The Toyota Material Handling automated guided vehicles (AGV) are utilised at every stage of Primafruit’s storing and packing operation.
Fresh fruit arrives at the 41,000 square metre site from Primafruit’s suppliers and grower partners across Europe and South America and is taken by the automated trucks from the goods-in bay to the chilled very narrow aisle storage area.
The AGVs are then deployed to transfer palletised loads of fruit from the chilled storage system to the facility’s packhouse area where two production lines - one for packaging citrus fruits and another dedicated to processing berries, such as grapes and strawberries are in operation.
From the packhouse, the automated trucks take palletised loads of individually packaged fruits to the building’s despatch bay where orders are loaded into vehicles by manual trucks for onward delivery.
The seven Toyota Autopilot OAE120CB counterbalanced trucks have a 1.2 tonne load capacity and a lift height of 4.15 metres.
All models in the Toyota Autopilot range are programmed to complete tasks and work alongside manual operators in total safety. The trucks use built-in safety scanners and obstacle detection units to negotiate obstructions, while load sensors and multiple sensor devices further ensure accurate and safe load handling.
Toyota’s T-One automation software controls the trucks. T-One tracks goods storage, orders, traffic and flow due to its intelligent fleet control functionality and its ability to integrate with the user’s enterprise resource planning / warehouse management system if necessary.
General manager Jordan Beckley said: “The implementation of the Toyota Autopilot AGVs has certainly had a calming effect on our operational areas due to the controlled manner in which they complete the work. We have also seen the system reduce a huge amount of manual pallet movements around the site, which has allowed our teams to focus on other more profitable tasks.”
Automated pallet handling is said to consume less energy than driver-operated forklifts – a benefit which, along with the other advantages that the technology brings, contributes to a typical return-on-investment time of less than two years.
Toyota provided the automated counterbalanced trucks on a rental package with full ongoing service back-up and technical support included in the monthly fee.