Lumileds: Streamlines with traceability and automated vehicles
Lumileds needed to streamline its operations. To do so, they chose to look at automation of their manufacturing and transportation
Client:
Lumileds
Industry:
Manufacturing
Country:
Netherlands
Services:
Automation
Summary
Lumileds sought to streamline its operations through automation in manufacturing and transportation. Their goal was to enhance tracking capabilities for better data management and improve efficiency in the coordination between human workers and automated vehicles. Collaborating with Euvic’s team, they implemented a solution featuring six automated vehicles that transport goods between over 40 logistics points along a track spanning several hundred metres.
Intro
Lumileds is a global leader in lighting solutions, renowned for innovations such as Xenon technology, advancements in halogen lighting, and high-performance LEDs. The company integrates innovation into all its operations.
Challenge
Lumileds identified several challenges requiring a strategic solution:
- A shortage of workforce in freight transportation has driven the demand for automated and technological solutions to maintain efficient supply chains.
- Ensuring full traceability of raw material shipments is essential to meet high-quality standards.
- Designing safe and efficient human-machine interactions in environments where robots work alongside humans.
- Irregular transportation of raw materials from external warehouses.
- Optimising space utilisation by reducing the stock of final products in the production area.
Solution
To meet Lumiled’s challenges, Euvic assembled a multidisciplinary team with expertise in mechanics, electronics, and IT, taking full responsibility for the development and implementation of the system.
Together, they created the following solution:
- The project integrated a customised IT system with autonomous vehicles to streamline internal transport processes within the industrial sector.
- The solution includes advanced sensors and programmable logic controllers to continuously monitor the location of materials to be transported. The IT system employs sophisticated algorithms to create transport missions, assigning them to the most suitable autonomous mobile robot (AMR) based on efficiency and availability.
- To ensure reliability and minimise downtime, the IT tool features predictive maintenance capabilities. By analysing usage data from the autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs), the system proactively alerts users about upcoming maintenance needs, ensuring optimal operation.
Result
The results for Lumileds are summarized in the following points:
The key results for Lumileds are as follows:
- Raw materials and final products are now delivered between production lines and warehouses fully automatically.
- Vision systems for product identification prevent incorrect deliveries of raw materials to production lines.
- Comprehensive insights into the performance and issues of the transportation process.
- Since May 2020, Lumileds has moved over 200,000 pallets using six automated vehicles across more than 40 logistics points, on a track several hundred metres long. The average rate is 15-20 pallets per hour, with a peak efficiency of 40 per hour.
- Automated processes have mitigated the labour shortage in freight transport and reduced irregular deliveries.
