AMR vs. Pallet Conveyor:
What Happens After the Pallet Leaves the Line?

You've invested — or you're planning to invest — in a FANUC robot palletizing system. Either way, the question is the same: what happens when a finished pallet hits the floor? Cases are stacking cleanly, cycle times are consistent, your line is running the way it should — but the moment that pallet lands, the automation stops and a forklift driver takes over.

That's where most end-of-line conversations end. It doesn't have to be.

The Last 50 Feet Problem

Palletizers are precision machines. They build uniform loads at predictable rates. But between the palletizer discharge and the dock door, most facilities still rely on manual lift trucks for transport — to the stretch wrapper, to staging, to the lane. This gap is where labor costs accumulate, where product damage happens, and where throughput bottlenecks live.

For years, the standard answer to this problem was pallet conveyor. Today, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) offer a fundamentally different approach — and for many facilities, a better one.

What Pallet Conveyor Does Well

Fixed pallet conveyor is the right answer when your operation is high-volume, predictable, and unlikely to change. If you're moving pallets along the same path, at the same rate, in the same building for the next ten years, conveyor gives you:

• Speed — conveyor doesn't wait for an available robot
• Throughput — purpose-built for continuous, high-rate movement
• Simplicity — no software, no fleet management, no navigation

The trade-off is commitment. Conveyor is anchored to the concrete floor with a dedicated electrical installation, and the route is essentially fixed from day one. Reconfiguring it later — moving legs, rerouting sections, pulling new electrical — is expensive and disruptive.

What AMRs Do Differently

An AMR navigates autonomously using LiDAR-based mapping, with no fixed infrastructure. It learns your facility's layout, follows defined routes, and handles pallet transport from palletizer to stretch wrapper, from staging to dock — without tracks, guides, or embedded sensors.

For end-of-line applications, the key advantages are:

The Cost Comparison

Lower installation cost is a major AMR advantage. A pallet conveyor system connecting palletizer to stretch wrapper to staging can run $150,000–$400,000+ depending on length and complexity. A purpose-built AMR for the same path typically runs $20,000–$60,000 per unit, with no civil work required.

The Honest Trade-Off

AMRs aren't the right answer for every application. If you're palletizing at 25+ pallets per hour on a fixed, dedicated line, conveyor may still outperform AMRs on throughput. AMRs introduce cycle time variability — a robot has to travel, dock, and return — that conveyor doesn't.

For operations running one to three shifts at moderate pallet rates (8–20 pallets/hour per line), AMRs consistently outperform conveyor on total cost of ownership and flexibility.

The Hybrid Approach

The strongest end-of-line installations we see combine both: a short fixed conveyor section for the palletizer discharge and load transfer, and an AMR for transport from that point forward. You get the precision handoff of conveyor where it matters most, and the flexibility of AMRs for everything downstream.

This is the model Kosoku Automation designs around — a FANUC palletizing robot, a clean load transfer point, and AMR transport to stretch wrapper, staging, and dock. It works for food and beverage, consumer products, and industrial manufacturing, and it scales without a construction project.

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