Buyers of new cars often have to exercise patience before taking their first joyride. This is because delivery times in the automotive industry are long. Depending on the manufacturer and model, it can take up to a year for the new car to arrive. There are many reasons for this. They range from supply bottlenecks at suppliers and manufacturers to capacity limits in production and inefficient material flows. "The solution is more flexible processes," says Uwe Schildheuer, Managing Director of Torwegge Intralogistics. With the Torsten automated guided vehicle (AGV), the developer of intralogistics solutions supplies a robot that could give the automotive industry new impetus.

While production processes in vehicle manufacturing in Germany are highly automated and state of the art, intralogistics is lagging behind. "Car manufacturers today often still think of the assembly line," says Schildheuer. This works well as long as the flow of goods is stable. This assumes that the same models are always produced at one location. If different vehicle types are built at one location, the flow of goods would be too complex for rigid assembly lines.

However, the current economic situation does not offer constant conditions. Experts speak of the "Vuca" world. It describes the increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. The consequence is an uncertain order situation. Two examples from the automotive industry: according to an Euler Hermes study, over 80 percent of German cars are currently exported. The UK and China are among the most important customers. It is not yet clear how Brexit will affect German-British trade. And it is also impossible to say whether German car manufacturers will continue to be as well positioned in China as they are at present, given the increasing competition from the domestic industry.

But if a flexible system were able to meet local demand promptly and in line with requirements, this would create an invaluable competitive advantage. According to Schildheuer, the Vuca world could only be met with a system that allows maximum flexibility. In order to be able to react quickly to customer requirements, production would have to take place at the point of need. This would also reduce delivery times, transportation costs and environmental impact. It is important to consider production and intralogistics in a network. "Those who continue to rely on assembly lines will not be able to break up the rigid material flows and production processes as well as thinking in terms of vehicle lines any time soon," predicts Schildheuer.

The Torsten AGV offers flexibility and networking instead. A car manufacturer uses four of them in production. The autonomously navigating transport vehicles transport production materials and replace forklift trucks.

The advantage of this is that Torsten is always in the right place at the right time due to his independent way of working. The vehicle works together with other units such as robots or workers and can therefore be easily integrated into existing processes. The possible applications go far beyond the transportation of material.

Several vehicle types in one production

Schildheuer describes a possible scenario: AGVs are used wherever material flows are subject to situational changes. Their use makes it possible to network different production cells with each other and to build different vehicle types in one production process. The system knows exactly which parts are to be installed where and when, and where to find them. It can not only transport individual parts but, thanks to its heavy-duty capability, it can also independently transport finished cars from the assembly cell to the warehouse, for example. This works because the vehicle's computer can process large amounts of data. Torsten selects the relevant information about the current status of the production process from this data in order to complete his tasks efficiently. The vehicle makes its decisions autonomously, but acts in a swarm-intelligent manner. To do this, it uses data networking with other units in the plant and is able to create a cooperative network to solve tasks. Integration into the overall autonomous system takes place via a fleet manager.