Chery Automotive deploys 100+ ForwardX AMRs in super one factory

ForwardX AMR.
ForwardX’s Lynx AMR inside Chery Automobile’s Super One Factory. | Source: ForwardX

Problem

Chery Automobile Co., an automobile brand founded in 1997 in Wuhu, China, established its Super One Factory earlier this year. The factory has an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles and 200,000 AD units. It achieves this by integrating cutting-edge technologies, like advanced transport management systems, logistics, execution systems, and logistics dashboard systems.

The company’s assembly workshops handle several different kinds of components involving various production tasks. Here, Chery Automobile Co. was looking for an advanced system that could improve efficiency.

Solution

Chery Automobile deployed over 100 ForwardX autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) from three ForwardX families: Apex, Flex, and Lynx.

The Apex AMRs are FowardX’s line of autonomous forklifts. These AMRs are able to automate pallet movement throughout facilities so that employees can focus on more important tasks, like returns processes, shipment packing, or picking.

ForwardX’s Flex family is made to be highly scalable and adaptable to different scenarios. It’s made up of the Flex-L series, which can slide under loose racks and lift them to move them to different areas of the warehouse, and the Flex 60-S, which can be used for human-machine collaborative picking in warehouses.

The Lynx series is ForwardX’s most flexible AMR build specifically for the automotive industry. The AMR is designed to solve pain points in the automotive manufacturing industry and uses deep learning computer vision paired with a LiDAR-based SLAM navigation system to adapt to quickly changing environments.

Results

Since deploying the AMRs, Chery Automobile has seen a 200% increase in efficiency. Some of the AMRs have been working in the post-installation line, where workers prepare materials in advance by scanning barcodes for verification. The AMRs then pick up the rack and navigate to the designated workstation’s dock with the rack of materials.

In the interior line and borderline processes, towing AMRs autonomously transport materials from the staging area to the line side workstations. These AMRs navigate the material staging area with empty racks which pickers fill using light indicators as guidance. When the AMR reaches the unloading point on the line side, the full racks are automatically unloaded.

These changes allow human workers to spend less time walking back and forth across a warehouse, while also greatly increasing productivity.

Written by

Brianna Wessling

Brianna Wessling is an Associate Editor, Robotics, WTWH Media. She joined WTWH Media in November 2021, and is a recent graduate from the University of Kansas. She can be reached at bwessling@wtwhmedia.com