The automation of material handling equipment is a development area that many companies are currently looking towards in order to deliver greater efficiency and productivity from their supply chain. Toyota Material Handling - sponsors of the Operations Large and SME categories of The Logistics Awards for the fifth consecutive year - discuss how they continue to improve operations through automation. Automation is not an entirely new solution; "many early adopters have been using automated trucks and systems within their applications for years," says Jon Buckley, commercial director for Toyota Material Handling UK. "We have been providing automation systems to our customers since the 60s with primitive automated guided vehicles (AGV) using wire guidance. This area grew in the 80s when we were working with customers to develop dedicated AGV trucks for specialist applications. However, it is in the last 10 years there has been a tangible change and most recently that a wide range of customers have developed a thirst for information on how Toyota automated solutions can help them in their operations," says Buckley.
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