Automation - including automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) and carts (AGCs) - is becoming more flexible and accommodating to changing operational requirements, an industry group reports.

In part to supplement forklifts in warehouses and distribution centres, suppliers of automated materials handling solutions have engineered their products and services for a broad range of applications and contributed to advances in lean logistics and just-in-time deliveries.

"With guided carts, there are fewer disruptive plant modifications and it's easier to change their paths," says Mark Longacre, chairman of the Material Handling Industry of America's (MHIA) Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems industry group.

"AGCs offer the flexibility that is needed in today's warehouses and plants," according to Sarah Carlson, vice chair of the industry group. "In both environments, the guide path is magnetic or optical tape which can be taken up and re-applied as needs change. The carrier can also be modified to accommodate load changes down-the-road."

In a quarterly report entitled "New Paths for Guided Vehicles", the MHIA industry group says, "advancements in guided vehicles and carts offer new flexibility and justify new possibilities".

The group notes a past challenge for materials handling automation developers was "over-doing it or under-doing it".

Improved engineering has led to a broader range of applications including distribution in hospital environments. "That's quite a stretch, considering guided vehicles used to be found mostly in manufacturing operations," the report says.

Longacre is marketing manager at the Chalfont, Pennsylvania facility of JBT Corp, officially John Bean Technologies Corp and, until July 2008, operating as FMC Technologies. Among its products and services, JBT's AeroTech segment makes automatic guided vehicles for materials handling in the automotive, printing, food and beverage, manufacturing, warehouse and hospital industries.

Carlson is marketing director with Jervis B Webb Co of Farmington Hills, Michigan. The firm's smart handling systems team has built AGVs since 1962.

In addition to JBT and Jervis B Webb, other regular members of the MHIA industry group dealing with complete AGV systems are Egemin Automation Inc of Holland, Michigan; Frog AGV Systems of Auburn Hills, Michigan; and HK Systems Inc of New Berlin, Wisconsin. Dematic Holding Sàrl of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is purchasing HK Systems (Forkliftaction.com News #476).

An associate member is SICK Inc of Minneapolis, Minnesota, a supplier of industrial sensors, safety systems, machine vision and automatic identification solutions for the materials handling industry.

Charlotte-based MHIA, an international trade association, has represented this industry since 1945.