How ŠKODA AUTO maximizes the loading capacity of shipping containers and saves 160 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year
ŠKODA AUTO is constantly improving its products and customer services. It does not lag even with increasing efficiency and optimizing processes, including those in and outside production halls.
Every week, the car manufacturer despatches around two thousand pallets full of components and materials.
Optimization algorithms packaged in the OPTIKON application, created in collaboration with Blindspot.AI, a member of the Adastra Group, help with sea container space utilization and efficient pallet handling and arrangement in container space.
Transporting air is neither economical nor environmentally friendly
From the logistics center in Mladá Boleslav, containers loaded with pallets of parts destined for vehicle assembly abroad are shipped daily. The carmaker handled the loading of the 78 cubic meter containers using manuals and the experience of its staff. They devised the ideal combinations of the various pallet sizes to be loaded, but it was often difficult to ensure that:
- the containers were not loaded primarily with more space-appropriate pallets,
- the containers were loaded efficiently with less space-efficient pallets,
- containers loaded with less suitable pallets were correctly balanced.
The human brain could only fill a container from 71 cubic meters. Transporting unfilled containers and therefore “air” is uneconomical and uneconomical. Furthermore, finding new pallet loading combinations was becoming increasingly complex while simultaneously making it more challenging for manufacturers to come close to the established loading criteria. ŠKODA AUTO therefore decided to look for a solution that would “expand the human brain”.
Within 30 seconds, OPTIKON suggests the ideal pallet combination for maximum container filling
Many limiting conditions need to be taken into account when optimizing loading. These include the time required to calculate the appropriate pallet combination. In this case, logistics processes limit the time to 30 seconds.However, the previous container loading planning process took more time and provided less efficiency.
At the beginning of 2019, ŠKODA AUTO joined forces with Blindspot and together we started working on a prototype and subsequent testing of a solution that would improve the process. In the same year, the AI-based technology that now helps with the entire process went into operation. The OPTIKON system was created, which allows workers to easily use a tablet to determine the best possible pallet layout for a container.OPTIKON calculates the optimum number of different types of pallets, of which the car plant uses two thousand.
It then suggests the best way to place them in the container. The system considers the dimensions and weight of the pallets and the material on the pallets and ensures that the total weight is correctly distributed in the container. The application can also check that the pallets loaded into the container are the ones to be loaded and transported in a given week.
The solution is deployed in the Microsoft Azure cloud ecosystem and is built on top of the Optim-AI optimization platform, which we also worked on together with ŠKODA AUTO.
The project’s first phase, which included PoC and testing, was completed in just three months.
The entire OPTIKON system was deployed in the production environment a few months later in the same year.
840 000 Euro
saved during the first year of use
160 tonnes of CO2
emissions saved
300 containers
fewer were shipped during the first year of use
systemic errors
systemic packaging errors are easier to detect
training
new employees is now easier
CO2 savings: thanks to OPTIKON, ŠKODA dispatches five fewer fully loaded trainsets per year
Thanks to OPTIKON, ŠKODA Auto has optimized the logistics of automotive parts and increased the utilization of each shipping container by 3 cubic meters to a total of 74 cubic meters.
As a result, the company dispatched five fewer fully loaded trainsets last year, saving approximately 160 tonnes CO2.
ŠKODA AUTO chce systém OPTIKON nabízet i jiným značkám v rámci skupiny, aby také mohly využít benefitů umělé inteligence.
Are you interested in a similar solution? Contact us.
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