I. Breaking the Impasse!
A Century-Old Parts Giant's Battle for Digital Transformation
As a globally leading automotive parts supplier, ITW Yigong Automotive Group covers key areas such as fasteners, connection systems and fluid management. With the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry, the supply chain has placed unprecedented demands on delivery efficiency and inventory management.
Three major bottlenecks:
1. The space trap: land resources in Shanghai are tight, and the traditional flat-floor warehouse model struggles to meet the massive SKU storage demand created by business growth.
2. The efficiency pain: manual-dependent picking is inefficient and error-prone, and its ability to respond during peak season is severely inadequate.
3. The information wall: the warehouse system and the company's information systems are siloed, so data cannot be shared in real time, leaving management decisions without support.
Three core objectives:
1. Automated fulfillment: fully automate the entire process from inbound to outbound.
2. High-density storage: maximize storage capacity within limited space.
3. Peak handling: ensure stable, accurate delivery even at 200% order peaks.
II. Revealed!
The Core Strength of the Matrix8 Intelligent Warehousing Solution
Targeting the warehousing characteristics of automotive fasteners and the customer's requirements, ATOMIX gave ITW a flexible automation solution - the Matrix8 intelligent storage and picking solution - and planned seven functional zones on demand: the production line inbound area, the pre-warehouse buffer area, the high-bay storage area, the robotic arm depalletizing area, the conveyor sorting area, the staging area and the shipping area. All links connect closely, together building an efficient, continuous closed loop of intelligent logistics operations.
Flexible Automation - the Matrix8 Intelligent Storage and Picking Solution
1. Ultra-high-density storage: an AGV + Pallet Shuttle (four-way pallet shuttle) + high-speed lift solution supports 3,000+ SKUs and more than 12,000 pallet locations, with inbound and outbound throughput of up to 240 pallets per hour;
2. Efficient case picking: 3 robotic arms perform automatic depalletizing and precise on-demand case retrieval, and residual pallets are automatically returned to storage by the four-way shuttles. Throughput reaches 1,150 cases per hour, with accuracy of ≥99.99%.
3. Intelligent shipping: once cases enter the conveyor sorting system, the wheel diverter sorter relies on intelligent identification to efficiently distribute materials for different orders to 20 picking workstations, achieving "octopus-style" intelligent routing.
4. Human-machine collaboration: guided by electronic kanban displays, workstation staff build pallets from the specified cases. Once a pallet is full, it is carried by lift to the staging area on the ground floor, where labeling, verification and other steps are completed, and finally forklifts load it for shipment.
5. Software coordination: powered by powerful AI scheduling algorithms, the system dynamically generates optimal wave strategies based on orders and evenly distributes tasks to the four-way shuttle fleet, ensuring efficient use of transport capacity.
6. Meeting the customer's peak-handling needs: through upfront data analysis and simulation-based forecasting, the Matrix8 system activates intelligent stock relocation strategies, transferring fast-moving outbound goods to the outbound docks in advance, optimizing equipment routes, and combining this with intelligent charging management to maximize effective equipment uptime and keep the system running continuously and efficiently during peak periods.
III. Upgrade!
The Operational Leap Brought by the Intelligent Upgrade
After the project went live, ITW's warehouse operating efficiency achieved a qualitative leap, delivering an impressive scorecard:
1. Soaring space utilization: the high-bay warehouse design raised inventory density by 180%.
2. Operating efficiency multiplied: the system supports continuous 7×24 operation, and overall warehouse operating efficiency rose by 35%.
3. Extreme accuracy: barcode and system verification deliver precise management across the whole process, with shipping accuracy approaching 100%
4. Substantial labor cost optimization: employees are freed from heavy physical labor and take on more high-value work such as system management and monitoring.
IV. Paradigm!
Paradigm Warehousing Built for the Future
The ITW project is more than a warehouse upgrade; it demonstrates an entirely new paradigm for automotive parts warehousing automation. Unlike traditional automated warehouses, the Matrix8 solution is built around flexibility, scalability and data. The pallet shuttle system can be expanded flexibly as the business grows, without large-scale renovation of the warehouse. This modular design gives the company solid confidence for business growth over the next three to five years.
As Guo Lei, General Manager of the Fastener Division at ITW Yigong Automotive Group, put it: "What the ATOMIX pallet shuttle project has brought us is not only space and efficiency gains, but also the confidence for business growth over the next three to five years. This system has become the flexible core of our intelligent manufacturing system."
