Mar 18, 2011 – Tuesday, March 22, 11:30am CST Booth 2347
The man-a-board forklift and the Automated Guided Vehicle have finally become one. Morphing manual and automatic operations onto a standard off-the-shelf forklift provides distribution centers and manufacturing operations the ultimate in material handling flexibility.  

Mark Stevenson, Egemin Vice President will share how a KEY became launch pad for Egemin’s new Hybrid Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV). Stevenson, with more than thirty years as a material handling thought leader, is going to discuss how the Hybrid AGV is a game changer in the Automated Guided Vehicle marketplace

“There is no need to discard the familiar and functional forklift,” according to Stevenson. .  

To date, Egemin has sold a number of Hybrid Automated Guided Vehicle Systems that move over 10 million pallets annually. Hybrid AGVs are available in two sizes, 3,500 and 5,500-pound lifting capacities. The Hybrid AGVs efficiently move pallets between manufacturing cells, warehousing and standard over-the-road trailers. With lifting heights up to 23’, deep lane floor stacking, pushback rack, drive-in rack and standard racking are common interface points for these versatile vehicles.

While delivering all of the automatic functionality of an AGV, by simply turning the KEY to “Manual”, an operator can drive the vehicle manually with all manual lift truck functions and then place it back into fully automatic laser guidance mode.

The Hybrid AGV comes standard with industrial lead-acid batteries, laser navigation, advanced laser safety systems, graphical touch screen monitor, Windows OS on solid- state drive (SSD) media and 802.11 wireless communications. Optional components based on specific system requirements include RFID readers, bar code scanners, 3D camera technology, robotic battery exchange system, automatic battery charging, mechanism-sideshift. and automated single/double fork systems.

Companies in the food, beverage, plastics, consumer goods and big box retail distribution markets chose Egemin Hybrid Automated Guided Vehicles for their flexibility, familiarity, reliability and affordability. Combined with Egemin’s Warehouse Management System (E’wms), organizations are realizing better than expected returns on investment using the Egemin Hybrid Automated Guided Vehicle solution.

Beyond the obvious and easily adapted Hybrid Forklift, Stevenson will discuss the bottom-line cost-savings available using these KEY technologies.  “It’s not about walking the ProMat show floor and looking for every new and technologically advanced AGV feature…it’s about halting the exponential rise of labor and benefit costs using simple technology.  We saw two decade of static AGV market dynamics.   Suddenly the CPG warehouse offers an entire new model for using existing forklift technology with some simple modifications.  Every C-level executive knows the KEY: Less is more…more supply chain flexibility, better margins, eliminating product damage, better adoption. Senior management executives are not focused on bells and whistles of AGVS, they are appropriately focused on bottom-line cost-savings,” insists Stevenson.

Egemin Automation Inc. has been manufacturing AGVs and Warehouse Management Systems since 1976. Egemin is a worldwide organization with operations on six continents. Egemin’s center for AGV excellence is located in Holland, Michigan, where it employs all disciplines for success as the AGV industry leader. All AGV technology including design, software, and support is developed, and owned by Egemin. Over 5,000 AGVs have been manufactured and installed, with many used by Fortune 500 companies.