Many customers struggle to understand the benefits of introducing automation to their current processes and what specific tasks can be automated to enhance their operations. We believe the solution lies in what we call "optimal automation"—a strategy where only the most beneficial processes are automated. Instead, we focus on making smart investments to enhance operations by supporting manual tasks with automation. This mixed fleet approach allows AGVs to assist operators by taking over repetitive tasks, enabling them to concentrate on tasks that require flexibility and creative decision-making.

Why to automate existing processes?

AGVs excel at performing repetitive tasks in controlled environments, such as manufacturing and warehousing, and rely on centralised intelligence, such as the Rocla FleetController software, to optimise the entire material flow.

This is crucial in complex layouts or large fleets, where predictability and traceability are essential for smooth operations, making AGVs the most reliable solution in these scenarios. Additionally, this centralised control allows for limitless scalability of AGV solutions.

With the automotive and other manufacturing industries being pioneers in introducing automation in conveyor pick-up/drop-off operations, the growing interest in creating safer and more efficient intralogistics operations has driven automation to encompass the entire warehouse environment. In addition to conveyor pick-up/drop-off, we currently provide AGV solutions for a wide range of applications in the warehousing, packaging, manufacturing, paper and board, tyre and food and beverage industries. This makes AGVs a valuable investment for improving productivity, safety, and cost-efficiency across various sectors.

With Rocla AGV Solutions, our customers can experience many benefits:

• Increased Efficiency: AGVs can operate tirelessly, ensuring continuous material flow and reducing downtime.
• Cost Savings: By automating repetitive tasks, manual labour can be redirected to more creative tasks, leading to better resource allocation. At the same time, AGVs provide consistent performance with their accuracy and predictability, resulting in fewer work accidents and less damage to goods or infrastructure, thereby protecting inventory and reducing losses. 
• Enhanced Safety: Equipped with multiple advanced sensors and safety measures compliant with the ISO 3691-4 safety standard, along with optional collision avoidance systems, such as the Proximity Detection System (PDS), Rocla AGVs minimise the risk of accidents and injuries in the workplace, enabling safe and efficient mixed fleet operations.
• Flexibility and Scalability: Rocla AGV Solutions allows our customers to easily scale up the number of AGVs or adjust their roles as their business grows or changes. As intralogistics evolves rapidly, it's crucial to be prepared for the future.
• Improved Utilisation of Existing Facilities and Equipment: Rocla AGVs are designed to seamlessly integrate into existing warehouse environments. Their compact size and advanced technology enable the introduction automation without altering the layout, maximising space utilisation while enhancing operational efficiency.  

What to automate?

The world of intralogistics is steering towards a more collaborative environment where manual operations and automation enhance each other, and automation is not necessarily the answer to all logistics processes. In fact, we believe efficiency lies in optimal automation, that is, in finding the perfect balance between automation and manual operations. With the mixed fleet approach, AGVs execute repetitive tasks while operators handle more challenging transport orders, ensuring that the automation solution is truly optimal. This allows manual operations to focus on jobs that require intuition, precision and flexible decision-making. 

We count on an extensive range of AGVs that offer numerous possibilities for automating existing environments including a wide range of applications in the warehousing, packaging, manufacturing, paper and board, tyre, and food and beverage industries with a straightforward integration process, requiring no changes to current layouts. Additionally, our latest innovations enable high and heavy lifting in warehouses with limited storage space. For example, our newest vehicle, the ACT (Automated Compact Truck), can lift heavy loads up to 6 meters in aisles as narrow as 2.6 meters, while the new model of our ART (Automated Reach Truck) can perform heavy lifting up to 10 meters in aisles as narrow as 2.85 meters, making it the first automated reach truck in the market capable of operating in such tight spaces.

With over 40 years of experience in AGV solutions, our priority is to ensure our customers’ businesses run optimally and efficiently, both today and in the future. To do so and find solutions tailored to their specific intralogistics processes, we focus on the fluency of operations to determine the necessary level of automation rather than the other way around. By enhancing mixed fleet operations, we are able to boost the efficiency at the warehouse.

