ek robotics and Arla Foods: 11 years of successful AGV partnership

More than a decade has passed since ek robotics implemented one of the world's largest automated guided vehicle systems (AGV) for industrial use at Arla Foods in the UK.

Ronald Kretschmer, Chief Sales Officer at ek robotics and Chris Price, Managing Director at ek robotics UK look back on the partnership with Arla.

AGV check: A decade of innovation

Over the past 11 years, the transportation solution at Arla Foods has performed impressively:

• 90 customized transport robots were delivered.
• more than 15 billion liters of milk were moved.
• successfully completed over 44 million transport orders.
• almost 11 million tetratrainers were picked up by the palletizers - this corresponds to a cycle of 15 to 30 seconds.

Arla Foods' state-of-the-art plant near London is one of the largest fresh milk dairies in Europe. Up to 1.6 billion liters of milk are processed and packaged here every year. Chris Price remembers the early days of the collaboration: "At the time, Arla was considering using manual series-produced industrial trucks from a well-known German manufacturer. When the topic of automation and the advantages of driverless transport systems came up, we were recommended as transport robotics experts for this comprehensive intralogistics project." Arla's plant handles over 200,000 liters of milk per hour on an area of 24 hectares. The intralogistics processes are correspondingly tightly synchronized: Every 15 to 30 seconds, a new load (on so-called tetra-trainers) reaches the 9,000 m2 cold store, where it is either conveyed directly for onward transportation or briefly stored at 3 °C.

"At the time, we were one of the few suppliers who were technologically capable of developing and delivering a customized system with 90 transport robots," explains Ronald Kretschmer, Chief Sales Officer at ek robotics.

Why customized? In the UK, milk bottles are usually transported in rollable tetratainers. The filled containers are moved within the dairies and also delivered to the supermarkets using these collapsible metal racks, which are suitable for cold storage. The CUSTOM MOVE, a driverless transport vehicle specially developed for this task, can pick up two fully loaded tetratainers at Arla and transport them quickly and flexibly to their destination in the plant - error-free and without the need for personnel.

"Our automation solution is precisely tailored to Arla's needs and has significantly increased productivity. At the beginning of 2024, we carried out a software refit and converted both the goods management system and the robot traffic management to our own system. This means that future expansions to the system are no problem," explains Kretschmer. Chris Price is also delighted about the AGV anniversary: "We are proud to have been able to contribute to the success of this state-of-the-art, future-oriented dairy with our transport solution for over 10 years. I am convinced that this AGV will be with us for a long time to come."

"The entire warehouse management is handled by our driverless transport system with 90 customized transport robots," explains Ronald Kretschmer.

About ek robotics

ek robotics is one of the world's leading manufacturers and system integrators of innovative high-tech transport robotics for production and warehouse logistics. At five locations worldwide (Hamburg, GER, headquarters), Reutlingen (GER), Milan (IT), Prague (CZ) and Buckingham (UK), the transport robotics specialist with over 300 employees creates intelligent, networked and flexible transport solutions for the fully automated, internal material flow of its globally active customers. For more than 60 years, ek robotics has been setting new standards in the automation industry and benefits from decades of experience in the development, production, integration and turnkey delivery of automated guided vehicles (AGVs). With convincing support throughout the entire AGV life cycle, the AGV pioneer continues to assist its global customers even decades after commissioning.