SKODA AUTO is pressing ahead with the implementation of technologies in line with Industry 4.0 principles and has opened an automatic small parts warehouse (ASPW) at its main plant in Mlada Boleslav, ‎Czech Republic. The warehouse has been in operation since July 2018. SKODA AUTO has invested around €8.0 million in its construction.

The high level of automation makes it possible to increase the efficiency of work processes in the plant’s small parts logistics. One example of this is the use of robots which put small parts into storage and transport them directly from the warehouse to the assembly line. SKODA AUTO has been operating a similar small parts warehouse in Kvasiny for around one year, wher it was able to significantly improve production logistics processes.

The small parts are now stored and removed from the respective shelves fully automatically. From there, they are delivered to the assembly line just-in-sequence as required. This means that they arrive in exactly the order in which they are required and fitted. Automation makes it possible to further increase working precision, accelerate logistics processes and further minimise the error rate.

Robots take the strain off the employees by taking on the physically demanding work. This frees up the employees’ time for tasks such as scanning labels or moving small load carriers (SLC) in the incoming and outgoing goods areas.

Covering 2,000 m2, the new ASPW offers plenty of space for 71,000 small load carriers. Per hour, up to 580 of these small plastic crates can be stored in the shelves which are 14 metres high. The same number of SLCs can be handled in order picking, i.e. outgoing goods. Two robots store the parts and two other robots take them out and deliver them just-in-sequence to production.

In July 2017, SKODA opened a similar small parts warehouse at its Kvasiny plant, offering space for 45,000 SLCs.

In October, the Czech car manufacturer announced it is currently testing a drone that can identify and count containers outside the factory from the air. The drone is a result of collaboration between the SKODA brand’s logistics department and the Czech company Robodrone, and is paving the way to implementing drone-assisted stocktaking in everyday operations in future.

With its six rotors, the drone based on Robodrone’s ‘Kingfisher’ model can fly up to 20 km/h and can carry a load of up to 5kg. During the current testing phase, it fully autonomously records the number of empty containers outside a factory hall in Mlada Boleslav three times per day. The data are then automatically transferred to the IT systems at ŠKODA AUTO’s logistics department, where they can be processed.

As GPS is not precise enough to determine the locations of the containers, the drone is equipped with LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology to accurately measure speed and distance. A LIDAR sensor captures up to 300,000 images per second. The drone navigates using a 3D map, which is created based on this technology. Simultaneously it detects and counts the equipment containers all thanks to algorithms.