Warehouse robots drive change in automotive plant

You’re most likely a buyer of the tier-one automotive elements provider Denso and don’t even understand it. The Kariya, Japan-based Fortune 500 company manufactures parts for automobile makers like Toyota, Honda, FCA (Fiat Chrysler Cars), Common Motors, Ford, Volvo, and Mercedes-Benz. The corporate’s Denso North America Division is headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, and employs some 24,000 folks within the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Given the dimensions of its operations, Denso is at all times in search of methods to spice up effectivity and productiveness in its logistics operations. A latest workflow research at its 800,000-square-foot powertrain element manufacturing facility in Athens, Tennessee, revealed room for enchancment. The analysis confirmed that staff had been strolling as much as 12 miles per day shifting materials between the manufacturing areas and the onsite warehouse, spending about 60% of their time pushing carts.

“We knew we had lots of people that had been getting paid to maneuver elements all day lengthy, strolling carts from one place to a different. But when now we have folks which might be solely conveying elements, then that’s a nonvalue-added exercise, and we had loads of open jobs for value-added actions throughout the manufacturing atmosphere,” Denso engineer Travis Olinger stated in a launch. “We wished to pay folks to make elements for us, [which] makes us cash, and never pay them to maneuver elements, [which] prices us cash.”

The corporate started trying into methods to automate the supplies transport course of, ultimately deciding on autonomous cell robots (AMRs) from Danish automated tools provider Cellular Industrial Robots (MiR). “Autonomous cell robots had been an apparent alternative for our extraordinarily dynamic atmosphere, which we knew would require the robots to make common route modifications,” Olinger stated. “After testing AMRs from a couple of totally different distributors, we realized that MiR robots convey important benefits in flexibility, security, and user-friendliness.”

For the Tennessee facility, Denso selected the MiR250 shelf-lifter mannequin, which it makes use of together with rolling carts from the Danish robotics firm Roeq. Olinger stated the MiR250 robots had been significantly compelling due to their two-meters-per-second velocity; their payload capability of 250 kilograms (550 kilos), which allows them to deal with heavy metallic elements; and their potential to work in slender areas. On prime of that, the AMRs can navigate on their very own with fast mapping and fast modifications, with out the necessity for expensive infrastructure constructed into the power’s ground—a giant plus within the operation’s dynamic atmosphere.

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Within the fall of 2020, Denso launched a pilot utilizing six MiR robots to shuttle items round the Tennessee plant. 

Working with MiR accomplice Superior Management Options (ACS), a manufacturing unit automation specialist situated in Marietta, Georgia, Denso achieved preliminary setup in a day and deployed the robots after a few week of testing. The companions additionally developed an info movement to assist on-time deliveries, handle charging and proximity cues to prioritize missions, and permit associates on the ground to name for the robots. The Mir250 robots may even mechanically open the door to a cleanroom as they enter and exit by sending wi-fi indicators to the rollup door controller.

In keeping with Denso, the pilot produced outcomes inside six months, releasing up six staff to maneuver into value-added roles as an alternative of simply pushing carts. The corporate has now expanded this system, utilizing the robots to convey parts on to line-side manufacturing on a just-in-time foundation. Help for the robots has grown shortly amongst workers, with staff in different departments requesting robotic assist in transporting items like upkeep provides and spare elements. Denso just lately bought 5 MiR500 1,100-pound capability robots for future conveyance tasks that require heavier payloads.

Because the pilot’s launch, Denso has efficiently executed greater than 500,000 missions with the MiRs, realizing a return on funding (ROI) in lower than a yr, in response to the corporate. And on prime of being cost-effective, the AMRs have proved to be extraordinarily dependable, Olinger reviews. 

“At this level, we’ve been working MiR robots since September 2020,” he stated within the launch. “We’ve run over a half million … missions, and so they haven’t known as in sick one single day.”