VEGA Automates Small Load KLT-Transports in Production

VEGA Grieshaber KG spe­cial­izes in level and pres­sure mea­sure­ment tech­nol­ogy. At its head­quar­ters in Schiltach, Ger­many, VEGA became an early devel­op­ment part­ner for the autonomous small load car­rier (fol­low­ing referred to as KLT or totes) robot SOTO by Mag­a­zino. The goal was to fully auto­mate mate­r­ial sup­ply in its own pro­duc­tion and future-proof the location.

After a suc­cess­ful devel­op­ment and pilot phase, VEGA has now almost com­pletely switched its KLT trans­port to SOTO, thereby sig­nif­i­cantly increas­ing effi­ciency along the pro­duc­tion line.

Read how SOTO helped VEGA address key challenges:

• Lim­ited space at the line and in the warehouse
• Grow­ing short­age of skilled work­ers in the region
• High stan­dards for occu­pa­tional safety
• Increas­ing pro­duc­tion vol­umes, prod­uct vari­ants, and trans­port needs
• Reduc­tion in through­put times and inven­tory levels
• Scal­ing from a devel­op­ment part­ner­ship to a SOTO fleet

Bold pio­neers on the path to automation

Until 2021, com­po­nents at VEGA were largely trans­ported man­u­ally by pro­duc­tion staff. With increas­ing pro­duc­tion den­sity, mul­ti­ple lev­els in pro­duc­tion and lim­ited space, an effi­cient mate­r­ial flow became nearly impos­si­ble. The mod­ern­iza­tion of the pro­duc­tion site and the imple­men­ta­tion of an auto­mated high-bay ware­house pro­vided the incen­tive to rethink the sup­ply of mate­ri­als to pro­duc­tion as well. The aim was to clearly sep­a­rate logis­tics from pro­duc­tion, to reduce man­ual han­dling and to pro­vide com­po­nents as just in time.

At a trade show, VEGA came across the autonomous logis­tics robot SOTO. The robot met all of VEGA’s require­ments for an automa­tion solu­tion: it com­bines all key process steps of com­po­nent deliv­ery using SLC bins into a sin­gle, fully autonomous workflow.

The SOTO robot can:

• Pick up KLTs / totes of dif­fer­ent sizes from the out­bound point of the Auto­mated Small Parts Ware­house (AKL)
• Trans­port mul­ti­ple con­tain­ers autonomously
• Serve flow racks at dif­fer­ent heights
• Han­dle return trans­port of empty totes
• Rotate KLTs by 90 to 180 degrees
• Col­lab­o­rate safely and smoothly with human coworkers

VEGA quickly rec­og­nized SOTO’s poten­tial and decided to launch a joint devel­op­ment project with Mag­a­zino to bring the robot to mar­ket readi­ness. This strate­gic deci­sion paid off: VEGA’s intral­o­gis­tics now oper­ate highly autonomously – mak­ing it one of the most future-ori­ented in the industry.

New Approaches and New Shelv­ing Systems

Logis­tics robot SOTO han­dles three key processes at VEGA:

• Trans­port­ing mate­r­ial from the auto­mated small parts ware­house (AKL) to the assem­bly line
• Inter­nal trans­port between pro­duc­tion lines
• Return­ing empty totes from the line to the col­lec­tion point

“The entire process was not only a devel­op­ment project for SOTO, but also for our own inter­nal processes and work­flows,” says Brucker. Together with Mag­a­zino, a lay­out was devel­oped that made opti­mal use of avail­able space. A spe­cial shelv­ing sys­tem was also intro­duced that was tai­lored to SOTO’s capa­bil­i­ties and designed to save space along the lines. On the IT side, SOTO receives its trans­port tasks directly from the ware­house man­age­ment sys­tem, and con­tin­u­ously reports move­ment sta­tus updates in return.

Thus, both SOTO and VEGA’s logis­tics processes evolved in par­al­lel, until a smooth mate­r­ial flow was achieved.

Relief for Skilled Staff

Thanks to the early involve­ment of employ­ees in the trans­for­ma­tion process, SOTO was seen as a valu­able sup­port from the very begin­ning. Its high safety stan­dards fos­tered trust in the new tech­nol­ogy, and humans and machines quickly began work­ing seam­lessly side by side, aligned with an over­ar­ch­ing pro­duc­tion goals.

In addi­tion to increas­ing out­put and improv­ing effi­ciency, ergonom­ics played a key role in VEGA’s trans­for­ma­tion process. Height-adjustable work­sta­tions, excel­lent light­ing, best-point mate­r­ial pro­vi­sion, and opti­mized grip­ping zones now ensure back-friendly and com­fort­able work­ing con­di­tions. Thanks to its intel­li­gent envi­ron­men­tal per­cep­tion, SOTO accu­rately detects and serves KLT chutes at vary­ing work­ing heights.

The result of the trans­for­ma­tion process: Less walk­ing, ergonomic work­sta­tions, no buffer zones, and more time for value-adding tasks. SOTO sig­nif­i­cantly relieves the work­force and cre­ates new free­dom in day-to-day operations.

Scal­ing: The Next Log­i­cal Step

With SOTO, Mag­a­zino not only con­tributed cut­ting-edge tech­nol­ogy, but also deliv­ered valu­able input for new stan­dards in intral­o­gis­tics and work­place design. Imple­ment­ing the robot required close col­lab­o­ra­tion across pro­duc­tion, logis­tics, IT, and occu­pa­tional safety.

After the suc­cess­ful pilot project with one SOTO, VEGA took stock: effi­ciency gains, strong team accep­tance, and mea­sur­able logis­tics improve­ments. The path was clear for scal­ing up and the fleet has since grown to include two addi­tional SOTOs, cov­er­ing most of VEGA’s mate­r­ial supply.

Prac­ti­cal Insights: What Mat­ters Most

The team at VEGA empha­sizes how cru­cial early coor­di­na­tion is. Only with clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion and joint plan­ning can such com­plex projects with many inter­de­pen­den­cies suc­ceed. Key fac­tors for suc­cess­fully imple­ment­ing an automa­tion solu­tion include:

• Analyse and opti­mize logis­tics processes early on
• Close coor­di­na­tion between all involved departments
• Step-by-step intro­duc­tion with iter­a­tive test­ing and improvement
• Good doc­u­men­ta­tion and reg­u­lar feed­back for long-term success

With SOTO, VEGA is tak­ing a tech­nol­ogy-dri­ven yet prag­matic step toward the future, focus­ing on sus­tain­able effi­ciency and backed by a strong, reli­able partner.