How REEMAN Ironhide Automates 160–200 Pallet Trips per Day with One-Touch Calling

At a new-energy manufacturing plant in Huzhou, Zhejiang, China, the REEMAN Ironhide Autonomous Forklift is used for high-frequency point-to-point pallet transport. The configured route is approximately 47 meters, the actual transported load is about 1.5 tons, and the forklift completes approximately 160–200 transport tasks per day. Employees initiate the workflow through a one-touch remote call button, which activates a complete task configured during deployment: travel to the pickup point, pallet recognition, automatic fork alignment, pickup, transport, pallet placement, fork withdrawal, subsequent assigned tasks, and automatic return to charging.

Based on this workload and an equipment reference price of approximately US$9,900, a representative overseas labor-cost model produces an estimated equipment-cost payback period of approximately 2.6 months, with 2–4 months as an initial planning range for comparable high-utilization applications.

Real Factory Case at a Glance

The approximately 7.5–9.4 km/day figure is calculated from the 47 m route multiplied by 160–200 tasks. It excludes empty return travel, repositioning, and other movements. The US$9,900 value is the reference equipment price used in the ROI calculation; delivered project pricing may vary with configuration, international shipping, deployment, taxes, optional integration, and service scope.

How One-Touch Calling Starts a Complete Autonomous Task

In this application, one-touch forklift calling starts a complete autonomous transport task configured during deployment. Before operation begins, the deployment engineer defines the pickup point, delivery point, autonomous route, pallet-handling sequence, task logic, charging location, and behavior after task completion. Once these settings are completed, the operator presses one button and Ironhide executes the configured workflow without movement-by-movement control.

The button can communicate directly with the forklift or transmit its request through a receiver, gateway, or fleet-dispatch system, depending on the project architecture. It sends a task-trigger command; it does not continuously control direction, speed, or fork movement. The receiving vehicle or system matches the request to the corresponding preconfigured task, and Ironhide carries out that task autonomously.

The one-touch call function does not require factory-wide network coverage, and its call communication range is up to 100 meters. This figure describes the button’s communication range; it does not specify the maximum forklift transport route. After receiving the command, Ironhide follows the autonomous route configured during deployment.

Complete One-Touch Workflow: Pickup, Delivery, Next Task, and Charging

The employee initiates the material-handling request with one button press, and the autonomous forklift completes the configured handling process. The workflow covers task reception, navigation, pallet recognition, vehicle positioning, fork alignment, pickup, transport, delivery, task-queue checking, and return to charging when no task remains.

After receiving the call command, Ironhide travels autonomously to the first pickup point and performs pallet recognition, position adjustment, fork alignment, and automatic pickup. It then transports the approximately 1.5-ton load along the configured route of about 47 meters. At the first destination, the vehicle adjusts its position, lowers the pallet into place, and withdraws its forks, completing the delivery without the operator following it or manually unloading.

After the first delivery, Ironhide checks its assigned task queue. When another job is waiting, the forklift continues directly to the next operation without returning to the charging area or requiring manual redispatch. In the demonstration video, it performs a second assigned transport task, again completing pickup, transport, positioning, unloading, and fork withdrawal.

After the second delivery, Ironhide checks the queue again. If no additional task is waiting, it automatically returns to its designated charging point. This connects consecutive autonomous tasks with the idle charging state in one complete operating loop.

Watch the Real Two-Task Workflow

The video shows a one-touch call followed by two autonomous pallet-handling tasks and automatic return to charging.

Watch the full REEMAN Ironhide one-touch calling video on YouTube.

Why 160–200 Trips per Day Creates a Strong Automation Case

A 47-meter route may appear short as a single task, but repeating it 160–200 times every day creates a substantial logistics workload. The assigned pickup-to-delivery distance is 7.52 km/day at 160 trips and 9.40 km/day at 200 trips, excluding empty travel, repositioning, and return movement. Manual involvement also includes waiting for a forklift, finding or contacting an operator, picking up the pallet, and unloading it.

The workload comes from the combination of high task frequency, repeated coordination, pallet handling, transport, and unloading. Short-distance, fixed-route, high-frequency material movement is particularly suitable for autonomous forklift deployment because the task can be standardized and repeated.

New-energy manufacturing facilities often need fixed production-to-buffer routes, frequent pallet movement, repeated material requests, predictable point-to-point workflows, a consistent production rhythm, reduced waiting time, and standardized internal logistics. The Huzhou application combines a 47 m route, 160–200 daily tasks, an actual load of about 1.5 tons, one-touch initiation, consecutive task execution, and automatic return to charging. These operating conditions provide a practical basis for evaluating both automation benefits and an overseas ROI model.

Overseas ROI Estimate Based on the Actual Workload

The ROI model uses the actual operating volume from the Huzhou case and applies a representative overseas manufacturing labor-cost scenario. The assumptions below define the calculation and help factories adapt it to their own operating conditions.

Base-Case Assumptions

Base-Case Calculation

Monthly direct labor value is calculated from daily tasks × labor minutes per task × monthly operating days ÷ 60 × hourly labor cost. The model then applies a 50% recoverable labor-value factor and deducts the monthly operating allowance before calculating equipment-cost payback.

The result depends on local labor cost, number of shifts, actual operator time per task, utilization, installed project scope, maintenance, and the proportion of labor time that can be productively reassigned. The calculation uses the US$9,900 equipment reference price; a complete project payback calculation should also include applicable shipping, deployment, taxes, and integration costs.

Labor Workload That Can Be Reallocated

Using the Huzhou volume of 160–200 tasks per day and an estimated 3–4 minutes of direct manual involvement per trip, the repetitive transport process represents approximately 8–13 labor-hours per day. At 300 operating days per year, this is approximately 2,400–4,000 labor-hours per year. With approximately 2,000 working hours as one annual full-time workload, it is equivalent to roughly 1.2–2.0 full-time positions of repetitive transport workload.

That workload can be reassigned to production, quality, maintenance, supervision, or other higher-value work. The opportunity depends on how effectively the factory reorganizes work and uses the labor time released by autonomous transport.

One-Touch Calling vs. Conventional Manual Dispatch

The operational value comes from the complete autonomous workflow behind the physical button: a predefined task connects transport requests with pallet recognition, fork alignment, pickup, delivery, subsequent assigned work, and automatic return to charging. This is particularly relevant to predictable, repetitive, high-frequency point-to-point logistics.

Frequently Asked Questions

Case Summary

At a new-energy manufacturing plant in Huzhou, Zhejiang, the REEMAN Ironhide Autonomous Forklift handles approximately 160–200 pallet transport tasks per day along a 47 m configured route with an actual load of about 1.5 tons. A one-touch call button triggers a complete preconfigured task, including pallet recognition, alignment, pickup, transport, placement, consecutive assigned tasks, and automatic return to charging. The call range is up to 100 m without factory-wide network coverage for the call function. Using an equipment reference price of US$9,900 and a representative U.S. labor-cost model, estimated equipment-cost payback is approximately 2.6 months.