Whether you’re in a manufacturers warehouse or a distribution center, pallets need to be moved from inbound to racking. Many instances have manual operators moving single or multiple pallets at a time with a pallet jack and bringing them to aisles for vertical lift trucks to put them into racks.
Robotic lift trucks can be used to either replicate or augment manually driven trucks to do the long-distance transport of pallets into the aisles. Facilities are then able to keep manual operators in aisle doing more complicated movements by putting pallets into rack. By automating long distance travel, operations will gain efficiency and productivity.
This is typically done by creating localized areas throughout the warehouse where robotic lift trucks can drop pallets for manual reach trucks to pick from.
Solutions: Staging Lanes, Intelligent Pallet Detection
Trucks to Use: Hyster Robotic Lift Truck, OTTO Lifter, OTTO 1500
Staging Lanes
Robotic lift trucks can pick out of staging lanes and move product to drop into other staging lanes. For example, manual operators can offload trucks on the inbound side and stage product nearby. The robotic lift truck can then pick from those lanes and bring those pallets to a central staging area where they are broken down, sorted and the pallets are rebuilt for outbound transport.
Intelligent Pallet Detection
One of the unique features is intelligent pallet detection. This feature allows a robot to scan staging lanes regardless of if the truck is engaged in a mission at the time or not. This allows the robot software to trigger pick missions and order other robots in the fleet to do work that is waiting for them.
This creates a fully autonomous solution that removes another the need for a manual operator to trigger picks and drops. This also requires no WMS/ERP integration allowing for fewer complex installations.
Why Automation Provides An Advantage.
Like many industrial settings, whether it’s Logistics, Warehousing or Manufacturing, the labor pool is always shrinking. With finding labor becoming an issue, robotic lift trucks offer a solution for any operation that requires simple repetitive movement that allow management to move existing labor to more skilled positions.
With the proper applications, a robotic material handling equipment can provide a fast Return on Investment by reducing an operations labor costs. There are other potential realizations of cost savings include: increased productivity from increased cycle efficiency and solving poor attendance as well as the damage reduction of products and equipment.
Why ELT Systems Group
Support Across North America
ELT Systems Group is part of Eastern Lift Truck Company that is staffed with hundreds of qualified service people. The Systems division is equipped with engineers along with their OEM partners to bring you 24/7 support and the ability to travel any where across North America to support your operation.
No Infrastructure
ELT Systems Group’s robotic solutions require no additional infrastructure to navigate in your facility. This means no reflectors, no magnets or wires in the ground. This technology allows the robots to navigate and drive within an existing facility without any other considerations outside of safety.
Dual Mode
The robotic Tugger and Lifter solution is a standard truck that has been built to be autonomous. This means that it can be used in manual mode as well as autonomous mode. Any operator (if the client allows for it) can take control of the robotic lift truck for any purpose.
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If you are interested in automating your material handling application, make sure you reach out to ELT Systems Group and see how we can help. Contact the systems group or Jason Dodge directly for further information and to get started on your project today.
Jason Dodge
Automation Manager | Systems Division
Eastern Lift Truck Co., Inc.
Cell: (609) 605-1043
Email: jdodge@easternlifttruck.com
