Three questions that reveal you’re ready for autonomous tuggers
Whether you’re operating a distribution center or a manufacturing facility, you understand better than most that automation is the future of material movement. But, when and where should you start? Think about the biggest opportunities to increase throughput and address your shrinking labor pool at your facility.
By adding automated reliability to key tasks, you can benefit from sharper workforce efficiency and increased worker safety.
There are several ways to leverage automation to streamline operations, from conveyance and robotic arms to palletizers and mobile robots. Often, autonomous tow vehicles are a high-return place to start.
Are You Ready?
If you’re wondering if you can integrate autonomous tuggers into your warehouse, consider these three questions:
1. Are your manual operators spending a lot of time on deadhead runs?
2. Are these repeatable tasks, from point A and to point B?
3. Are there opportunities to carry a larger payload with each run, to move more material?
If you answered yes to these questions, chances are your facility can benefit from autonomous mobile tuggers.
In fact, by simply deploying a single autonomous long-haul tugger and two trailers you can move eight pallets at once — that’s an average of 42% more pallets per hour if you’re currently using manual forklift operators to transport pallets.
Autonomous Tuggers in Action
When you deploy a self-driving tow vehicle to transport material from point A to point B, you add reliable consistency to a key task while freeing manual operators to stay focused on tasks like loading and unloading in dock operations.
Here are some other deployment strategies for autonomous tuggers that may be valuable in your facility:
Use autonomous tuggers to carry material over long distances to eliminate costly deadhead runs and free-up employees to focus on high-value tasks.
- Move more material faster with an industrial-strength high-payload autonomous tuggers.
- Achieve fork-free operations between a staging area in receiving and the storage racks by using AMRs for pallet transport.
- Add call buttons in receiving to support on-demand arrival of a tow vehicle when you’re ready to load pallets for dock-to-stock transport.
- Reduce safety incidents and product damage because autonomous vehicles have multiple sensors and built-in safety mechanisms and are less likely than manual drivers to accidentally run into rack, pallets or people.
These are just a handful of ways autonomous tow vehicles provide consistent, repeatable performance all day long. The result? Greater efficiency and productivity.
Heartland Automation is here to guide you through your automation journey. We have the expertise to identify facility-specific opportunities that can deliver ROI quickly. Contact us to learn more about how you can add automation to your productivity team.