How many kilometers does an industrial truck travel per day on the factory premises? How often is it loaded, how often unloaded? Where does downtime occur? Questions that until now could only be answered with a great deal of effort. That changes with the digital solution TwinFleet from Leadec.
They are agile, powerful, and indispensable in intralogistics: Industrial trucks are used wherever heavy loads need to be moved, stacked, or loaded. It is hard to imagine, but until now, the only way to monitor the routes taken by industrial trucks in factories or warehouses and to examine the processes in detail was to do so with a stopwatch in hand. This provided snapshots, but there was no lasting transparency.
"What do the vehicles actually do all day? No logistics manager in a factory can answer this question. That's because there is no data at all and therefore no transparency in intralogistics. This is exactly where our new Leadec TwinFleet solution comes in, which we use to create a digital twin of the intralogistics fleet," says Alexander Bonk, SVP Operations Germany. TwinFleet is the result of a joint research project between Leadec, Liebherr-Hydraulikbagger GmbH, Sick AG, and the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute. The common goal: to bring more transparency to intralogistics. We were all surprised at how incredibly low productivity is in logistics. Fleet utilization is often less than 20 percent. That would be unimaginable in manufacturing. So we developed a digital solution that can be implemented with existing technology,” explains Alexander Bonk.
TwinFleet can be installed quickly and easily in virtually any fleet. For example, a set of sensors is mounted on a forklift truck. These sensors collect all relevant data such as position, load, and lift height. A gateway, which is also installed, sends the information to the Leadec Industrial Cloud, where it is aggregated and analyzed.
A dashboard clearly displays the utilization of the fleet as well as usage patterns and anomalies, e.g. the distance traveled, the ratio of full to empty trips, downtimes, and much more. “This provides our customers with an objective data basis for optimization—from efficient utilization and route planning to sustainable investment decisions. This can result in savings of up to 30 percent,” adds Alexander Bonk.
Based on the data, load peaks can be smoothed out, improved order allocation can be implemented with real-time information, and suitable transfer stations can be identified to reduce distances. Heat maps reveal heavily frequented areas in the warehouse and enable targeted adjustments to relieve critical zones. TwinFleet also increases occupational safety with warnings for excessive height, speed monitoring in defined areas, and other analysis functions. Another module for goods tracking will be available shortly.
It is important to note that the dashboard provides the evaluations – the real potential for improvement is developed in collaboration with the company using the system. After about three months, a workshop is held, by which time a solid database is available. Together with the teams on site, explanations and approaches for optimization are found.
The results are often immediately apparent. "One of our customers had difficulty finding new employees for intralogistics. Today, the existing team can meet the increased demand thanks to more even utilization and time savings through optimized routes with more full trips. And that's despite the fact that the fleet has been reduced by two forklifts," says Alexander Bonk.
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