Located about 90 miles south of Prague, the Czech Republic's Budweiser Budvar Brewery is serious about its cultural history. The company brewed its first batch of beer in 1895, following a brewing tradition that dates back to the 13th century in its hometown of Ceské Budejovice (Budweis). (Thanks to the German translation of that town's name—Budweiser—the brewery has been locked in a trademark dispute for decades with American brewing giant Anheuser-Busch Co. LLC.)
A true old-school brewer, Budvar doesn't allow its beer to be brewed in other producers' facilities under license. Every bottle it sells is produced at a single site along the Vltava River.
That insistence on handling all of its brewing on site gives the company tight control over quality and ingredients. But it also creates a challenge in distributing its cans and bottles to 76 countries from a single production facility.
Budweiser Budvar Brewery in the Czech Republic stocks 360 product combinations at its single production site.
The complexities reach all the way back into the warehouse, which stocks 10 different kinds of beer, each of which is labeled in dozens of languages, adding up to 360 product combinations. The facility holds more than 20,000 pallets and supports shipments by more than 50 trucks per day.
Until recently, the brewer tracked its warehouse assets with passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags located at each pallet position—tags that were read by RFID antennas mounted on its forklifts' chassis. The system was intended to minimize human error in handling the hundreds of varieties of beer, but due to damage to antennas, harsh weather, and other factors, the network operated properly only 80 percent of the time.
In a bid to reduce maintenance costs associated with antenna damage, increase system uptime, and obtain additional insights into its logistics operations, the brewery decided to replace its RFID-based platform with a real-time location system (RTLS) based on ultra-wideband (UWB) technology.
MORE, BETTER DATA
Provided by Czech Republic-based RTLS vendor Sewio and implemented by ICZ Group, the new system uses antennas installed high above the actual traffic, helping boost the system's reliability to 99 percent uptime. The tags are now affixed to forklifts, rather than pallet positions, allowing for asset-tracking throughout the facility. Overall, the new network covers an area of 160,000 square feet, using 70 receivers to track assets with a high degree of accuracy.
With its new tracking system, Budweiser Budvar is now able to get insights into the utilization of each forklift and better use space in its warehouse.
In addition to boosting uptime and accuracy, the new system has paved the way for process improvements. The brewer is now able to mine the data generated by the system for insights into the distance traveled and the utilization of each forklift, and to leverage "heatmaps" that allow leaders to visualize the traffic flow. By analyzing that data, the brewer says it has discovered ways to better utilize its current warehouse, virtually expanding it by 19 percent.
On top of that, Budvar has found that the total cost of ownership is much lower with the new system than with its predecessor. "While the initial cost for RFID versus UWB is almost identical, UWB undoubtedly outperforms RFID thanks to lower maintenance costs, lower risk of damage, and higher accessibility and scalability of the system," Pavel Pánek, head of logistics at Budweiser Budvar, said in a release.
A coalition of truckers is applauding the latest round of $30 million in federal funding to address what they call a “national truck parking crisis,” created when drivers face an imperative to pull over and stop when they cap out their hours of service, yet can seldom find a safe spot for their vehicle.
According to the White House, a total of 44 projects were selected in this round of funding, including projects that improve safety, mobility, and economic competitiveness, constructing major bridges, expanding port capacity, and redesigning interchanges. The money is the latest in a series of large infrastructure investments that have included nearly $12.8 billion in funding through the INFRA and Mega programs for 140 projects across 42 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The money funds: 35 bridge projects, 18 port projects, 20 rail projects, and 85 highway improvement projects.
In a statement, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) said the federal funds would make a big difference in driver safety and transportation networks.
"Lack of safe truck parking has been a top concern of truckers for decades and as a truck driver, I can tell you firsthand that when truckers don’t have a safe place to park, we are put in a no-win situation. We must either continue to drive while fatigued or out of legal driving time, or park in an undesignated and unsafe location like the side of the road or abandoned lot,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said in a release. “It forces truck drivers to make a choice between safety and following federal Hours-of-Service rules. OOIDA and the 150,000 small business truckers we represent thank Secretary Buttigieg and the Department for their increased focus on resolving an issue that has plagued our industry for decades.”
Robotic technology has been sweeping through warehouses nationwide as companies seek to automate repetitive tasks in a bid to speed operations and free up human labor for other activities. Many of those implementations have been focused on picking tasks, a trend driven largely by the need to fill accelerating e-commerce orders. But as the robotic-picking market matures and e-commerce growth levels off, the robotic revolution is shifting behind the picking lines, with many companies investing in pallet-handling robots as a way to keep efficiency gains coming.
“Earlier in this decade and the previous decade, we [saw] a lot of [material handling] transformation around e-commerce and the handling of goods to order,” explains Josh Kivenko, chief marketing officer and senior vice president at Vecna Robotics, which provides autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for pallet handling and logistics operations. “Now we’re talking about pallets—moving material in bulk behind that line.”
