Automated Material-Handling & Inspection

A global industrial manufacturer needed to automate material flow and quality checks for heavy sub-assemblies that previously required multiple operators and forklift interaction. The existing process created variability, safety risks, and inconsistent inspection results.

Southern Tooling designed a custom material-handling platform combining automated conveyance, multi-axis transfer devices, and an integrated vision-inspection station. The system automatically moved assemblies between processes, aligned components for accurate inspection, and logged data to the customer’s MES for full traceability.

The solution eliminated forklift interaction in this area of the plant, reducing safety risk and removing two labor positions from the process. Inspection accuracy improved by more than 30%, driven by consistent presentation and automated measurement. The customer also benefited from real-time data visibility, enabling faster root-cause analysis and more reliable quality reporting.

The project paid for itself in under 14 months and became the model for additional automation initiatives across the facility.