Stanley Robotics — 2022-10-04
Members Corner
The FVL industry is facing various challenges worldwide. The 3 top challenges are volume volatility, labour shortage and capacity shortage.
Different priorities appear from one continent to another.
In Asia, volume volatility was the leading industry challenge, followed by capacity shortages and charter rates. In Europe and in North America, labour shortages have become the leading industry challenge followed by capacity shortage and volume volatility. Road capacity remains a concern for both North America and Europe whilst shipping is the top concern for Asia.
Labour shortages and the rising cost of employment are major concerns for European providers of finished vehicle logistics services. The shortage of drivers in logistics is an ongoing problem. “The finished vehicle haulage sector was already having to deal with an ageing labour pool, a lack of interest from the younger generation as well as competition from other industries”*. This is a basic and irreversible trend that will continue, despite efforts to train drivers and harmonise wages across Europe. It will be impossible to rebuild a drivers’ capacity to the same level as in previous years. Transport is now leading the market.
Far from being a problem, the current labour shortages are an opportunity to improve autonomy in the compound through digitalisation. This offers reactivity, availability, a wider time slot to receive and retrieve cars and more attractive working conditions.
The two main productivity drivers are transport and the interface between transport and compound optimisations.
In order to address the interface issue, Stanley Robotics has developed a smart and high-density car storage solution for the car logistics industries. It consists of a full-stack solution, comprised of fully autonomous robots and intelligent storage management software. Car deliveries on yards and compounds are optimised. On each transit site, our robots and software add extra efficiency to compound management and shipping logistics. Our software synchronises with LSPs, in order to adjust vehicle flows to the constraints of production and logistics. The supply process is optimised 24/7. Our robots are completely autonomous and ready to work 24/7.
Each vehicle is tracked with its own Vehicle Identification Number, which allows our software to plan picking tasks and to adapt easily to unexpected changes. It ensures that the right cars are ready for loading and unloading, as they are automatically retrieved and ready for shipping. The immediate benefit is saving time for the driver. 100% efficiency, no time wasted, no damage.
*From the article of Marcus Williams - Automotive Logistics