SKY-LIGHT Achieved Fast Payback and Improved Safety

“We should have switched to Global AGV a long time ago”

“The installation of our two new Global AGVs is the best and most seamless implementation I have ever experienced. It went extremely well. By day three, the new Global AGVs were already driving around scanning our facilities to create their navigation maps. By week two, we started benefiting from them. The entire ramp-up was significantly faster than with our previous solutions.”

The expression “extremely well” is not one COO Brian Rasmussen from SKY-LIGHT uses lightly. Coming from a region where people tend to be modest in their praise, a simple “not too bad” is often considered high recognition. So when Brian Rasmussen and his colleagues speak this positively about their two new Global AGVs, something special is clearly at play.

The two new driverless trucks have significantly improved internal logistics in SKY-LIGHT’s production of plastic packaging for the food industry. And not only that – it has also proven financially worthwhile.

A driverless success

"The investment in Global AGV is paying off even faster than expected. We estimate a payback period of no more than 3.1 years, whereas we initially expected four years. If we had gone directly from manual forklift operation, the payback would have been as low as 1.3 years."

 Brian Rasmussen COO SKY-LIGHT

In addition to fast payback, SKY-LIGHT has fulfilled five key requirements for increased automation of internal logistics. At the same time, safety has improved – a critical factor for a company operating more than 18,000 square meters across 10 production halls.

Huey, Dewey and Louie at full speed

With the two new Global AGVs, Brian Rasmussen has had all five of his key requirements fulfilled – and gained even more in the process. The requirements focused on integration with AMRs (autonomous mobile robots), flexible load handling, in-house programming, sensor-based routing, and improved space utilisation:

• Seamless collaboration: The two new Global AGVs work effortlessly alongside SKY-LIGHT’s four AMRs. Named Huey, Dewey and Louie and Donald Duck, they move continuously through production carrying empty and filled cartons. The AMRs and AGVs are now configured to coordinate with each other, respecting shared zones and effectively “requesting access” before entering if the path is not clear.

• Flexible lifting height: Global AGV can handle pallets at heights of up to 1500 mm, compared to just 200 mm with the previous solution.

• In-house programming reduces costs significantly: SKY-LIGHT saves substantial costs on external programmers, as Global AGV is easy to configure internally. The company has defined more than 100 pick-up and drop-off locations themselves, and new routes can be added at any time via a user-friendly interface. This makes it possible to scale quickly by adding new AGVs within days.
  
  
• Automatic rerouting for wide loads: The new Global AGVs automatically detect the width of the load and adjust their safety scanners accordingly. When transporting wider loads such as the large foil rolls used in SKY-LIGHT’s thermoforming processes the AGV identifies this and follows a predefined alternative route. Their previous AGVs could not distinguish between load widths, often creating unnecessary bottlenecks due to excessive safety distances.
  
  
• Double space utilisation: To maximise space in both warehouse storage and truck loading, Global AGVs can easily stack pallets with half-height loads on top of each other. This is referred to as double stacking of half-height pallets, also known as block stacking.  

Drives itself to the charging station

”When we started looking for replacements for our old AGVs, we couldn’t find any supplier that could meet all five of our requirements. So honestly, we didn’t expect to get everything - until we saw it working during a demo at Global AGV.”

Says Brian Rasmussen 

In addition to meeting all five requirements, SKY-LIGHT gained several unexpected benefits. Features they hadn’t even considered have turned out to be highly valuable. For example, they now save significant time because the Global AGV automatically drives itself to the charging station when the battery reaches 25%. Previously, staff had to manually replace batteries whenever an AGV stopped somewhere in the facility. Now, the AGV charges itself and returns to it’s tasks - running 24/7 if needed.

Avoided a €33,450 upgrade cost

Head of Production Engineering at SKY-LIGHT, Carsten Holmslykke, is pleased that the new installation has leveraged the company’s existing sensors and a large part of the original hardware: 

”With Global AGV, we were able to reuse our 60 ultrasonic sensors. They are mounted in the ceiling and continuously monitor whether a pallet is ready for pickup. At the same time, we were able to remove more than 250 reflective strips from the ceiling that the old AGVs relied on for navigation. Global AGV communicates via Wi-Fi and continuously scans the environment, which makes it significantly safer.”

No one misses the challenges SKY-LIGHT experienced with the old AGVs. For example, they often misinterpreted reflections in the foil used in production as navigation markers, causing them to navigate incorrectly. The more reliable navigation allows the warehouse to be utilised much more flexibly, for example in terms of vertical space. 

Brian Rasmussen is also pleased to avoid the bill of at least DKK 250,000 that it would have cost to upgrade the old trucks.

They showed up when we needed them

Although the installation of the new Global AGVs ranks as one of the most successful in SKY-LIGHT’s long history, some adjustments were naturally required along the way.

For example, SKY-LIGHT had the fork height of the AGVs adjusted so that their AMRs Huey, Dewey and Louie can clearly detect them and maintain a safe distance.

”There will always be some fine-tuning when implementing new technology. One of our requirements was for the AGV to automatically detect and respond to wider loads. That required an upgrade to the navigation computer. We experienced that Global AGV handled this quickly. We were presented with both an upgrade plan and a plan B, if needed. Overall, we felt very well supported. Global AGV’s technicians showed up when we needed them. So, we got exactly what we paid for and much more. We should have made the switch a long time ago.” concludes Brian Rasmussen.

Based on his experience that the transition can be completed quickly and with a short payback period, he is already considering investing in another Global AGV. The AGVs are so easy to assign additional tasks to that SKY-LIGHT has already almost fully utilised their capacity.