Kivenko explains that whether items are being packaged and shipped directly to a customer’s home address or moved as finished goods to a shipping bay for store delivery, those items are first moved in bulk in some way, often by human hands and with human-operated equipment. He describes warehouses as chaotic environments in which humans move pallets and cartons in multiple ways—up and down, side to side, from receiving to storage, from storage to shipping, or via cross-docking. Automation can help bring order to that chaos.
“What we’re trying to do is relieve some of the pressure [on the] humans [doing] this work,” Kivenko says of companies that develop pallet-handling robotic technologies. “At the end of the day, we’re trying to automate some of those flows, relieve labor pressure, save costs, and keep the goods flowing.”
But automated pallet handling isn’t right for every situation, so it’s important to understand the warehouse conditions required and the protocols and best practices needed to make it a win. Here are some guidelines for applying pallet-handling robots and gaining the most from your investment.
FIRST, UNDERSTAND THE TECHNOLOGY
Pallet-handling robots fall into four general categories, explains Rich O’Connor, vice president of storage and automation for Raymond West Group, a business unit of lift truck manufacturer The Raymond Corp. They include:
Palletizing/depalletizing robots, which are used to load or unload items onto and off of pallets, usually with the use of a robotic arm for picking and placing. Today, these systems are being increasingly integrated with automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) to further streamline pallet handling in the warehouse, O’Connor explains.
Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), which are used to transport pallets within the warehouse. Often outfitted with lift decks or conveyors, or designed to tug or tow items, these robots move pallets from point A to B within a facility. AGVs, which often follow a marked guide-path or wire in the floor, have been around for many years, but the advent of high-performance guidance and vision systems is allowing them more flexibility today, O’Connor says. AMRs are self-guided vehicles that use software and sensors to navigate their way through the warehouse.
Forklift AGVs and AMRs, which can move products both horizontally, from place to place, and vertically, into and out of storage racks. They come in various styles—including stackers, counterbalanced trucks, reach trucks, and even very narrow aisle (VNA) vehicles for use in densely packed warehouses. These vehicles are more complex than those used only for horizontal transport, O’Connor explains. They must be “highly integrated” into the facility’s warehouse management system (WMS) or warehouse execution system (WES) so that they know precisely where to retrieve and deliver pallets within the facility.
Robotic pallet shuttles, which move pallets into, out of, and within dense storage racking. The Raymond Corp. describes such a system as “a standalone, automated deep-lane pallet storage system that utilizes self-powered shuttle carriages to move pallets toward the back or front in a racking channel. Shuttles are motor driven and travel along rails within a storage lane.”
O’Connor and others say that no matter which of these technologies you’re investing in, it’s important to remember that they are all part of a larger system designed to optimize operations throughout the warehouse.
“The expanding role of all these different styles working together is what’s amazing today,” O’Connor says.
SECOND, ENSURE THE TECHNOLOGY IS A FIT
Kivenko, of Vecna, also emphasizes the importance of pallet-handling robots working in concert, particularly AMRs and AGVs.
“The magic isn’t just that the robots are autonomous and driving by themselves. The magic is multiple robots—when you have a [whole integrated] system [in place],” he says. “[It’s] how the fleet operates autonomously and optimizes itself for continuous improvement. That’s where the exponential gains are. [It’s] not just about automating what a worker does; it’s about automating a system.”
But you can’t install these systems in just any warehouse and expect magic. Kivenko and others point to certain conditions that enable the best robotic pallet-handling outcomes, especially when it comes to transportation-based and forklift-type AMRs and AGVs.
“The robots that I sell are large-load machines with very expensive technology,” Kivenko explains. “They move material, generally, in larger facilities. And in order for them to produce a return [on investment]—because that’s the name of the game here—they have to be higher-velocity facilities.”
He says pallet-handling robots work best in large facilities running multiple shifts, usually more than five days a week. Wider aisles allow the equipment to move more freely through the facility and at higher speeds, to optimize efficiency and productivity. Strong Wi-Fi networks and clean, dry environments also help keep equipment running at top performance.
O’Connor agrees that pallet-handling robots are best suited to facilities with multishift operations, where they can ease labor constraints and boost productivity. And he says many customers are willing to extend the typical two- to three-year ROI period to five years in order to achieve those gains. But there is even more to it than that. O’Connor’s colleague John Rosenberger says customers must first step back and analyze their processes to ensure that, even if they have the right facility for pallet-handling AMRs or AGVs, they are moving material in the most efficient way to begin with.
“Many times, we find that the processes in place [are inefficient],” says Rosenberger, who is director of iWarehouse Gateway and global telematics for The Raymond Corp. He emphasizes the importance of analyzing existing data—from an equipment telematics system or similar—to determine the best path toward automation.
“Do you have congestion zones now?” he asks. “They’ll still exist if you automate [those processes exactly].”
