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5 Questions answered with Heather Ramsey, Director of Customer Success

5 Questions Answered: Fleet Geek and the Importance of Automation Data

March 2, 2021  |  Seegrid

Today, Seegrid introduced Fleet Geek analytics software, part of Fleet Central, the enterprise software platform for Seegrid Palion AMRs. We sat down with Seegrid’s Director of Customer Success Heather Ramsey to discuss the new analytics software platform and the importance of actionable insights for automated material handling facilities.

Q&A with Automation Thought Leader, Heather Ramsey

Building a resilient and agile supply chain is critical to a company’s ability to overcome disruptions and maintain a competitive edge. With consumer expectations and supply chain pressures continuing to become more demanding and complex, material handling automation solutions have become a necessity for manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution facilities to increase safety and continuously improve. However, maximizing the full potential of automation technologies requires a holistic, data-driven understanding of material flow throughout your entire operation.

In this “5 Questions Answered” segment, Seegrid’s Director of Customer Success Heather Ramsey takes a deep dive into Fleet Geek, Seegrid’s new fleet analytics software platform for Palion AMRs. Heather and her team are dedicated to ensuring continued material handling success for Seegrid customers, keeping tabs on customer Palion AMR fleets, measuring productivity, and suggesting ways to continue improving. Here, Heather explains the important role that data is playing in continuous improvement for material handling automation.

What is Fleet Geek analytics software?

Heather Ramsey: Fleet Geek is Seegrid’s cloud-based, on-demand analytics and reporting software for Seegrid Palion AMR fleet performance. The platform delivers actionable insights to help our customers reach their automation goals while driving continuous improvement. 

Fleet Geek creates a holistic view of material flow within a company’s facilities. With vital information about the status and performance of their Palion AMR fleet at their fingertips, our customers can identify what is working well, where refinements can be made, and drive results for continued process improvement for the facility and across their entire enterprise. 

Who should use Fleet Geek within a manufacturing, warehousing, or logistics facility?

Heather Ramsey: Companies spanning across all industries, whether you are in a distribution center, warehouse, or manufacturing plant, benefit from having increased visibility into material flow and Palion AMR fleet performance. From plant floor operators and shift supervisors to facility managers and executives, on-demand insights can benefit companies and drive informed decision making on multiple levels.

Fleet Geek features intuitive dashboards with data visualizations for expanded visibility and  reporting, covering individual AMR data, fleet information, shift data, utilization metrics, and performance reports across all facilities. Users can easily understand Palion AMR driven material flow to better communicate status, reduce costs, manage risks, increase adoption, and drive efficiencies. If you want to take a deeper dive into your data, the platform also allows you to download CSV exports. 

An operations team, for example, can use Fleet Geek to view how Palion AMRs are being utilized, identifying which mobile robots are being used efficiently, if any robots are experiencing bottlenecks, and areas that could be streamlined for improvements to maximize performance. By analyzing the data provided by Fleet Geek, you can ensure your automation project is effective, on track, and successfully driving results across the enterprise. 

What type of information does the Fleet Geek software platform provide?

Heather Ramsey: Fleet Geek provides a complete, data-driven view of your material flow and Palion AMR fleet activity. Users get actionable insights into delivery data, with the ability to view by shift or customized time frames, including the past hour, day, week, and more. The platform allows the flexibility to easily view the information that matters most to you. 

Dashboards in the platform provide in-depth details regarding deliveries, utilization, wait times, and event codes. Fleet Geek visualizes what is happening within facilities; then, the user can utilize this data to determine why it is happening for effective next steps. 

On-demand Palion AMR fleet performance data allows you to quickly pinpoint and correct inefficiencies in your workflows, identify and streamline processes, and implement continuous improvements to drive efficiencies across every shift. By analyzing utilization, you can identify underutilized Palion AMRs and redeploy them to different functions or shifts to boost your fleet’s output and maximize the value of your automation investment.

On the operation floor, for example, if you look at the event code data and notice there are several operator caused events, you will be able to pinpoint where and when these operator issues are occurring. From there, you will know what needs to be assessed to determine the cause as well as next steps. For this situation, you may find that human employees operating in the workflow aren’t using the equipment properly. Your next steps could be to provide additional hands-on training for these employees. On the other hand, if the event code was caused due to equipment, you could quickly locate the equipment experiencing the issue and assess if maintenance is needed. 

By monitoring the health and reliability of your Palion AMR workforce, you can proactively avoid downtime with full insight into any wait times or bottlenecks. Having a full understanding of your Palion AMR fleet enables you to make objective decisions based on metrics and data history.

Why is operational data visibility important?

Heather Ramsey: Data has never been more crucial. In general, most companies won’t take action on a project without the data to back it up. Actionable analytics help you reach your goals to maximize your return on investment. Performance insights can help you prove the success of your automation investment, accelerating your ability to scale for success. 

On-demand insights enable you to make decisions in real time, determining what needs to be accomplished in order to meet your goals and objectives. For example, if you see longer wait times routinely occurring in a particular location, the data can help you identify where and when to dive in deeper. 

Fleet Geek helps you understand what is happening in your facilities. You use this data to determine why it is happening. Once you have a deeper understanding, you can determine the most effective next steps. Palion AMRs navigate using entirely on-board technology, without any external maps or landmarks required, providing maximum flexibility. This allows our customers the ability to quickly make any needed adjustments in-house without the help of Seegrid engineers.

Going a step further, Fleet Geek not only provides customers with insights into fleet performance and activity, but your Seegrid Customer Success Manager will also have this visibility into your data to help you identify patterns. With a deep, holistic understanding of your productivity, the Seegrid team can find areas that could be addressed to boost your productivity. 

Actionable analytics allow you to swiftly and confidently make adjustments to drive efficiencies. With easy-to-understand visualizations, you can better understand fleet performance to fast-track your ability to scale with proven, data-driven success. 

How can Fleet Geek benefit my facilities?

Heather Ramsey: Ultimately, Fleet Geek can ensure your automation project is effective and on track to meet your goals, helping you continuously improve and scale your success. Data provided by Fleet Geek helps you understand what works well and what could be improved. You can translate your Palion AMR fleet data into your own overall facility goals, making sure the mobile robots are being utilized efficiently and effectively. 

Seegrid’s customer success team is dedicated to ensuring our customers are successful today, and throughout their entire automation journey. Not only does Fleet Geek provide on-demand access to full facility visibility for a company, but it also allows Seegrid’s customer success team to understand more about your activity to help you identify areas of improvement. Our customers are busy, so we strive to proactively identify ways to further drive efficiencies for maximum productivity. 

Data driven facilities can more effectively plan to achieve objectives, today and into the future. If a facility doesn’t have visibility into their material flow and experiences issues, it will be extremely difficult for them to determine why the issue is occurring. Is there an operator issue? Is the equipment being used properly? When did the issue occur? Without data pointing out exactly where and when events occur, it’s hard to know how to improve. 

It can be hard to institute change within a facility; however, with an enhanced understanding of Palion AMR activity and utilization, customers can establish human-machine partnerships to confidently interpret data and work alongside the robots to achieve their goals.

Today, it’s critical for material handling facilities to achieve a holistic, data-driven view of their facilities in order to continually improve, adapt, and achieve a strong ROI. Actionable analytics play a major role in effectively achieving automation goals. Operational demands will only continue to become more complex, making the access to data through Fleet Geek that much more powerful. 

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Seegrid Introduces Fleet Geek Data Analytics Software to Complement its Autonomous Mobile Robots

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