3 situations in which pallet transport with AGVs/AMRs vehicles will work well
As a manager in a large manufacturing company or warehouse space where a pallet is the standard logistics carrier, you come across challenges, more or less consciously, which stand in the way of achieving your business objectives. To that end, we have described 3 challenges which you can cross out from your task list, once and for all, by using AGVs/AMRs vehicles.
1. The problem of hiring forklift truck operators
Our times put production and warehouse managers in a very difficult situation in terms of fully staffing the company. According to one of the reports by ManpowerGroup*, the scale of the shortage of logistics workers is even greater than in case of IT specialists. There are various reasons for this. According to the report, companies indicated too high financial expectations in 61% of cases, and in 58% – the lack of available candidates. Apart from that there were also such reasons as the lack of sufficient professional experience, competences, the candidates’ unwillingness to change jobs and the problem with accepting the location of the workplace.
The AGV/AMR-based automation of intralogistics makes it possible to limit the number of employees needed to operate the process by up to 10 FTEs (see implementation at Lumileds).
2. Mechanical damage to the product caused by imprecise pallet loading
As the above-mentioned market research indicates, there are huge shortages in the competences of candidates for such positions as forklift operators. That is why some employers decide to hire unqualified employees due to the labour shortage, which results in taking responsibility for a higher percentage of mechanical damage to finished products when incorrectly loaded with forklift trucks and transported.
Operators’ errors can damage goods and sometimes even elements of the plant’s infrastructure, which, in addition to the loss of material, contributes to additional activities, i.e., cleaning, repairs and employing more workers. All the above-mentioned activities directly translate into financial losses, which are the greater the more frequently operator’s errors occur.
AGVs/AMRs guarantee 100% correct loading by using a positioning system thanks to which the pallet is always in the right place and will not get damaged.
3. Ensuring work safety for people close to forklift trucks
According to the latest data of the Polish Central Statistical Office, in 2020 there were 5146 registered injuries in the transport and storage sector in Poland, including 40 fatalities. Due to the fact that more than a half of those accidents involved forklift trucks, the risk of potential incidents in your own plant or warehouse should be evaluated.
In order to prevent accidents within the plant, employers undertake a number of costly safety measures: they limit the speed of forklift trucks by interfering with the hall floor, purchase information signs or reorganise the hall layout.
In the intralogistics solution based on autonomous vehicles, safety is provided by the complete specialised safety system. Our robots are CE-certified and compliant with the most important safety standard ISO 3691-4, which makes it possible to implement fully safe products which control their environment and the condition in which the robots are located.
The most significant safety functions include emergency stops due to violation of the required distances from the robot, exceeding of speed limits and detection of incorrect and dangerous load position. What is more, the robot control system and the safety system work closely together, thanks to which the robot is able to foresee potentially dangerous situations and actively counteract them.
Apart from providing safety to people, the process safety also increases thanks to a greater repeatability of transport missions or a lower number of sick leaves, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and with the lack of injured employees.
If you are looking for a complete intralogistics system, we invite you to check our offer.
