nor could we define the exact number
of incorrect readings, as sometimes this
involved individual items, complete
series or entire loads. Manual refilling
into a container with a demonstrably
correct label was not possible for time,
staff and cost reasons.
When examining our barcodes with
a magnifying glass we noticed that
parts of particular bars were missing,
including within the bar width.
Due to these dot losses a broad bar
divided into two narrow ones – which
led to a clear reading error for every
other CCD or laser scanner. The
problem therefore lay with our
barcodes – so our compliments
go to the ScanPlus 1800 Vista-Engine’s
error correction algorithm and our
decision to choose Intermec. Many
laser scanners made by competitors
were tested in advance – there was
simply no product which could pick
up from the reading quality achieved
by this hand scanner! We also see
as optimum its capacity to bridge
a reading distance of over 10 cm
from the rotating gripping arm to
the scanner without difficulty.”

Case
history
Dr. Wolfgang Röben, Scientific
Computation and Substance
Logistics Department at Bayer:
performance and reliability are
guaranteed in this extremely
sensitive area through use of the
Intermec scanner!
BAYER NEEDED A SHORT-TERM
SOLUTION TO OPERATE THE ENTIRE
PLANT WITH 11 ROBOTS WITHOUT
DISRUPTION.
The next step involved making
this scanner with all its advantages
“suitable for robots and SPScontrollable”
as robots cannot operate
a trigger “by hand”. The robot is
capable of switching on the scanner
using its retrofitted trigger circuit;
the scanner reads exactly as long as
the plant equipment demands over
a freely-configurable reading
duration of 4 seconds. A specially
made casing holds the ScanPlus 1800
Vista’s scan engine and has been
integrated into the robots.
Dr. Wolfgang Röben: “Thought was
also naturally given to the advantageous
error-correction algorithm. When a
scanner can read this defective barcode
so well, there is a danger that an incorrect
value can be transmitted as correct.
The situation would not however have
been understood immediately in the
system, as the barcode would change
fundamentally and fall completely
outside the predefined set of numbers“.
AS A RESULT WE CARRIED OUT
A VERY SIMPLE TEST
“A vessel with a very worn barcode
was placed in continuous rotation
on the robot and the scanner placed
in permanent reading mode.
The scanner reported a number
after each scan which was written
to a database. Several thousand
numbers were available after a given
period. The database could be
queried to establish whether all
the numbers read were identical.
We did not find any incorrect reading
during the many test scans.
This made us certain that we
were not creating a new problem
by solving one”.
With this very special, inexpensive
and most-of-all secure solution
the entire robot system at Bayer
Crop Science in Monheim operates
at maximum performance without
barcode reading problems.

B A Y E R A G & I N T E R M E C
Intermec Technologies offers its
global customers complete Auto-ID
solutions and guarantees optimum
adjustment of the individual
components within the entire
value-creation chain. Its own
hardware (printers, media, scanners,
mobile computing, wireless networks)
and software (terminal-Emulation,
client/server, ERP middleware) as
well as a competent range of services
guarantees the Intermec customer
a decisive competitive advantage
in data capture and leads
to the greatest possible
Return On Investment.
Rapid robots and secure scanning
performance: Remove – Scan – Uncover –
Tare weigh – Close – Scan – Return
THE ADVANTAGES OF THE SCANPLUS 1800 VISTA’S SCAN ENGINE:
• Exceptionally rapid and precise barcode reading for contact and non-contact applications with a reading
distance of 0-49 cm
• No difficulty reading long, damaged, badly printed barcodes, as well as extremely dense barcodes
(0.05 mm/2 mil line width)
• Stable and light with bright sharp LED light for easy use
• Safe: The light is generated by safe LEDs
• Attractive price/performance ratio
• Long life and high reliability with a 3-year guarantee
• NEW: ScanPlus 1800 Vista-PDF
• Reads and decodes Macro PDF symbol systems (PDF 417)
• High performance with 225 scans/second
• Free downloading of EasySet set-up software from the Internet.
Europe
Intermec International Inc.
European Headquarters
Sovereign House
Vastern Road
Reading
Berkshire
RG1 8BT
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 118 987 9400
Fax: +44 118 987 9401
www.intermec.com
Benelux
Intermec Technologies
Benelux BV
P.O. Box 40223
6504 AE Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Phone +31 24 372 31 00
Fax: +31 24 372 31 95
www.intermec.nl
Denmark
Intermec Technologies AS
Gydevang 21 A
DK-3450 Allerød
Denmark
Phone : +45 48 166 166
Fax : +45 48 166 167
www.intermec.dk
Finland
Intermec Technologies OY
Nöykkuönpuro 19C
FI-02300 Espoo
Finland
Phone : +358 9 435 51 70
Fax : +358 9 435 517 15
www.intermec.nu
France
Intermec Technologies SA
Immeuble « Le Newton »
23 Avenue de L’Europe
F-78402 Chatou Cedex
France
Phone : +33 1 30 15 25 35
Fax : +33 1 34 80 14 33
www.intermecfrance.fr
Copyright © 2003 Intermec Technologies Corporation. All rights reserved. Intermec is a registered trademark
of Intermec Technologies Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
In a continuing effort to improve our products, Intermec Technologies Corporation reserves the right to change
specifications and features without prior notice.
Germany
Intermec Technologies
GmbH
Schießstraße 44a
40549 Düsseldorf
Germany
Phone: +49 211 536 010
Fax: +49 211 536 0150
www.intermec.de
Italy
Intermec Technologies SRL
Via Cialdini 37
20161 Milano
Italy
Phone : +39 02 66 24 051
Fax : +39 02 66 24 05 58
www.intermec.it
Norway
Intermec Technologies A/S
Solheimsveien 91F
Postbox 217
N-1471 Skårer
Norway
Phone: +47 67 91 17 10
Fax: +47 67 91 17 11
www.intermec.nu
Spain & Portugal
Intermec Technologies SA
Ronda de Valdecarrizo, 23
28760 Tres Cantos-Madrid
Spain
Phone: +34 91 806 0202
Fax: +34 91 804 2221
www.intermec.es
Sweden
Intermec Technologies AB
Vendevägen 85A
S-182 91 Danderyd
Sweden
Phone: +46 8 622 06 60
Fax: +46 8 622 06 61
www.intermec.nu
United Kingdom
Intermec Technologies
UK Ltd.
2 Bennet Court
Bennet Road
Reading
Berkshire
RG2 0QX
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 118 923 0800
Fax: +44 118 923 0801
www.intermec.co.uk
Printed in the U.K.
611138-01A 05/03