Autonomous Robotic Logistics Solution with Autoliv

Opportunity overview

This project is about determining a feasible solution for automated material handling at the Autoliv Promontory facility. Product moved at the facility involves pallets of raw materials, powder bins and finished product in palletainers or shrink-wrapped wooden pallets. Our goal is to reduce the labor needed to move these materials with 30% by applying innovative warehouse logistics technologies and techniques. To this aim, we have actively tested several conventional techniques including airport tug and carts, as well as kept our eye on the constantly developing field of autonomous and semi-autonomous robotics. Thus, we’re looking for innovative warehouse robotics and autonomous logistics solution providers to partner with. We are also open to more traditional warehouse logistics solutions, such as new ways to organise movements of pallets between facilities on rails, tyres or other means with less human intervention than in our current operation. We are looking to pilot potential solutions at our Promontory facility located in Utah, United States. After a successful pilot project, the potential solution could be implemented at several of our facilities, for example at our China Propellant plant close to the Shanghai region.

Your Opportunity with Autoliv

An ideal solution would have to fit into the challenging environment we have at the Promontory plant. The plant requires outside material movement in adverse weather conditions as well as in steep terrain with road grades up to 8% in terms of inclination. In this context, we have tested out for example airport tug and carts with varying success. What is more, our requirements include that the potential solution must be able to move bins and plastic palletainers autonomously, in order to drive down labor required for the task. A typical use case at our facility would include outdoor, all-weather movement from building to building with automated pick-up & drop off locations, and the ability to communicate with production data for Just-In-Time (JIT) delivery and the ability to track locations of the deliveries. Wifi network is available at our plant for connectivity.

We believe there is an opportunity to reduce labor used in our material movement process by up to 30% with innovative autonomous robotics solutions built for outdoor- and indoor warehouse environments. We are looking for an innovative autonomous logistics solution- or technology provider that could either replace or complement one or several of the use-cases illustrated below. The main goal is to reduce total labor hours and -costs related to logistics at the facility, with reasonable in-direct labor used to manage potential new solutions.

Tuggers for bins

A tugger has been implemented to take multiple items at once to different areas at the facility. Forklift is used to place material on the tugger carts, packaged in bins or pallets.