How to Automate Your Warehouse Through Ongoing Operations: A Peterbilt Case Study

Warehouse automation is not a one-time implementation — it’s an ongoing journey. And when it's done right, the benefits vastly outweigh any upfront costs. Automating your warehouse is about a lot more than just installing robotic arms or incorporating automated guided vehicles (AGVs) into your footprint. If you want to do it right, automation also encompasses an entire ecosystem of software, hardware and data integration that must be consistently refined to achieve the best results.

When it is done right, your automation journey comes with a lot of benefits, including:

• The ability to scale

• Flexibility to adapt your warehouse better to meet increased demand for specific products or seasonal demands

• Reduced labor costs

• More efficient space utilization

As a global leader in automated material handling solutions, Daifuku has the pleasure of working with some of the world's most notable and respected companies on their automation journey — and as more than just an equipment and solutions provider but as a true partner and extension of their business.

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This was recently the case with Peterbilt, an American-based manufacturer of trucks, including the Model 579 electric truck for short haul and drayage, the Model 520 electric truck for refuse and the Model 220 electric truck for pickup and delivery.

Read on to learn more about how Daifuku assisted Peterbilt when the company experienced a significant increase in demand for one of its truck cabins. As you'll see, the automated solutions already incorporated in Peterbilt's product warehouse allowed for increased flexibility and easier scalability as it adapted to meet demand.

Peterbilt's Challenge

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In today’s fast-moving manufacturing environment, flexibility and speed are critical, especially when customer demand shifts unexpectedly. Peterbilt, a world-renowned truck manufacturer and part of the PACCAR enterprise with a strong, nearly 100-year reputation for building durable, reliable vehicles, recently experienced this. Peterbilt faced a sudden surge in demand for its larger truck cabins and had to adapt quickly.

To support increased production for this product line, Peterbilt consequently needed to boost the capacity of its automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) for the product line. Specifically, it needed to double its storage and retrieval capacity of large cabins while maintaining material handling automation.

But there was another caveat. It needed to achieve this without expanding the facility's 600,000-square-foot physical footprint.

"One of Peterbilt's main requests was for project management to investigate and pursue any avenues that could shorten the project timeline," noted Peterbilt. "As with all projects, there are always challenges. However, the project team was able to overcome various challenges to complete the project, including software commissioning six weeks early with no interruptions to production."

The Solution

Rather than build or install new AS/RS systems, Peterbilt turned to Daifuku to reconfigure its existing AS/RS aisle to adequately handle the larger cabins.

Daifuku zeroed in on AS/RS Aisle 4 within Peterbilt's facility. Prior to Peterbilt's demand for larger truck cabins, this aisle had the capacity to store and retrieve 118 smaller cabins. Its rack configuration consisted of three levels, 21 bays and two banks. It utilized a Daifuku R-H1 crane model to handle the smaller cabin load size of 2.387 (length) x 2.591 (width) x 2.667 (height) meters.

Noting that any enhancement would have to handle a larger load size with the bigger cabins, Daifuku removed the old crane and rack—an impressive feat involving extraction through a 30-foot elevation rollup door—and reinstalled new rack and an R-H10 crane. The new R-H10 model was then lifted and installed to support the transition to accommodate larger loads. Aisle 4 can now adequately store and retrieve 44 large cabins, with a rack configuration across three levels, 12 bays, and two banks. The larger cabin load size is 4.06 meters (length) x 2.591 meters (width) x 3.175 meters (height).

Daifuku offers a versatile lineup of AS/RS cranes, each designed to meet various operational needs. Whether it's load capacity, throughput or space constraints, Daifuku systems can be easily selected and customized to align with each customer’s specific requirements. The secret was swapping the R-H1 crane with the R-H10 model to handle the larger cabin load size.

"A challenge was that the rollup door was located at approximately a 30-foot elevation above the ground," says Peterbilt. "We used a large construction crane to place a smaller construction crane inside the building in Aisle 4."

Better yet, Daifuku's solution successfully doubled Peterbilt's capacity without sacrificing space, achieving exactly what the manufacturer wanted. Doubling the AS/RS storage capacity of these high-demand parts was also done with Daifuku's WRx software to help create one robust, coherent AS/RS system.

The End Result

The quick turnaround and collaborative approach showcases Daifuku’s strength in responsive engineering and its commitment to helping customers, like Peterbilt, scale operations effectively, even when under intense pressure. This solution not only met the immediate production needs but also minimized disruption and capital expense — a win-win for both innovation and efficiency.

"Daifuku was able to engineer the modifications to the AS/RS model and then, on the installation side, they were able to come up with a plan that would do the modifications to the aisle without any disruptions to our production operations," says Peterbilt.

"By retrofitting Aisle 4, we were able to increase the storage capacity for the large integral product without having to expand the overall footprint of the ASRS."

Contact Daifuku Today

As world leaders in developing industry-leading material handling solutions, Daifuku does more than just manufacture the right products to streamline warehouse efficiency. We're also standing by as problem solvers and consultants to help our partners solve some of their companies' most pressing automation needs. We helped Peterbilt during a period of increased demand for its larger truck cabins — and we're standing by and ready to help you.

"The Daifuku team was great to work with," says Peterbilt. "We've had very little downtime incidents with the original system that was installed in 2016, and we look forward to continue to use their equipment."

It's also proof of how automation shouldn't be a one-time mindset, but part of a strategy of continuous innovation to help streamline fulfillment times and help your company adapt and evolve faster and smarter.

Contact Daifuku today for more information about our AS/RS solutions and how they can help streamline operations in your facility and enhance profits for your company. As the inventors of the first-known AS/RS in 1966 and with more than 32,000 global installations to our name, our solutions are designed to meet your challenges head-on and create new competitive advantages for your business.

Contact us today to learn more about how we helped Peterbilt and how we can help you if you're faced with a similar challenge.

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