Günter Krenz, Head of the Assembly Technology division at Bosch Rexroth AG, explains:

"The challenges for production planning will continue to increase in the factory of the future. This is because the production of individualized products and small quantities requires more flexibility. Plug & go, simple networking and greater transparency are the buzzwords of the moment. The aim will always be to increase production productivity in the future. The networking of intralogistics still offers considerable potential for this. More and more production managers are therefore following the holistic approach of Connected Assembly and Logistics.

In practice, employees still provide the necessary material semi-automatically or manually, even with automated assembly. Fluctuations are absorbed by a large number of production-related supermarkets. This ties up capital and takes up valuable space in the factory. Today, intralogistics often takes up more space in the hall than the actual production line. Our aim is to significantly reduce inventories through demand-oriented, automated supply.

At LogiMAT, Bosch Rexroth is presenting the ActiveShuttle, the next generation of intelligent autonomous transportation systems (Automated Guided Vehicle, AGV for short). They take over replenishment as required without human intervention, solely through their own intelligence and connectivity to IT systems. The AGVs navigate freely and do not require floor markings or similar aids. They reliably recognize people and obstacles and avoid them independently.

The ability to drive autonomously is just one prerequisite for greater efficiency in intralogistics. The key to greater transparency is seamless integration into existing IT landscapes and merchandise management systems. The transport system independently executes the demand messages from the ERP system and coordinates itself automatically. If several AGVs are in use, they communicate with each other wirelessly, inform each other about new obstacles and avoid congestion at bottlenecks.

The trend towards connected assembly and logistics links these autonomous transport systems with scalable, expandable intelligent assembly stations, assistance systems and collaborative robots. For example, automation can then take place in stages when ramping up quantities: individual stations can be networked with assistance systems and automatically integrated into the assembly line in order to increase output. However, production lines only become truly flexible with programming-free systems. With our solutions, we therefore rely on a modular system whose modules can be easily configured, put into operation within a short time and adapted to new requirements. Thanks to their ease of use, they support employees in mastering variance and continuous improvement.

In future, manufacturing specialists will plan such solutions with user-friendly tools in a cloud-based engineering environment. Digital twins of all components, modules and functions will play a key role in this. With them, companies will plan their assembly and logistics processes even more virtually than before, adapt them to new requirements and implement them digitally optimized in real production."