83 automated guided vehicles at Renault-Nissan plant boosts efficiency

CHENNAI: It is innovation at work at the Oragadam plant of Renault-Nissan, where the automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have been “engineered” to drive in efficiencies at the shop floor level.

Given that the plant of Renault Nissan Automotive India Pvt Ltd (RNAIPL) has a capacity to produce 480 cars every day, translating to 33 cars every hour, the AGVs are seen as a boon, aiding the manufacturing process tremendously.

These AGVs have been functional since 2020, that have led to enormous cost savings, said Ashish Shukla, director, production. A single such AGV costs Euro 14,000 (about Rs 13 lakh). Developing this in-house has resulted in a cost saving of 50-60 per cent, he said, noting that the innovation has proved to be successful and there are 83 AGVs gliding along the shop floor, transferring auto parts for the assembling process.

Manually, this transportation has been quite cumbersome but the automation has led to improving efficiencies. “The payback of an AGV would have taken five years,” Shukla said, highlighting its role and its ability to manage resources accordingly.

Currently, automation at the RNAIPL facility is to the tune of 14 per cent, he said, adding the use of artificial intelligence for inspection process such as diversity parts checking, scrutiny of chrome-plated parts, external body checks, among others, is being discussed. For instance, the rotation work for doing dual tone production is twice and using AI would drastically cut down the time.

The internal combustion engine line is expected to be renovated by 2030 and the Renault-Nissan plant is to undergo change by then, when shift to electric vehicles is to happen, the period of BS7 coming into effect, he further said.