Honeywell International, the giant technology and manufacturing company, has hired robotic automatic guided vehicles to assist in operations at its alarm system and structured wiring products plant in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin
Honeywell purchased the automated guided vehicles (AGVs) from Seegrid, a Pittsburgh-based manufacturer of robotic materials handling equipment., The driverless GP8 pallet trucks will be used to transport raw materials such as copper coils, cables, and wire spools to manufacturing areas and deliver finished products to the warehouse, according to a Honeywell news release.
Helps Humans Work More Efficiently
The purpose of the new robotic workers is not to replace humans, but to help them improve their productivity, according to Michael Crichlow, cable and custom electronics logistics manager at the facility.
“We are using the Seegrid GP8s to enhance the capabilities of my professional material handling staff by providing them another set of forks to complete the cross-plant moves,” Crichlow said. “The AGVs will allow me to use my material handlers for the more precise placements and technical moves throughout the manufacturing floor and distribution center. This is accomplished by maintaining empty fork time as the material handlers move from one task to the next.”
Robots Move Freely throughout Facility
The new robot employees can move freely throughout the facility and don’t require lasers, wire, tape or magnets for navigation, unlike earlier generation of AGVs. This makes them move valuable and better suited to deal with rapid changes in production needs, said Crichlow.
“I chose this technology because of the flexibility of being able to reprogram the vehicles quickly as we frequently change layouts,” he said. “The ‘permanency’ of the laser reflectors, magnets and strips just wouldn’t be practical in our constantly improving work space.”
The AGVs allow Honeywell to eliminate “empty fork time” — the time it takes to travel across the facility to make a delivery with no return load.
“Three dynamic results are expected with the Seegrid AGVs at the Honeywell facility, including an increase in case picked per labor hour metric, increased support level for production operations, and improved material flow and 5S adherence,” Crichlow said. 5H is amanagement tool for improving workplace efficiency that was developed in Japan.
The robotic vehicles were installed in the facility in late February.
Honeywell is a $23 billion per year diversified tech and manufacturing leader serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; automotive products; turbochargers; and specialty materials.
The company is based in Morris Township, New Jersey, and it is one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It also is a component of the Standard & Poor’s 50 Index.
Innovative Robotic Solutions for Material Handling
Seegrid produces innovative robotic vision-guided AGVs for materials handling tasks in manufacturing and distribution environments. It’s state-of-the-art navigation technology was one of the first robotic vehicles that didn’t require the use of wires, lasers, magnets or other infrastructure for navigation.
The Giant Eagle grocery chain currently is using Seegrid pallet-handling mobile robots in its 440,000-square-foot food distribution center outside of Pittsburgh. Four double pallet robots, which resemble driver-less forklift truck, handle much of the facility’s putaway operations. Another four mobile robots are being used at a Giant Eagle distribution center in Cleveland, Ohio.
The trucks automatically offload pallets from semi-tractor trailers then move the two at a time to drop-off locations throughout the warehouse. They are fully integrated with the facility’s automated storage and retrieval system, which uses voice-controlled cranes to retrieve pallets from 12,000 separate locations.