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Blogbeitrag Thyssenkrupp-2

Pole position: thyssenkrupp Automotive Systems launches driverless transport system

In motorsport, speed is of the essence. This was also the benchmark for LOGSOL when implementing an automated guided vehicle system (AGV) in the axle assembly plant of thyssenkrupp Automotive Systems in Leipzig. The first-tier supplier assembles individual components into vehicle axles, which it supplies to OEMs such as BMW and the sports car manufacturer Mercedes-AMG. The company was looking for an AGV to transport material within the plant from staging zones to the production line. The short project period from September 2022 to August 2023 seemed “quite ambitious” to experienced LOGSOL logistics and factory planner Ivo Mörtl: Within a year, LOGSOL had to draw up the specifications and tender documents, conduct technical rounds with potential equipment suppliers, manage the commercial award in collaboration with the customer’s procurement department, get started in the project team, implement the AGV, test and accept everything.

Implementation was the biggest challenge in the speed competition. There was a four-week time window for this in July/August 2023 during the main customer’s planned production shutdown. “This resulted in a lead time of only around ten months to get from the idea to the fully implemented system,” says project manager Ivo Mörtl.

Industry knowledge from the automotive sector

In the past, thyssenkrupp Automotive Systems was able to store the components very close to the production line. “Due to increased variance and correspondingly higher space requirements, we had to move pre-sequencing zones significantly further away from the points of consumption,” explains plant manager Alois Maderer. This created transport routes for the provisioning processes that did not exist before – and these had to be automated.

Ivo Mörtl has long been part of the “racing team” of the first-tier supplier, which has been working with LOGSOL for years on logistics planning services. Alois Maderer appreciates LOGSOL’s background of experience: “The experts have industry knowledge from the automotive sector and can get started immediately. This is an absolute strength from which we have benefited from the idea through to finalization.”

Lean logistics processes with autonomous route finding

LOGSOL planned four routes with around 20 rounds per hour for three underfloor AGVs with a payload of up to 1,000 kilograms in order to deliver new material to the points of use and take back empty containers. For the desired self-sufficient solution, containers with different basic dimensions and different underbodies had to be taken into account. According to Alois Maderer, the “secret of success” turned out to be “keep it simple”: LOGSOL developed practical, lean logistics processes and worked out a comparison of providers with independent route finding. The special features that enabled the customer to make a decision included battery-operated, freely positionable call buttons with manageable infrastructure requirements to trigger transport orders. “A 3D camera recognizes at the pick-up and delivery location whether the space is occupied and the load is correctly positioned,” says Ivo Mörtl.

The mixed traffic with manually operated forklift trucks and tugger trains as well as pedestrians in the area proved to be a challenge. “People had to get used to the fact that an AGV moves from A to B quite quickly,” says the plant manager. According to Ivo Mörtl, acceptance depends on “designing the process in such a way that relatively little changes for employees before and after the system”. In concrete terms, this means: as little additional technology as possible at the beginning or end of the process. “Everything that changed was easy to learn,” says Alois Maderer. “The system is very stable. Even if a container is not upright, the AGV manages to pick it up,” he emphasizes positively.

thyssenkrupp Automotive Systems plans to use five mobile robots in Leipzig in the future. “If we can manage that ourselves, then LOGSOL has done a good job,” says the plant manager with a wink. His conclusion: “Together with LOGSOL, we get topics to the finish line.”

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