Mobile robots automate internal logistics, increase productivity

Visteon, a Tier 1 automotive supplier, creates smart digital cabins for electric and automatic vehicles. To stay competitive, Visteon constantly looks to automate workflows. In the past, Visteon employees manually transported raw materials and finished products, lowering productivity, risking injuries, and slowing transportation times. To overcome these challenges, the company looked for an autonomous, traceable, flexible, and scalable solution that could work through three continuous shifts and link the warehouse with production. The system also needed to support facility employees negatively affected by long transportation times and physical risks associated with pushing heavy carts.

Autonomous navigation

Visteon implemented seven MiR100 autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) from Mobile Industrial Robots to improve the company’s internal logistics autonomy, increase staff productivity, and facilitate the remote control of the AMRs while tracing material delivery.

Six of the mobile robots move between the warehouse and production area while one robot picks up and delivers electronic component reels to and from surface mount technology (SMT) machines. With user-friendly management software, Visteon can constantly monitor the AMRs.

“These robots enable our workers to be more productive as they focus on tasks that provide greater value for the company,” says Arturo Robledo Ulloa, plant manager at Visteon’s Reynosa, Mexico, plant.

One MIR100 robot can deliver materials to three production lines, Ulloa says. “All of our robots are working three shifts a day, so the robots have hugely increased our capacity.”

MiRFleet

Visteon’s operational team assembles and reviews plant activity, records finished products, and coordinates transportation. MiRFleet software tracks AMR activity for the entire operation.

“The communication the robots use is very simple,” says Julián Méndez Guerrero, automatization engineer at Visteon. “With MiRFleet, we can keep track of all the robots and their tasks from one command screen. The robots can even communicate with each other to guarantee the most efficient delivery routes.”

MiRFleet concentrates all robotic information in a single system, simplifying internal transportation and work with the robots. Real-time monitoring enables Visteon to track components and ensure on-time deliveries of the right materials from the warehouse to production.

Collaborative operations

Visteon’s mobile robots contribute to a better work environment by taking over heavy lifting and saving many production steps. The robots drive autonomously, avoiding all obstacles, including people and other robots, navigating in the same workspace as employees.

The open source MiR system allows customers to develop solutions customized for their needs. Visteon capitalized on this by developing its own interface that allows employees to summon a robot with the push of a button at kiosk lines.

Mobile Industrial Robots
https://www.mobile-industrial-robots.com

Visteon
https://www.visteon.com