Targeted automation is also key to achieving a good return on investment and we have developed a series of features and functionalities to enable mixed fleet operations, leveraging the flexibility and problem-solving skills of human operators alongside the tireless and predictable nature of AGVs.

Our FleetController software, Automated Material Flow Control (AMFC), and ForkLift Orders (FLO) App facilitate seamless collaboration between AGVs and driver-operated forklifts, ensuring optimal efficiency and coordination.

FleetController enhances traceability of operations by seamlessly integrating with the existing Warehouse Management System (WMS), enabling operators to supervise both manual and automated operations from a single system. Additionally, the user-friendly FleetController Dashboard provides real-time status of the system, vehicle information, tasks, and workload, offering better management through increased transparency. This allows operators to understand the status of the warehouse at a glance.

In the AMFC, a set of rules determined to fit particular needs defines the division of tasks, ensuring smooth and uninterrupted operations across different shifts. Thanks to its automatically executed policies that even workload, the tasks can then be assigned efficiently. Additionally, the AMFC relies on order balancing to react to sudden changes and errors during operations, improving communication between manual operators and AGVs and elevating collaboration. With the AMFC in place, the FleetController can allocate tasks to both AGVs and driver-operated forklifts, integrating them into a single, cohesive fleet under one solution.

The intuitive and user-friendly FLO app serves as the communication interface between the FleetController and forklift drivers, allowing operators to receive and check transportation tasks directly from the FleetController.

The FleetController's two layers of algorithms, the Order Optimizer and the Route Optimizer, can be scaled to all AGVs and other vehicles, automatically optimising how orders are allocated and executed. The Order Optimizer identifies the best AGV or forklift for each order, continually refining plans over time. The Route Optimizer determines a deadlock-free path for each AGV order and calculates the drive time estimates for both the Order Optimizer and the facility’s Warehouse Management System. 

Thanks to these software innovations, we have made technology previously exclusive to automation available for manual operations as well. This optimises material flow and ensures the right size of investment, allowing you to invest only in the necessary level of automation with the flexibility to scale up in the future.

By managing and supervising all tasks from a single point, collaboration between automation, driver-operated forklifts, and other technologies in existing warehouses is enhanced, improving transparency and traceability. This reduces accidents and damage to goods, equipment, and facilities, thereby increasing efficiency and safety in workspaces.

How is safety addressed?

Our vehicles are designed to perform efficiently in environments with pedestrians and driver-operated forklifts. One of the biggest concerns when introducing automation to existing warehouses is ensuring safety. At Rocla AGV Solutions, we address this by including a large set of functionalities in safety devices and being compliant with the ISO 3691-4 safety standard. 

Additionally, our vehicles are equipped with numerous safety features and scanners as standard in all Rocla AGVs. For specific cases and needs, we have also developed a series of additional safety measures, such as the Proximity Detection System (PDS), which facilitates smooth collaboration between manual operations and AGVs in shared spaces.

By adhering to ISO 3691-4, we ensure our AGVs meet the essential health and safety requirements set by the EU Machinery Directive, providing more reliable and uninterrupted AGV operations. Rocla AGVs operate safely in shared environments, interact with humans and enable mixed fleet operations, enhancing the overall productivity of our customers’ warehouses.

In conclusion, the integration of AGVs within intralogistics represents a significant advancement towards creating a more efficient, safe, and flexible warehouse environment. By leveraging the strengths of both automation and manual operations, businesses can achieve optimal automation, ensuring that resources are utilised effectively. With our innovative solutions and extensive experience, we are committed to helping our customers navigate the evolving landscape of intralogistics, providing tailored solutions that enhance productivity, safety, and cost-efficiency. As we continue to innovate and adapt, our goal remains to support our customers in achieving seamless and scalable operations, both now and in the future.

Get in touch to have a chat with our experts on how this could be applied to your particular case.