The family-owned company Jula was founded in 1979 by Lars-Göran Blank. Over the years, the group has grown steadily, with a strong focus on logistics and supply chain management. In 2021, the company inaugurated its expanded central warehouse in Skara—an impressive 177,000-square-meter facility. And in February of this year, the company announced a major investment in autonomous robots (AGVs) in collaboration with Toyota Material Handling.
“This is an investment in the future and our first major automation project. The goal of the project is to future-proof our capacity. Going forward, we will certainly be introducing more automation in various parts of our business,” says Mikael Lennartsson Kellett, Supply Chain Manager at Jula and the person in charge of the automation project.
Scalable, flexible, and cost-effective
The 32 driverless robots, or AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles), will handle pallets on mobile pallet racks, moving them to and from 190,000 pallet spaces in the central warehouse. The chosen solution will be implemented relatively quickly and cost-effectively in Jula’s existing warehouse, and it is also scalable.
– The only thing we know is that our capacity is never enough, since we’re growing so fast. That’s why we’ve been cautious about adopting automation that caps our capacity or becomes too complex. With this scalable solution, we’re not locking ourselves into a specific approach; instead, we gain a high degree of flexibility that allows us to handle large fluctuations in demand,” explains Mikael.
The first AGV was introduced as early as 1972, so this is not a new or untested technology. Today, these autonomous guided vehicles are used in many factories and warehouses. The installation at Jula’s central warehouse, however, will be the first AGV system to be integrated with a mobile pallet system of this size.
“A major challenge is coordinating the interaction between the automated and physical environments—that is, ensuring a reasonably steady inflow and outflow of goods and building up a buffer—in an environment where everything is constantly changing and where the AGVs operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” says Mikael.
A long-standing, trusting partnership
Jula’s partnership with Toyota Material Handling has been in place for decades, primarily focusing on manual forklifts. The current automation project was launched three years ago and is now in the implementation phase, with the goal of gradually beginning to put the automation solution into operation by the end of 2022.
– Since the project began, we have conducted feasibility studies, emulation, and simulations. This has resulted in an intensive and well-founded project. “Since this is such a large project, we’re not going from zero to a hundred all at once; instead, we’re commissioning different areas of the facility in stages,” says Viktor Brandon Leek, Operations Manager, Automation, and Head of Advisory Services at Toyota Material Handling Sweden.
In general, AGV systems offer a good return on investment, as they can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In addition, automation improves safety, reduces damage costs, and minimizes the risk of disruptions caused by staff shortages.
– It’s especially exciting to be able to take this step together with Jula, with whom we’ve had a close and productive partnership for a long time. For us, it’s also a great reference case where we can demonstrate that an AGV system can handle these volumes. More fundamentally, the solution is interesting because it’s an example of how AGVs can be used on a large scale for pallet handling in warehouses, where they can deliver high productivity, flexibility, and efficiency, says Viktor, noting that until a few years ago, it was primarily the manufacturing industry that was demanding Toyota Material Handling’s AGVs.
—
AGV – Automated Guided Vehicles
Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) move and transport items in manufacturing facilities, warehouses, and distribution centers, optimizing storage, picking, and transport operations without the need for permanent transport routes or manual activities. AGVs offer several benefits, particularly reduced labor costs, reduced product damage, increased productivity, and scalability. The market The AGV market was valued at 3.81 billion USD in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.2% over the next 8 years (Grand View Research, 2022).
