Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) are often thought of as machines that perform simple tasks rather than personnel. While this is true in some respects, over the past decade AGVs have begun to integrate into many industries outside of distribution, transportation and manufacturing processes, such as retail, military and even healthcare.
With this proliferation of AGVs, the question that comes to the minds of many business owners and operations managers is: I want to automate processes in my warehouse or distribution center. However, are AGVs suitable for my business and operations? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
It is important to know that AGVs are not suitable for every industry or operation. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to help you determine if they are a good fit for your business.
AGVs reduce employee costs in your operation: If a company starts using an AGV instead of workers, it will incur a single expense (initial investment) for equipment, with many of the many benefits it normally pays for workers, such as health insurance, payroll, taxes, pay raises, leave, sickness, … It will get rid of the current and ongoing costs.
AGVs are designed and programmed with safety as a priority. Thanks to the cameras, lasers and sensors on it, they move safely around personnel and structures. In contrast, vehicles used by operators such as forklifts do not have such extensive safety equipment and ultimately rely on human input, which can be mistaken and compromised in any way. While there is always the potential for an operator to become distracted or fatigued and therefore cause an accident, you should not have such concerns when operating AGVs.
In addition, AGVs can operate in environments that are hazardous to human health, such as the environment of extreme heat, cold or hazardous materials, as well as in conditions where people cannot work comfortably.
Increasing safety, reducing costs and preventing possible occupational accidents reduce downtime of the operation, which will ultimately increase profitability in many sectors.
We have to admit that people make mistakes. The use of AGVs instead of people eliminates the possibility of wrongdoing. As a result, you reduce the costs caused by errors, increase output, and ensure that your operations are more productive and error-free. In addition, AGVs can work 24/7, while the working hours and the time they can work without breaks are limited.
By integrating AGVs with a warehouse control system or a warehouse management system, you can streamline processes such as inventory and material ordering, in addition to obvious improvements in accuracy and productivity.
Instead of buying 20 or 30 AGVs at a time to avoid unnecessary expenses or high costs at the beginning, you can start with one or two AGVs and gradually increase the number as your operation expands, eventually turning your fleet into a fully automated or mostly automated operation.
As a result, AGVs increase the profitability of an operation by reducing labor costs and increasing productivity, but this comes at a cost: the initial investment. In the short term, buying an AGV will likely be more expensive than hiring staff or using other vehicles such as forklifts. Full realization of savings usually happens in the long run. This initial investment can be costly for smaller operations that do not have ready access to capital.
As with any equipment, AGVs will need to undergo routine maintenance and occasional repairs. Although AGVs will not be operated directly with the operator, some time is required for personnel to be trained, used to the change, and for the AGVs to be fully integrated into the operation. This is not a "disadvantage" per se. This cost should not be overlooked, although it will occur occasionally.
AGVs are the optimal choice for operations involving repetitive missions. However, if the tasks in your operations do not tend to be repetitive, it will be more convenient and efficient for you to turn to operator-driven vehicles such as forklifts.
One of the benefits of working with workers instead of autonomous vehicles is that it is easy for those who work in need to switch between tasks and this requires flexibility in operation.
For example, Ahmet may have to leave the process he normally works in and look after Ali, who has any health problems or needs an emergency leave for that day. As long as staff have the necessary training and competence, this is not a problem and gaps can be filled this way as needed, but an AGV may not be able to.
AGVs operate according to pre-set systems and processes that can make quick changes difficult. For an agile business model with fast and variable processes, AGVs may not be the best choice.
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