Two AMRs run bus routes through a family owned power electronics plant
Programmable power electronics manufacturing · AMR material movement · Vendor published
This account comes from a robot maker, integrator, or their marketing partner. Treat every performance and payback figure as advertising until an engineer verifies it against your own job.
The job
Magna-Power builds made to order power systems in a vertically integrated Flemington, New Jersey plant, so parts flow constantly between sheet metal, machining, board assembly, and final test. People carried that material all day; now two autonomous mobile robots run scheduled bus routes between the stockroom and each department, carrying parts and subassemblies on shelf modules.
The shop
Family owned; 73,000 square foot facility, published-by-vendor; total headcount not published.
The equipment
Two MiR100 autonomous mobile robots with shelf style top modules, magnetic department labels on shelving, and automatic charging; the robots are nicknamed Scotty and Chekov.
The published numbers
Payload: 220 pounds per robot, reported-by-trade-press as the MiR100 rating. Rate: an average of 4.6 miles traveled per day, reported-by-trade-press. Labor: transportation work equal to about three full time employees freed for higher value tasks, published-by-vendor. Cost: not published. Payback: under one year, reported-by-trade-press.
Where a source did not publish a figure, this entry says so rather than guessing.
What we would check before believing it applies to you
The bus route pattern is the insight: fixed loops on a schedule are simple to justify, easy for staff to trust, and do not require call buttons or software integration on day one. An AMR case stands or falls on the building, so walk your aisles for width, floor condition, ramps, and door thresholds before any demo, and count how many times a day material actually moves between departments. The three FTE figure is the vendor's, and it measures walking time recaptured, not headcount cut, which is also how you should sell it internally. Wi-Fi coverage and charging locations need planning in older buildings. Forklift and AMR traffic mixing is the main safety topic for the risk assessment, even though the robots themselves are safety rated.
Sources
Is your job like this one?
Tell Joe what you are running. He will give you a straight preliminary read, and he will tell you if a robot is the wrong answer for your situation.
Read the amr material movement guide