First established in 1976, Scanfil has grown to become a global manufacturing partner and system supplier with nine production facilities in Europe, the USA, and China. Built in the 70s, the factory in Åtvidaberg, Sweden, works with system integration and is responsible for purchasing, storing and assembling components into products that will then be tested and finally delivered to end customers. 

The operative target for Scanfil was to increase efficiency, traceability, and transparency, as well as improve the overall safety of the facility by minimising work accidents and reducing damage to goods. By automating the outbound, inbound, and taking the remainder back to storage processes, they were able to improve their putaway, inventory-taking and housekeeping and better support the supply chain.  

We provided a solution designed to fit into the existing warehouse environment with two Rocla AGV ARTs (Automated Reach Trucks) covering an area of 4,000 m2 and operating in 3.2 m-wide aisles with standard racking for EUR-pallets. These two Rocla ARTs are now responsible for keeping the inventory up-to-date and the production line busy without delays in component needs. 

There were no interruptions in production. We were able to deliver all the components during this project’s implementation.

Solution specifications:

The process and its benefits

Rocla ART is suitable for all warehousing operations thanks to its lifting capacity of up to 10 m, ability to handle loads as heavy as 1,600 kg, and the possibility of operating efficiently in aisles with as little as 2.85 m free space with the new ARTsmf. This made it perfect for Scanfil’s warehouse, which required smooth operations in 3.2 m-wide aisles for the AGVs to execute efficient putaway and inventory-taking as well as housekeeping when needed:

Putaway: An operator registers the pallet and articles received in the inbound line into the ERP system. The ERP communicates with FleetController which then assigns a task to the AGV. The vehicle then transports the goods to the assigned rack location.  

Inventory-taking: When a certain stock level is reached in production, the ERP system sends a task to FleetController. The AGVs then receive an order with an optimised route to fetch and deliver the pallets to the outbound line, where an operator picks the needed components to be transported to the production lines. The AGV then transports the remaining back to a new rack location. 

Housekeeping: With the AGVs the warehouse is organised and clean. However, re-organisation might be needed from time to time to keep the warehouse as optimised as possible. As with the previous processes, the Rocla ARTs will, in this case, receive the orders with the new pallet location and include these in their tasks in the right priority order. 

“We have full integration between our ERP system and the Rocla system, which enables better management, improving the efficiency of our operations. The main benefit of FleetController is that it’s web-based and easy to use for the operator”, explains Jakob Fager, Product Engineer Manager at Scanfil Åtvidaberg. With FleetController Dashboard, the operator can check the status of orders in real-time, revisit events by navigating into the history, create rules, and keep track of all operations from one single point.  

Results and future plans

This new automatic feeding method into the production line has made the warehouse more efficient. More demanding tasks can now be allocated for manual operations with the assurance of timely component availability. The smooth integration of FleetController with the ERP system makes it possible to support manufacturing in a flexible way, making sure components arrive only when needed, saving time, costs, and effort.  

With this integration between FleetController and the existing Warehouse Management System (WMS), both manual and automated operations can be supervised from one single point, improving Scanfil’s traceability of operations. On the other hand, the possibility to check the system’s status, real-time vehicle information, tasks, and workload in the user-friendly FleetController Dashboard brought better management through increased transparency. The operator can now understand the status of the warehouse at one glance, always keeping production informed of what’s happening to the parts order. 

With AGVs operating in the component warehouse, Scanfil also minimised damage to goods and increased the warehouse’s overall safety. “With the AGVs in the warehouse, the space is better organised, optimised and the stock accuracy is much better”, adds Fager. 

The project in the Åtvidaberg facility was finalised and implemented in 2024 and mirrors the great collaboration between Scanfil and Logisnext Solutions. “During the implementation, we had very close cooperation and communication with the Rocla team. Many details had to be discussed during the project, and they gave us feedback and suggested the necessary changes to the flows and layouts. This led to a successful project and smooth and timely implementation. If it’s needed in the future, we can expand the warehouse with more pallet racks and even more AGVs.” – concludes Fager.