Honeywell, Pleasant Prairie, Wis., installed one of Seegrid’s automated guided vehicles (AGVs)—GP8 pallet trucks. Honeywell uses the Seegrid AGVs to transport raw materials such as copper coils, cables and wire spools to manufacturing and deliver the finished goods to the warehouse.

“We are using the Seegrid GP8s to enhance the capabilities of my professional material handling staff by providing them another set of forks to complete the cross-plant moves,” says Michael Crichlow, cable and custom electronics logistics manager. “The AGVs will allow me to use my material handlers for the more precise placements and technical moves throughout the manufacturing floor and distribution center. This is accomplished by eliminating empty fork time, as the material handlers move from one task to the next.”

The Seegrid AGVs also offer more flexibility vs. traditional AGVs, which require lasers, wires, tapes or magnets.

“I chose this technology because of the flexibility of being able to re-program the vehicles quickly, as we frequently change layouts,” he adds. “The ‘permanency’ of the laser reflectors, magnets and strips just wouldn’t be practical in our constantly improving work space.”

Seegrid AGVs enable Honeywell to eliminate “empty fork time”—traveling cross-facility to make a delivery with no return load.

“Three dynamic results are expected with the Seegrid AGVs at the Honeywell facility, including an increase in cases picked per labor hour metric, increased support level for production operations and improved material flow and 5S adherence,” says Crichlow.

Seegrid Corp. is based in Pittsburgh, Pa.