With labour shortage and rising labour costs, many companies have already taken the first step towards automation by implementing advanced systems like palletizers, sorters, or wrappers. These machines have proven to improve efficiency and accuracy in handling goods.
However, even with these systems in place, many warehouses still face bottlenecks and inefficiencies caused by manual transport between these automated stations.
The Gaps in Existing Automation Systems
While palletizers, sorters, and wrappers can automate specific tasks, the transportation of goods between these workstations often remains manual, leading to several challenges:
- Manual Labor Bottlenecks: Even with state-of-the-art palletizing and wrapping machines, the movement of goods between these systems can still require human intervention. This slows down processes and adds labor costs.
- Inconsistent Workflow: When palletized or sorted goods aren’t immediately transported to the next stage (e.g., from palletizer to wrapper), it can disrupt the flow of operations, creating delays to the entire production line.
- Labor Shortages: With increasing labor shortages in the logistics and warehousing sectors, relying on human labor for transport tasks can be a risk, potentially leading to operational slowdowns or disruptions.
To eliminate these inefficiencies, it’s essential to address the transportation gaps between your automation systems. This is exactly where EP’s XP15 and XP MM automated pallet trucks / AMR can help.
XP15 and XP MM: The Perfect Complement to Your Existing Systems
EP Equipment’s XP15 and XP MM are designed to fill the gaps between your workstations by automating the transportation of goods between. Here’s how they can benefit your operations:
1. Streamlined Automation and Seamless Integration
The XP15 and XP MM are autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) designed to work alongside your existing equipment. Whether you need to move goods one station to another, these AMRs can handle the job.
- XP15: A flexible automated pallet truck, the XP15 can autonomously transport pallets between workstations. It uses a 2D navigation system and can be set up and monitored via Bluetooth or a mobile app. It integrates seamlessly with your existing automation and provides an upgrade path to advanced features like M2M communication, so it can seamlessly work around elevators, fire doors, avoid collision with other robots, etc.
- XP MM: The XP MM is a mono mast automated pallet truck, specifically designed for end-of-line solutions. The mono-mast design provides vertical lifting up to 1 meter, which makes it ideal to work in product lines and rollerbeds. It’s perfect for businesses that automated transportation for finished goods across the warehouses / factories.
Both solutions ensure that goods are continuously moved between stations, allowing your palletizer, sorter, and wrapper to operate at full capacity without interruption.
2. Reducing Manual Labor and Operational Costs
By automating the transport tasks between your automated machines, the XP15 and XP MM drastically reduce the need for human labor in these repetitive, low-value tasks. This leads to:
- Lower labor costs: You can allocate workers to more complex, value-added tasks while the robots handle routine transport duties.
- Reduced downtime: Robots work consistently without breaks or fatigue, ensuring that your operations continue smoothly, day and night.
- Faster cycle times: The continuous flow of goods between stations leads to faster processing, meaning more goods handled in less time.
3. Scalable and Customizable Automation
One of the standout features of EP’s solutions is their scalability and flexibility: Both models can start with basic transportation tasks and easily upgrade.
All you need to do it to implement the software needed, without the need to replace the current model and invest in a new one.
This scalability ensures that as your business grows, your automation solutions can grow with you, providing future-proof operations without the need for complete system overhauls.
Real-World Impact: How Companies Are Benefiting from XP Solutions
Many companies have already enjoyed the benefits of implementing XP15 into their automation workflows, including Packo.
Arvato, a leading global logistics provider headquartered in Gütersloh, Germany, has successfully implemented the XP15 to streamline pallet transport between their sorter and wrapper. The XP15 acts as a crucial bridge, seamlessly connecting (automated) sorters to automated wrappers.
Before: Warehouse employees had to either wait for the full pallet to be picked up or manually transport it to the wrapper.
Now: Employees can use the nearest XP15 to pick up a pallet and send it directly to the wrapper, freeing them to focus on other tasks. The process is lean, efficient, and hassle-free.
Check out the video to see how the XP15 boosts productivity in action!
Conclusion: Unlock the Full Potential of Your Automation Systems with XP15 / XP MM
If your company has already invested in palletizers, sorters, or wrapper, it’s time to further automate the operations, and optimize the transportation of goods between these stations.
EP’s XP15 and XP MM AMRs can help you maximize the efficiency of your existing systems and take your warehouse operations to the next level.