When product and pallet damage caused by fork truck mishandling became too great a cost at a Kraft Foods facility, the company turned to automation.

Fork trucks, which previously handled the plant's food and beverage products, often lifted loads incorrectly or damaged items in accidents. All of that changed with a new fleet of reach type, fork-style automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) equipped with hydraulic lifts. Now, three 4,000-pound capacity laser-guided vehicles safely transfer palletized loads to shipping, which has allowed the facility to reassign seven fork truck operators within the plant.

Not only have the vehicles eliminated product damage, they are now a flexible solution with substantial cost savings in production and labor efficiency each year. Actual cost savings of the new system is $300,000 a year. Payback was just two years.

Operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the AGVs provide safe, reliable movement of more than 625 deliveries per day. The AGVs serve four palletizers, which each use sensors mounted on an output conveyor to direct the vehicles. When signaled, an AGV picks up a load and delivers the full pallet to an automated stretch wrapper. The vehicles often lift loads weighing up to 2,200 pounds and travel over 15 miles a day, yet require minimal maintenance.

The AGVs also automatically restock the palletizers with empty pallets and packaging materials as directed by the palletizers' sensors. Fork trucks deliver empty pallets to an output conveyor, which then carries them to an AGV pick-up location.

With the vehicles' laser technology, Kraft easily accommodates changing production demands by quickly altering an AGV's guide path. Its reach-type design allows the vehicle to pick up loads at varying levels on the floor and conveyors. The hydraulic lifts also maximize the vehicles' operating speed when raising and lowering loads.