Track guided AGVs are best suited for lean production. The advantages of lean production are cost savings, high productivity, quality and flexibility. This is achieved through lean processes and high utilization of machines and equipment. In particular, transport and waiting times are reduced to a minimum, as they are considered wasteful by definition and have a negative impact on the principle of flow production.
Automated guided vehicles automate transport and can ensure consistently high availability. Especially track guided AGVs have the advantage of optimal flexibility. Only routes that effectively map the production process are defined and do not allow any further deviations.
Autonomous transport systems offer maximum freedom and flexibility. In the AGV sector, these are currently referred to on the market as autonomous mobile robots (AMR). Depending on the degree of autonomy, they can support lean production by optimizing transport processes independently.
For lean production in production, AMR are rather unsuitable, because the autonomous transport leads to more transport and downtime due to additional flexibility instead of less. The autonomous driving around of obstacles can be mentioned here as a particular negative example. In addition, the operating costs for an AMR are many times higher than for a classic track-guided AGV.