Autonomous Forklifts and Their Impact on the Materials Handling Industry
Packaging plays a vital role in today’s fast-paced business landscape, ensuring product protection, preservation, and presentation. As the packaging industry continues to grow and adapt to changing market demands, it’s crucial for companies to stay ahead and offer exceptional packaging solutions. To provide insights into this dynamic landscape, we have developed Packaging Talks – a series of conversational panels with Crawford’s packaging experts. Whether you’re a business owner, a packaging professional, or simply curious, our panels aim to offer valuable information and inspiration.
In this installment of our Packaging Talks, we chat with Jason Varga, Crawford’s Equipment, Parts & Service Manager, about autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) and how they will revolutionize the materials handling industry.
What are the current trends you’re observing in the material handling industry?
Well, there are a few interesting trends that have emerged, for sure.
One significant trend is the accelerated rise of automation in all aspects of warehousing and material handling over the past five years. More and more companies have embraced these technologies to create leaner and more efficient operations, which has become even more necessary with the shortage of forklift labour in the industry. As a matter of fact, ROI and labour savings are no longer the primary driving factors for companies looking to implement large automation projects. It is the availability of labour and material handling equipment that has created the need to embrace these technologies on an accelerated scale to keep goods moving in supply chains.
Secondly, we have seen a significant appetite to integrate these technologies with existing infrastructure, particularly in warehousing and manufacturing operations, to maximize labour savings and streamline processes. Connectivity has never been easier, as most equipment is now designed to “talk” to other automation components, giving operators the ability to link together various types of automation to increase efficiencies. This, coupled with the use of data analytics, allows operations teams to view real-time data on all aspects of their buildings, enabling more agility to adjust resources and plan on the fly.
What do you think of autonomous forklifts?
Simply put, the future is now. I recall about eight years ago visiting one of the first autonomous warehouses in the US and being shocked as I watched driverless forklifts unload trailers from a manufacturing plant. I was truly in awe of the possibilities. Fast-forward to today, and this technology has become available to everyone in the industry with relatively low start-up investment. The machines can be set up in operation within a matter of hours. They are safer than human operators and boast an accuracy within 1 cm. The ease with which these machines can be integrated into day-to-day operations is truly astounding. They effortlessly navigate busy warehouses, picking and dropping off loads. These autonomous forklifts and AGVs have revolutionized how we handle materials and are even changing the way we design new buildings.
Can you expand more on this?
Sure thing! AGVs are truly productivity powerhouses! For years, we have always used the justification for this technology when asked why we do it, that AGVs don’t call in sick, they don’t take lunch or holidays, they don’t smash into racking or drop loads, etc. While all of this is true, it was a convenient answer that only touched on the real benefits to operations. The current offerings of AGVs are self-charging machines that can run nearly 24 hours a day. They automate repetitive tasks, freeing up operators to focus on value-added work. When you calculate the all-in costs of labour (benefits, efficiency, training, vacations, etc.), fleet maintenance, MHE capital costs, and damages caused by operators, the return on investment is generally less than 2.5 years in most applications.
These autonomous forklifts are also safety superheroes. You know how humans can sometimes make mistakes or have accidents, bumping racks, or spearing pallets? Well, these forklifts are designed to minimize all that. They have advanced sensors and collision avoidance systems that act like their own set of eyes and reflexes. They can detect obstacles in their path in milliseconds and react immediately to avoid any potential hazards. Think about it: no more accidental bumps, crashes, or dropped items resulting from human error. The elimination of damages means fewer losses, reduced costs, and happier customers. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Lastly, the reliability of these machines is truly amazing. There are documented cases of AGVs having nearly 25,000 hours on them using only one set of wheels! Human operators in large operations are generally very hard on MHE, driving up maintenance costs of the fleet as the equipment ages. Towards the end of its life cycle, it seems that forklifts are down waiting for parts more than they are operational. This, coupled with the lack of new equipment availability (60-week lead-time on some new equipment), has forced operators to keep trucks in service longer, exacerbating the problem. When factoring in the overall ownership costs of an AGV, these costs have now become a driving factor when deciding to make that investment.
That’s all great to hear! And what would you say are the ideal environments for AGVs?
These machines can thrive in a variety of settings, but there are a few standout places where they truly excel. First up, warehouses and distribution centers are the obvious application. Large buildings with long travel distances between outbound docks and pick-up points are ideal environments for these applications and generate the best ROI of all use cases. In these buildings, human drivers can spend up to 50% of their time “driving empty” as they move goods through the building. Even in the most optimized environments with a high level of interleaving and a strong WMS system, this is still the case. The AGV automates this, freeing up human drivers to perform more skilled tasks like loading or replenishments, rather than driving from one end of the building to another.
In manufacturing environments, this technology can be used to deliver raw goods to production lines or take finished goods to wrappers or staging lanes, resulting in more streamlined operations, less MHE traffic, and reduced manual labour. In a way, these machines can be used almost anywhere pallet conveyance is required.
The reality is that AGVs can be customized and programmed to suit different environments. The possibilities are endless!