When Huey, Dewey and Louie Got New Colleagues, SKY-LIGHT Achieved Higher Safety and Faster Payback

Two self-driving trucks have significantly improved internal logistics in SKY-LIGHT’s production of plastic packaging for the food industry. COO Brian Rasmussen even goes so far as to describe the process as “excellent” – in West Jutland, where people usually only go as far as saying “not too bad” when things are really working well.

“The investment in two new Global AGVs is paying off even faster than expected. We can see that it will take no more than 3.1 years, whereas we had estimated four years. If we had gone directly from manual truck driving, the payback would have been as low as 1.3 years,” says Brian Rasmussen.

In addition to rapid payback, SKY-LIGHT has had five major wishes for increased automation of internal logistics fulfilled. At the same time, safety has been improved, which is crucial for a company whose production and warehouse cover more than 18,000 square meters across 10 white halls.

Huey, Dewey and Louie at Full Speed

With the two new Global AGVs, Brian Rasmussen has had all five of his key requirements fulfilled – and much more as a bonus. The five requirements concerned interaction with AMRs (autonomous mobile robots), flexible load handling, self-programming capability, sensor-based route selection, and better space utilization:

Seamless collaboration:
The two new Global AGVs work flawlessly alongside SKY-LIGHT’s four new AMRs. They are named Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Uncle Scrooge, and constantly move around the production area carrying empty and filled cartons. The AMRs and AGVs are now programmed to respect each other and “ask permission” before entering marked zones if the path is not clear.

Flexible lifting height:
Global AGVs can handle pallets at heights up to 1500 mm. The old ones could only lift 200 mm.

Self-programming saves significant costs:
SKY-LIGHT saves hundreds of thousands of kroner on external programmers because the Global AGV is easy to program internally. The company has defined more than 100 pickup and drop-off locations. Automation technicians can add new routes at any time via the user-friendly interface. This allows rapid scaling with new AGVs in just a few days.

Automatic detours for wide loads:
The new Global AGVs automatically detect load width and adjust their safety scanners accordingly. When transporting wider loads – such as large rolls of foil used for thermoformed packaging – the sensors detect this and automatically take a predefined detour. The old AGVs could not distinguish between different widths and therefore created unnecessary bottlenecks.

Double space utilization:
To optimize space in the warehouse and trucks, Global AGVs can stack pallets at half height on top of each other – known as block stacking.

Drives Itself to Charging

“When we started looking for replacements for our old AGVs, we couldn’t find a supplier that could meet all five requirements. So we didn’t expect to get everything – until we saw it working in a demo at Global AGV,” says Brian Rasmussen.

In addition to meeting the five requirements, SKY-LIGHT gained several unexpected benefits. For example, the AGVs now automatically drive to the charger when battery levels drop to 25%. Previously, staff had to replace batteries manually. Now the AGVs recharge themselves and return to work – 24/7 if needed.

Saying Goodbye to a 250,000 DKK Bill

Carsten Holmslykke, Head of SKY-LIGHT’s Production Engineering Department, is pleased that the new installation utilizes existing sensors and much of the original hardware:

“With Global AGV, we have been able to reuse our 60 ultrasonic sensors mounted in the ceiling. They continuously measure and signal when a pallet needs to be picked up. At the same time, we were able to remove more than 250 reflective strips that the old AGVs relied on. Global AGVs communicate via WiFi and continuously scan the environment, making them much safer.”

The challenges associated with the old AGVs are no longer missed. For example, reflections in the foil used in production often confused them, causing navigation errors. The improved navigation now allows much more flexible warehouse utilization, including vertical space.

Brian Rasmussen is also pleased to avoid the estimated 250,000 DKK cost of upgrading the old trucks.

Best Implementation Ever

“The installation of our two new Global AGVs is the best and most painless implementation I have ever experienced. It went extremely well. By day three, they were already scanning our halls to create internal maps. By week two, we were already benefiting from them. The entire commissioning process was significantly faster than with previous solutions,” says Brian Rasmussen.