THIRD, MAKE SIMPLICITY A PRIORITY
Another basic rule of thumb when implementing pallet-handling robotics: Keep it simple.
Andy Lockhart, director of strategic engagement for global warehouse and logistics process automation company Vanderlande, says that when designing a pallet-handling robotics system, “you want to minimize the processes you [automate]. When you can create [an automated system] that focuses on one task—for example, AMRs delivering pallets from a high-bay [storage rack] directly to the palletizing cell—you can do that efficiently and effectively. When you ask the AMR to do this and this and this … you are adding risk of failure.”
Lockhart’s colleague Jake Heldenberg advises customers to first test their target processes via pilot programs within the warehouse or DC. Heldenberg is Vanderlande’s head of solution design, warehousing, North America.
“If AGVs or AMRs for pallet handling are interesting [to a customer], the best thing to do is pilot one or two in an existing DC,” he says, explaining that the process can help companies troubleshoot, understand integration timelines, and gauge ROI. But pilot programs can add expense to a project, making it unaffordable for some.
“If that’s the case, then the best advice is work with a vendor who has experience integrating [the technology],” Heldenberg says. “Use their experience to benefit your business. You won’t have the same hiccups and challenges you would with a less-experienced vendor.”
A real-time business is one that uses trusted, real-time data to enable people and systems to make real-time decisions, Peter Weill, the chairman of MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), said at the “IFS Unleashed” show in Orlando.
By adopting that strategy, they gain three major capabilities, he said in a session titled “Becoming a Real-Time Business: Unlocking the Transformative Power of Digital, Data, and AI.” They are:
business model agility without needing a change management program to implement it
seamless digital customer journeys via self-service, automated, or assisted multi-product, multichannel experiences
thoughtful employee experiences enabled by technology empowered teams
And according to Weill, MIT’s studies show that adopting that real-time data stance is not restricted just to digital or tech-native businesses. Rather, it can produce successful results for companies in any sector that are able to apply the approach better than their immediate competitors.
While many companies are launching artificial intelligence (AI) products for use as generic “co-pilots” or consumer-focused gadgets, the Swedish enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendor IFS says its “Industrial AI” version supports industry-specific processes in “hardcore” sectors based on assets such as power grids, cell phone networks, aircraft maintenance, elevator operation, and construction management.
“Industrial AI is at the very core the solutions we are powering for customers. They are pushing us for ready-to-use AI that they can adopt quickly to solve real industrial challenges like labor shortages, supply chain disruption, [and] stagnated productivity," IFS's Chief Customer Officer, Cathie Hall, said in a release.
In presentations at its user conference in Orlando today, known as "IFS Unleashed," the company said that its latest IFS Cloud 24R2 release supports more than 60 in-depth Industrial AI scenarios. They span generative AI examples like: content generation for training and reports; recommendations for sourcing and suppliers; and contextual knowledge for assembly instruction. The tools also include predictive AI applications like event forecasting; optimization of resources and capacity; and anomaly detection for proactive quality control.
In remarks from the keynote stage, new IFS CEO Mark Moffat—who was appointed to the top office in January—said the company may be less well known than ERP vendors such as SAP, IBM, Oracle, and Infor, but it benefits from a tighter focus on its core users. Instead of selling software across dozens of industries, IFS serves just six industries: aerospace and defense, construction and engineering, energy and utilities, manufacturing, service, and telecommunications.
Thanks to that tight approach, he said the company has earned top Gartner rankings for its software products in field service management (FSM), enterprise asset management (EAM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and enterprise service management (ESM). And to compound that advantage, Moffat said IFS continues to grow swiftly through acquisition, having bought up a handful of companies in recent months: Assyst, Ultimo, Boka, empowermx, Bolo, Tobin, Merrick, and Copperleaf.
“You need an AI business plan” Moffat told the room. “If you have an AI business plan, that’s terrific, but you can improve it. This area is just moving so fast.”
The top three corporate development priorities in consulting firm PwC’s current strategy are climate, artificial intelligence (AI), and business model reinvention (BMR), the company said in remarks today at an Orlando user conference for IFS software.
That approach meshes well with IFS, the Swedish firm which has added dozens of AI applications to its cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools in recent months, that firm said at its "IFS Unleashed" event in Orlando. And underlying the industry’s rush to AI is the growing availability of massive amounts of data, PwC analyst Matthew Duffy said in a session at the show.
According to Duffy, data drives all the major technology changes that PwC advises businesses to examine: subscription or as-a-service models, connected devices and sensors, and conversions between business to business (B2B0 and business to consumer (B2C) approaches.
“Data availability now is greater than it’s ever been, and that’s where AI comes into play,” Duffy said. “It’s not just about driving cost efficiencies in an existing business model, but understanding your customer and your customer’s customer, so you can create a whole new value proposition.”
In fact, he said that PwC is not just giving that advice to its clients but applying it to the firm’s own strategy as well. That can be seen in the firm’s move in recent years to build its “Connected Solutions” business unit.