The Deere & Co. assembly plant in Augusta, GA, uses automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to build the company's Series 5000 tractor. In an integrated and networked process that takes less than 4 hours, each AGV transits a 1,452-foot assembly line along which approximately 3,500 tasks are performed as each tractor passes through 106 workstations.
One of the critical steps in the tractor assembly process is leak testing of the air conditioning system. A single leak the size of a bacteria cell can cause the loss of 1 gram of refrigerant per year, potentially rendering an air conditioning system inoperable in a few years.