Schaeffler is a technology company focused on motion technology, with more than 80 production sites worldwide. Since 2023, digitalization has been a strategic priority for the company – with intralogistics as one of its central fields of action. The goal is to respond more flexibly to changing conditions, run production in a more resource-efficient way, and unlock efficiency potential faster.
To automate its in-house material flows, Schaeffler works with SYNAOS. As a central, cloud-based fleet control system, SYNAOS's Intralogistics Platform coordinates small fleets of mobile robots and integrates them in a manufacturer-independent way via the VDA 5050 interface. The approach was initially tested in proof-of-concept projects before being rolled out to further sites.
The challenge: controlling local material flows centrally without falling back on isolated solutions
Mobile robotics was set to play a central role in every plant going forward. This raised the question for Schaeffler of how to organize the automation of local material flows consistently across many sites. Plant-specific IT silos were not an option: they can neither be scaled efficiently nor maintained in a future-proof way when every fleet is controlled by its own fleet manager.
Instead, the company was looking for a central fleet manager that controls the cross-site scenario – automating local material flows with small, homogeneous fleets of mobile robots – from a single source, while still offering enough flexibility on site. Because different transport requirements and load carriers call for different vehicle types, the solution also had to bring together robots from different manufacturers under a shared control system.
A further requirement stemmed from the IT strategy: the control system had to fit into a cloud-first architecture and keep ongoing IT operations to a minimum, so that internal teams can focus on their core topics and technologies.
The solution: a central, cloud-based fleet manager with VDA 5050 and a message broker
Schaeffler chose the Intralogistics Platform from SYNAOS as its central, cloud-based fleet manager. As a SaaS solution, SYNAOS handles the platform's IT operations, so the deployment fits into Schaeffler's cloud-first architecture and takes the load off internal teams.
The technical basis for manufacturer-independent control is the VDA 5050 communication standard, which enables mobile robots from different manufacturers to interact with a central fleet control system. At Schaeffler, all applications and shopfloor assets – production machines, peripherals, and sensors such as fire alarm systems, doors, and traffic lights – are connected to a central message broker. The AGVs also link up to this broker and transmit their information to the SYNAOS platform via VDA 5050. The result is an end-to-end architecture for control and data connectivity instead of separate, disconnected fleet managers.
SYNAOS was selected on the basis of a hands-on benchmarking exercise: instead of judging providers by their presentations, the Schaeffler team evaluated them on how they implemented two real pilot applications under project conditions and with a fixed deadline. The two proof-of-concept pilots ran at the Homburg and Hagenau (France) plants with three and four AGVs respectively; at both sites, the platform still controls the robot fleets today.
The result: 98 percent AGV utilization and relieved skilled workers in Höchstadt
Since the collaboration with SYNAOS began, the efficiency of intralogistics processes has increased. This is particularly evident at the Höchstadt site: there, four forklift AGVs handle in-house transport and achieve a daily utilization of 98 percent; together they manage several hundred orders per day.
For employees, this means noticeable relief: the vehicles now take over monotonous material runs and physically demanding tasks, while staff can focus more on supervisory and value-adding work. Accompanying software training by SYNAOS has improved the teams' understanding of the application and the automation initiative.
Thanks to the central control and the VDA 5050 connection, the approach can be transferred to further fleets and sites without building a separate isolated solution for each location. This gives Schaeffler a uniform basis for gradually expanding its intralogistics automation.
Outlook: gradual expansion to further sites worldwide
Following the proof-of-concept phase in Homburg and Hagenau, the SYNAOS platform now also controls the robot fleets at the Sasbach and Höchstadt sites. Further rollouts are planned for Szombathely (Hungary), Schweinfurt, and Herzogenaurach, among others; the fleet control system is also set to be deployed at the North American plants in Cheraw and Fort Mill, in Irapuato, Mexico, and at sites in Asia.
Schaeffler plans to gradually integrate more AGVs into its processes across its more than 80 production sites. The central, scalable control provided by the SYNAOS Intralogistics Platform forms a fixed building block of the solution landscape for this.
