Intralogistics Provider STILL Wins the IFOY Award 2021

STILL Wins the IFOY Award 2021. For the realization of the new production warehouse of Danfoss Power Electronics in Tinglev, Denmark, the logistics provider received the coveted IFOY Award in the category ‘Integrated Warehouse Solution’ during today’s award ceremony in Dortmund. This is already the tenth title win for STILL in various categories.

(Hamburg) “The Danfoss project is an impressive example of how automated warehouses will be controlled, monitored, and analyzed in the future,” is the unanimous verdict of the international expert jury. The implemented overall system includes well-known logistical components that are particularly forward-looking in their interaction – that is, their communication via interfaces for safety, function, and optimization using deep learning methods. According to the jury’s verdict, the functionality of the real automatic warehouse is “exemplary”.

Cloud-Based Storage of Real Operational Data

For the new Danfoss warehouse, STILL provided a perfectly coordinated combination of three automated series forklifts (MX-X and EXV) including the installation of all system components. For the seamless automation of the material flow, the series forklifts are equipped with the iGo systems automation kit. Identical components, controls, and interfaces create a powerful AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle). These AGVs are controlled and monitored by a transport and traffic management system. Transport orders are generated by the WMS (Warehouse Management System) in the SAP host and passed on to the control system. This continuously generates vast amounts of valuable data, which allows for precise analysis of the automatic warehouse in the cloud.

The Smart Tool ‘iGo insights’

This data is analyzed with iGo insights, a tool that filters relationships from the wealth of collected process information in the cloud and derives concrete recommendations for action. According to the IFOY jury, this analysis tool in particular “provides an excellent customer benefit”. It can highlight not only technical problems of individual forklifts but also optimization potentials of the overall system, such as “bottlenecks”. For this purpose, iGo insights uses the principle of machine learning. All data collected by the control system over a longer period is uploaded to the cloud for analysis. The AI-supported software recognizes structures in the data history, calculates probabilities, and thus enables proactive action.

Result of Years of Experience and Research Work

Frank Müller, Senior Vice President Brand Management / Sales & Service Steering STILL EMEA, accepted the IFOY Award in Dortmund. According to him, the award is a well-deserved reward for the systematically built expertise in the field of automation over many years and the involvement of his company in numerous international research projects. Müller: “Especially with the project now awarded the IFOY Award, we were able to transfer and apply our practical experiences from numerous realized automation projects. This action gives us a significant knowledge advantage over our market competitors, which we pass on for the benefit of our customers.”

Tinglev Becomes a Benchmark Project

The STILL iGo automatic warehouse in Tinglev has proven itself. An initial analysis by the operator showed a cost saving of about 20 percent. Given these figures, the warehouse is becoming a benchmark project: In Rødekro, Danfoss is currently building a modern distribution center with the same technology from STILL. It is designed for the automatic operation of 15 MX-X narrow aisle stackers and five EXV high-lift trucks.
Photo: © STILL