Parmalat has a production plant in Collecchio, Parma, where it produces all types of milk, fruit juices, yogurt, and other beverages.

A laser-guided vehicle (LGV) system transports pallets exiting production and packaging to the warehouse or shipping.

The AGV management software controls twelve forklifts to pick pallets from the ground or from conveyors at various heights.

The system has an average capacity of 80 missions per hour, resulting in a sustained throughput considering the route with multiple intersections and the time required to manually replace the lead-acid batteries when they run low.

Various waiting points are used for high-traffic stations, as well as logic to balance the number of AGVs in each area to avoid traffic jams and long queues.

Signal management is streamlined, as is the redirection of forklifts in the event of prolonged waits at an intersection or decision point.

In the past two years, Parmalat has completely redone the packaging area at the end of production, which has led to changes in flows and therefore in the AGV routes, which have been modified step by step to adapt to the changes (dismantling and rebuilding of plants) that have been made over time.

The interventions were targeted and highly effective, having been carried out over weekends to avoid disrupting production.

We have been was responsible for modifying the configuration of the picking and storage stations as needed, as well as providing support for optimizing flows and areas.

AGV navigation type: Laser/Kollmorgen (NDC)

Traffic controller: a PC dedicated to orders handling, stations handling and host communication, and another computer dedicated to the AGV traffic control, flows and intersections handling.

Charging concept: lead acid batteries that are manually swapped when low.

This AGV system is working over three shifts.

Number of AGVs: 12

AGV manufacturer: Rocla/Swisslog

Function: Fine tuning and commissioning

Year: 2017