Autonomous Mobile Robot (V550) improves Efficiency around 10% across our client’s internal operations.

Our Client (“Matt”) had 2 goals.

• Keep his operators at their stations doing productive work

• Introduce automation into the organization.

Problem:
The Operations Lead in each of the departments was walking defective product to a central location one to two times an hour.  Our customer (“Matt”) was frustrated with how long each lead was away from the process.  He wanted to find a way to keep the Leads in the area, but still deliver the product to the QA area.

We discussed an AMR solution.
Matt had introduced an AMR in the past with very little success.  They returned that unit.  We proposed a solution where they could test the application before committing to the full purchase. 

The V550 Mobile Autonomous Conveyor is an AMR with a short, powered conveyor on top.  This application would allow the Operations Lead for each department to “call” for a pickup when needed.  The Lead would be able to stay in the department and still deliver the material to the QA area.

The Systems in Motion Engineer spent 3 days implementing the V550.  He programmed the AMR to the facility, trained the V550 on the routes to take from each department, built profiles for autonomous routes based on which departments were operating, and trained the Department Leads on how to interface with the V550.

Implementing an AMR unit can be challenging. 
Operators initially felt this would be replacing their job.  There are always some safety concerns with autonomous units moving around the factory floor.  How would this unit work with the process flow?  Fork trucks, pallet jacks, operators, and staged products are some of the issues we discussed.

During the month-long trial period they had only one major issue they could not correct themselves.  They contacted our engineering staff, which quickly helped them reset the unit and have it back performing tasks.  The next day our engineer stopped by the facility to make sure the unit and the operations were all back on track.

At the end of the month, we reviewed the project. 
The operations leaders were very happy with the V550’s reliability and consistency. Matt said, “If you take this unit away, they will all be very upset.”  The V550 became “part of the team”. 

Matt is now looking at other areas in the facility that could use the V550 to deliver material from the warehouse to each department on an as needed basis.  They currently stage the entire days production materials in each department with fork trucks, pallet jacks, and carts.  At the end of the day, material needs to be re-inventoried back to the warehouse.  A few of the V550’s could make hourly runs based on the production needs throughout the day.

When asked about how this project went compared to all the other projects he has worked on over the years, Matt said “Best way to describe it, this is the easiest implementation of anything in my company.  It showed up one afternoon.  2 days later it was running the routes.” 

When asked about advice to future users of the V550, Matt said “First of all understand what you are trying to accomplish.  You (Systems in Motion) have been a trusted partner for us and worked with us on a solution to meet our goals.”