"Our employees picked up the finished goods from the paper processing machines, took them to the stretching machine by forklift and waited for the wrapping process to continue," explains Werner. During the early shift in particular, a lot of working time literally fell by the wayside: "In the morning, our colleagues first had to dispose of the production from the last two shifts - that could easily add up to 140 or 150 pallets, most of which then had to be placed on the stretching machine. All in all, that took six people around two hours."

So much flexibility is a must

Situation: unsatisfactory. Desire: automation. The initial situation at Franz Veit can be described very quickly. The search for the right solution took all the longer - which was largely due to the specifics of intralogistics described above. Daniel Werner: "Although we have recurring transport processes, we also have a constantly changing production and storage environment." Conversely, this means that any automation concept must be able to keep pace with this high degree of flexibility and "orderly chaos".

AGV systems that required mirrors, guide rails and the like were therefore ruled out from the outset by those responsible. "We have been in talks with many providers over the years. But our desired solution should work in a similar way to modern robot vacuum cleaners. You put the appliance in the room, it orients itself and does its job - even if you move a piece of furniture," explains Daniel Werner. "Unfortunately, nobody was able to help us with this - until we finally sat down with Ernst Müller Fördertechnik."

Linde Material Handling has the solution

The ideas of the long-standing Linde MH network partner for the implementation of two Linde L-Matic autonomous high-lift trucks were met with spontaneous approval by those responsible - especially as previously seemingly insurmountable hurdles virtually disappeared into thin air: thanks to geo-navigation, the Linde devices orient themselves independently in space and only require a few reference points, which can be easily adjusted at any time in a digital mapping.

"That was exactly what we were looking for," recalls Daniel Werner. There was also the advantage that the Linde L-Matic machines operate without a platform solution and can pick up the pallets directly from the floor. These were strong arguments that persuaded those responsible at Franz Veit to tackle the implementation together with Ernst Müller.

A well-coordinated team

In the meantime, the two Linde L-Matic machines in Hirschaid are doing their job as if they had always been there. One device is exclusively responsible for the disposal of the production machines. The respective machine operator places the pallet with finished goods on a defined collection point and "calls" the automated Linde device at the touch of a button. This picks up the pallets weighing up to 1,000 kilograms and transports them safely past all obstacles into the hall next door and places them on the roller conveyor belonging to the stretch machine. Once the goods have been wrapped, the second Linde L-Matic takes over at the output point; it brings the pallet to the transfer point a few meters away, where the human colleagues enter the scene. They now transport the goods promptly to the quadrant belonging to the respective order.

This interaction between man and machine also works so perfectly because the Linde L-Matic technology independently recognizes which spaces are currently free at the transfer point and then fills them up accordingly. An interesting detail: every day at midnight, the two automated vehicles swap jobs. Daniel Werner: "This is not to prevent one of them from getting bored, but to ensure an even workload, as the work routes of the two are very different." Charging the lithium-ion batteries is just as convenient: if the charge level falls below a certain threshold, the pallet trucks automatically head for the charging station.

Expectations: exceeded

From production to the stretch machine, from the stretch machine to the transfer point, loading pallets, unloading - and all over again. If you watch the tirelessly working L-Matic duo at Franz Veit, you get the impression: The two of them can't lose their cool that easily. Authorized signatory Daniel Werner can only confirm this: "The devices have now been running since November 2021. Ideally, I would need a time lapse to show you how often our production and storage environment has changed since the start of the project. What's here today will be there tomorrow - machine A moves to location B ... and so on. This has never made much of an impression on the Linde L-Matic, it has always found its way without any problems."

What is indeed impressive, however, is the performance record of the automation project. The guaranteed performance is currently being exceeded by almost 50 percent. "The current record is 298 pallets, which the vehicles have removed from production within 24 hours. This has exceeded my expectations in every respect," says a delighted Daniel Werner. So it's no wonder that the paper professionals from Upper Franconia are already considering extending automation to other process steps - for example, by enabling the production machines to call the Linde L-Matic independently. "We want to think ahead constructively here; this is also due to the fact that automation enjoys a high level of acceptance within the workforce - because we have shown our people from the outset that the devices do not take work away from them. Rather, they allow them to concentrate on other, more important activities," emphasizes Daniel Werner - and adds: "I would say that we can live very well with this distribution of roles."

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