Increasing importance of Automated Guided Vehicles in distribution operations
Automated Guided Vehicles have been around for over 50 years. These battery-driven, unmanned vehicles, are supposedly the simplest form of robot but ironically they have not found a strong place in distribution operations although they provide added benefit of doing away with human operators using traditional material handling equipment such as fork trucks or pallet jacks. As recently as 2006, according to statistics from the Material Handling Institute of America (MHIA), only one of the 102 AGV system deployments in the US was in a purely distribution center application.
The primary reason which can be attributed to the unpopularity of these AGVs is the lack of actual and/or perceived flexibility in the distribution process. Where distribution centers are much more dynamic with variable movement paths, manufacturing, movement paths are often very static and repetitive. This is the reason why traditional AGV technology is comparatively popular with manufacturing processes.
However, recent trends have shown a growth of AGVs in distribution owing to the change in labor and demographic trends, added with recent technology advances. Laser-guided systems have increased overall AGV flexibility, as have new control systems capabilities.
Several AGVs providers have introduced new AGV systems for automated trailer loading and unloading, using new sensors and control systems that enable them to much more flexibly deal with pallet handling issues inside the trailer.
AGV technology in distribution can be applied to following processes:
Unit load/pallet movement from receiving to drop areas, from drop areas to staging locations, from reserve to forward pick drop zones. It can also be applied to unit load pallet movement of materials to postponement/work order processing areas and from work order processing areas to staging. Replacement of pallet jacks for case picking with automated movement can be done via AGVs. AGVs can also be helpful in case and piece picking in which the goods are automatically delivered to stationary pick stations, transport of mix-SKU pallets from shrink wrap area to staging and automatic trailer loading and unloading.
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