opinion AMHSA l FYI: the AGV
In this month’s article from the members of the Automated Material Handling Systems Association (AMHSA), Kenneth Watson, European business development manager for JBT Corporation, reflects on the flexibility of AGVs.
texting. Mystified parents and grandparents puzzle over a plethora of new TLAs (Three-Letter Acronyms) such as OMG (Oh My Goodness), LOL (Laughs Out Loud) and WTG (Way To Go). Like most industries, the logistics sector has its fair share of TLAs to abbreviate technical terms and, FYI (For Your Information), there’s one that really WFM (Works For Me): the AGV. Automated Guided Vehicles – the unmanned, computer-controlled mobile robots that automatically move material loads – resemble manual fork lift trucks, but without drivers or operators.
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AGVs have been around for several decades but they have evolved in a
AGVs navigate using laser beams that pick up known, fixed reference points around a warehouse or production facility.
number of key ways. Most importantly, they are now much more flexible than when they were introduced. Back then, each pathway that the AGV was to follow had to have a wire buried and sealed in a specially cut slot in the concrete floor. To change the system meant civil engineering works. Today, however, AGVs navigate using laser beams that pick up known, fixed reference points around a warehouse or production facility – hence they are sometimes referred to as LGVs (Laser Guided Vehicles). They follow electronic maps and can have their routes instantly changed, time
26 ShD May 2011
www.PressOnShD.com
he proliferation of mobile phones and their combination with youth culture has led to a whole new language in the form of
and time again, with new pathways drawn on computer, rather like a CAD (Computer Aided Design) layout. This can be likened to each AGV having its own on-board SatNav, telling it where to go and accurately steering it on its way.
Layouts can be changed at will, from – for example – a goods-in layout behind the loading dock in the morning, to a dispatch layout ready for vehicle loading in the afternoon. These changes can reflect daily, weekly or seasonal changes in internal transport demands.
In addition, as the operating area is free of conveyors, rails or any other fixed obstructions, the floor is available for a host of temporary uses, as well as being much easier to keep clean. The typical applications of AGVs in modern warehouses and distribution centres can be summarised as follows: End of Line – these applications are at the end of a packaging line, where finished goods are being prepared for bulk shipment. AGVs can provide automatic movement of goods from a palletiser to a stretch-wrap machine, then from the stretch-wrapper to storage or shipping. Warehousing – AGVs can be used to provide automatic storage and retrieval of raw materials, WIP (Work-In- Process) or finished goods. They can interface with standard, flow, push- back and drive-through storage racking.
Order Fulfillment – AGVs can also be used to provide many of the material movements required in distribution centres when ‘picking’ a ‘mixed’ pallet of goods for shipment to a customer. There are two main picking strategies: ‘goods-to-picker’ and
‘picker-to-goods’.
In a ‘goods-to-picker’ scenario, full pallets of product are delivered to the picker, who stays stationary and selects the appropriate number of items as required for the order. The picker continues in this manner as another full pallet of product is presented to him and he picks the appropriate number of items and adds them to the mixed pallet, until all the items of the order are picked and the order is complete. In a ‘picker-to-goods’ scenario, the AGV moves through the bulk storage zones and the picker adds the appropriate items as ordered by the customer. After picking products, the picker stays in the same zone, thus maximising picking productivity, whilst the AGV automatically moves to another zone where goods ordered by the customer are stored.
When the AGV has visited all the zones where items on the order are stored, the mixed order pallet is complete. In this system, as well as undertaking the transport tasks, AGVs can deliver the empty pallets, remove the full mixed pallets and replenish empty pallets in the picking area once all the material has been picked. In addition to improving productivity and reducing labour costs, AGVs deliver other benefits. They track all product movements and eliminate ‘lost’ products. They reduce damage to products, storage equipment and buildings, with very accurate and controlled navigation. And they improve health and safety with ergonomic load placement and in-built obstacle detection.
I hope this has not been TMI (Too Much Information). BFN (Bye For Now). ●
www.amhsa.co.uk
opinion
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