DSV Road levels their workflow and decreases stress thanks to 4 BT Autopilots

During peaks in the workflow employeescan experience stress which makes them prone to causing damage. Avoiding these peaks also eliminates the need to hire temporary workers that require extra time and costs for education.

DSV chose for Autopilot trucks from Toyota Material Handling since they were able to offer a complete solution with rental and maintenance included, for both manual and automated trucks on site. Autopilots are able to navigate thanks to laser navigation technology. In this case, reflecting tape is fixed to the walls and aisles next to the route of the vehicles. Moreover, the automated trucks are equipped with a safety scanner that detects objects in due time and safely brings the vehicle to a halt. All AGV’s can also be operated manually if necessary. These AGV’s, four SAE160 stacker trucks, are equipped with a 1400mm fork length for oversized goods and fork tip bumpers for tight stacking. The Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV’s) drive in the opposite direction, which is both safer since the load cannot fall from the back of the truck, but also more productive since the truck is able to pick up speed this way. Each vehicle is equipped with a shock sensor that connects to I_Site so the AGV’s can be monitored in terms of productivity, battery management and impact or shocks.

• [Efficiency Improvement - Labor]
  The operators experience less stress since the workflow is evened out thanks to the AGV’s. Therefore they are less prone to making mistakes or causing damage.
• [Efficiency Improvement - Labor]
  By having automated trucks take care of the standardized Europallets, human operators can handle the scanners and special loads, which adds more value to their daily tasks.

• Boost DSV’s productivity by handling up to 400 pallets per shift, compared to a capacity of 250 pallets by a human operator