See inside Whirlpool’s lineside delivery with mobile robots

Whirpool Corporation
Clyde, Ohio

Size: 2.4 million square feet

Products: Washing machines, top-load and front-load

Throughput: Lines shipped – 20,000 units per day

Employees: 3,300

Shifts per day/Days per week: 5 days per week, 3 shift per day; with occasional weekends and overtime.

Mobile robots perform a simple task at Whirlpool’s Clyde, Ohio, facility, but one that has delivered significant benefits.

Fleet size and navigation: The facility is currently using 54 robotic tuggers to deliver some two dozen separate parts to approximately 24 locations on the assembly and sub-assembly lines. All of the routes have been mapped and copied to each vehicle’s guidance system. While a tugger generally visits the same location throughout a shift, any vehicle can be directed to any location if needed.

Parts pickup: Parts are loaded onto the tugger at one of five locations (1). Totes have been sized so that carts operate on a standard 20 to 30 minute per route.

Parts delivery: Once all the parts for a delivery have been loaded, the tugger is sent to one of 24 drop-off locations (2) located on four production lines and one sub-assembly line. When a tugger arrives, an operator at the line unloads the full totes from the carts and then loads empty totes on the cart so they can be reused.

Empty tote dropoff: When the parts dropoff is complete, the tugger is sent back to a pickup location (1), where the empty totes are unloaded and full totes are loaded for the next delivery.