Intralogistics and Automation Solutions for Your Sector

With the Robotics4Retail survey, the EHI Retail Institute is investigating how robotics and automation are revolutionizing intralogistics. Who are the drivers of automation and what comprehensive solutions and industrial trucks does Linde offer?

Automation promises greater efficiency in production logistics. However, in some cases a manual or partially autonomous scenario can be more cost-effective than fully autonomous operation. Digitalization expert Frank Heptner explains what makes the difference.

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are becoming increasingly important in modern intralogistics. The driverless platform trucks are used for automated or partially automated goods transport and thereby noticeably increase efficiency in warehouses and logistics hotspots.

Every year, the Marketing Department and Management Board of Wolf GmbH, a systems supplier for heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and solar technology based in Mainburg, Lower Bavaria, develop a motto that aims to give employees orientation and motivation. “Courage to embrace change”, the message for 2016, could not be more appropriate with regard to the purchase of the company’s first robot industrial truck.

If demand, and therefore the production volume, increases, this is actually a cause for celebration. But how can you manage the increased flow of goods without burdening employees with more and more repetitive transport assignments? At the plastics processor Poloplast, the answer is automation, made by Linde.

The C-MATIC and C-MATIC HP autonomous mobile robots are compact, highly efficient building blocks for automated material flow. Philipp Stephan, Product Manager Automation and Intralogistic Solutions, explains their strengths and what they should be used for.

The main factory of the French metal packaging manufacturer Massilly in Cluny relies on extensive automation in the production process. Until recently the final process step, transporting the pallets to the warehouse, was conducted manually. This task is now also being performed by automated industrial trucks, with great success. Representatives of the company are now traveling to Cluny to see for themselves the benefits of Linde robotics equipment.

The Opel plant in Aspern, Austria, is the first Opel location to commission fully automatic vehicles for longer distances. In doing so, the carmaker relies entirely on Linde's expertise. The challenge was to integrate autonomous driving into the existing systems.

With the introduction of two automated L-MATIC AC pallet stackers from Linde Material Handling, Schneider Electric, a leading company for digital energy and automation solutions, improved the overall efficiency of their logistics center in Sant Boi de Llobregat in Spain.

Ground handling is a challenge for airport logistics. The demands on industrial trucks and logistics solutions are correspondingly high. Demand is for robust vehicles that enable fast and safe handling and are increasingly focusing on alternative drive systems.

Two Linde L-MATIC pallet stackers make their rounds between the warehouse and dispatch at Austrian sanitary equipment specialist HOLTER. Meanwhile, the human colleagues get to focus entirely on their actual work: value-adding order picking.

Automation is one of the trending topics in intralogistics. In this interview, Tobias Zierhut, Head of Product Management Warehouse Trucks, explains why data will play a key role in the future of warehouse technology, and why Linde Material Handling sees itself as the market leader in robotics.