Red Bull Racing became Formula 1 world champion without building its own engine. It picked the best supplier for each component and won on the way it brought them together. A good AMR automation project works the same way: you do not start with a robot, you start with your flow.
Champions with someone else’s engine
When Red Bull took four world titles in a row between 2010 and 2013, there was a Renault engine in the back. Years later came the second golden run, this time with Honda power. The engine, the tyres and much of the electronics came from outside.
Only since 2026 has Red Bull built its own engine, together with Ford. Every one of those titles was won with someone else’s engine.
Where Red Bull did go all in: the chassis, the aerodynamics and above all the integration. How does the engine fit the car? How do you tune cooling, weight and set-up to each other? That is where the championships were won.
The lesson is simple: you do not win by making everything yourself. You win by choosing the best for each component and making those components work together better than the competition does.
The trap: starting with the robot
Many automation projects start with an answer instead of a question. Someone saw an impressive demo at a trade fair, a supplier came by with a strong offer, or a brand is already in-house. Then the shop floor is bent around that technology.
You recognise the result quickly: robots that are only half used, operators inventing workarounds, and a second type of task the chosen platform is not really suited for. You are tied to one supplier, even for the parts where it is not the best.
That is an F1 team that buys an engine first and only then thinks about the circuit.
Start from the flow
On every project we reverse the order: first the flow, then the technology. It is how our approach is built. In practice it looks like this:
- Map the material flow. What has to move from where to where, how many times per hour, in which shifts? Which load carriers, which weights, which peaks?
- Find the bottlenecks. Where are people waiting, searching or driving empty kilometres? That is where the gain is.
- Define the requirements per task. A pallet move to shipping asks for something different than a cart of small parts to the line.
- Only then choose the technology. Per task, the AMR platform, peripherals and software that fit best. Sometimes that is one brand, often a mix.
- Integrate everything into one system. Robots, PLCs, ERP or WMS, lifts, doors and people have to work together as one.
The flow is the circuit. The technology is the car you tune to it.
Why vendor-independent integration pays off
No AMR manufacturer is the best at everything. One excels at heavy pallets, another at compact robots for narrow aisles, a third at fleet management. If you are tied to one brand, you pay for it every day. Why a mix of brands often works better is the subject of our article on mixed-brand fleets.
That is why we are deliberately vendor-independent. Per application we choose the platform that makes the most sense technically and financially. Open standards such as VDA 5050 make it possible to run robots from different brands under one fleet manager.
We do the integration ourselves, with Flow+ Ctrl: our own AMR orchestration platform. It takes the transport orders from your ERP or WMS, puts them in the right order, sends each job to the fleet manager of the robot best suited to it, and handles the handover with your machines. That is our chassis. And just like at Red Bull, that is where the difference is made.
Ready for the start?
Considering AMRs in your production or distribution centre? Then do not start with the question of which robot you want. Start with the question of how your material moves today, and how it could move better.
We map your flow, choose the best technology per task and build it into one working system. Plan a 30-minute scoping call with Flow+ AMR Solutions.