Benefits of Automatic Guided Vehicles:
Automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) are flexible, versatile unmanned solutions that can safely and efficiently transport material throughout your facility. But are they cost effective?
Automating the movement of material with AGVs deliver many benefits, both direct and indirect. When assessing the ROI of a potential AGV project, Amerden can help identify and quantify the benefits of automation. These benefits include:
Accountability Movement of material onboard an AGV is constantly tracked. Lost or misplaced material is minimized.
Automatic line balancing In a production environment with multiple operations conducted at varying times, AGVs offer reliable and predicable transport of manufactured products, thus eliminating production backups.
Cost control – An AGV systems costs are very predictable, while labor costs tend to increase and change quickly depending on local economic conditions
Facility maintenance Modern AGVs are equipped with sophisticated collision avoidance systems. Facility damage due to vehicle collisions in minimized.
Flexibility AGV’s travel path can be changed as production and transport requirements evolve. For laser and contour navigation based systems, travel path can be changed in software and uploaded to the AGV control system.
Reduced labor costs AGV operate 7/24 with no driver and little to no supervision.
Reduced operating costs – Charging and battery handling can be automatic with an AGV system, controlled acceleration and deceleration minimizes wear on vehicle components.
Reduction in product damage AGVs handle products gently, reducing scrap and waste.
Repeatability – AGVs perform repetitive movement tasks predictably and reliably.
Safety AGVs always follow their guide path, stop if they encounter an obstacle and provide audible and visual warning of their presences, improving the safety of surrounding personnel.
Scheduling Because of their reliability and on-time delivery, AGVs improve scheduling capabilities and the efficiency of operations.
Scalability More AGVs can be added to expand capacity and throughput