ForwardX – OEM for Apple | Smart Manufacturing

Their Pain Points

Frequent Changeovers

Production lines in the facility change every 6 weeks on average. The company needed a flexible, agile solution that could be deployed quickly.

Unpredictable Tempo

Unstable production tempo required a significant buffer stock and reduced space utilization. Instability made production more complex and led to many errors.

Safety Concerns

Poor space utilization led to a crowded shop floor which made human-machine interaction dangerous. They needed a safe solution that offered comprehensive obstacle avoidance.

Outdated Facilities

Elevators are used to move material through multiple production floors. However, the elevators are old, few in number, and are raised 3cm above the ground. Traditional equipment could not handle elevator navigation.

Our Solution

Flexibility

AMRs are able to adjust and remap on-the-fly in a dynamic environment. f(x) can be used to instantly make changes to workflows at zero cost.

Autonomy

Material handling workflows are now fully automated, giving the facility truly hands-free material transfer.

Safety

360° obstacle avoidance above 5cm significantly increased human safety during human-machine interaction within the facility.

Durability

AMRs are durable enough to withstand the unlevel path from elevator to production floor. Material can be moved between floors seamlessly.

Connectivity

f(x) interacts with connected devices, like elevators, allowing 4 AMRs to enter an elevator at once. The fleet can operate efficiently across multiple floors without human intervention.

The Results

Implementing 30 ForwardX AMRs across the facility, the company were able to realize fully autonomous operations within the raw material warehouse, production line, and finished goods warehouse.

By adopting our solution, the company’s material handling capacity has increased from 1,700 trips per day to 2,218 trips per day, an increase of 30.4%. Furthermore, autonomous material handling has led to a 51% reduction in annual labor costs and led to ROI in under 2 years.