Brownfield Automation Success
ForwardX Scales 484 AMRs in Live Auto Factory Without Halting Production
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ForwardX Robotics has scaled its fleet to 484 autonomous mobile robots inside Chery Automobile's live Dalian factory — without a single day of production downtime, according to PR Newswire. The project is now one of the largest brownfield AMR deployments in the global automotive industry, covering an active plant that churns out roughly 1,000 vehicles per day.
Brownfield means retrofitting an existing, operating factory — not building a new one from scratch. That distinction matters enormously. A production line stoppage at a major automaker can cost $22,000 to $50,000 per minute, according to iFactory AI. ForwardX did it while the plant kept running.
484 Robots Now Running Inside a Live Car Factory
The Dalian facility began its AMR rollout in late 2023. By May 2025, 435 robots were live, Modern Materials Handling reported. The fleet has since grown to 484 units. The factory now produces one vehicle every 100 seconds. Robots handle 80% of material demand in the bodyshop and 90% in final assembly, according to DC Velocity.
The fleet is not one-size-fits-all. It includes 195 Flex Series units built for narrow 39-inch aisles. Max Series robots carry payloads up to 2,500 kilograms — heavy enough for engines and chassis parts. Lynx tuggers pull carts through parts-supply routes. Apex robots handle pallets in tight storage areas. Each model handles a specific job inside the plant.
Coordinating 484 Robots Without Traffic Jams or Collisions
The hardest part of the project is not the robots — it is the software telling them what to do. ForwardX uses a Fleet Manager system to route 484 machines through shared aisles alongside human workers. Without it, the robots would collide or gridlock. Industry experts say orchestrating robots at this scale is the real technological hurdle, not the hardware itself.
ForwardX CEO Nicolas Chee put it plainly. "The challenge is transforming an operating factory while protecting production," he said, according to ForwardX Robotics. "Brownfield automation requires much more than robotics; it requires integration, orchestration, and a deep understanding of manufacturing operations." The company also used a 5G network — built with China Unicom — to keep all 484 units coordinated in real time.
Logistics Costs Drop 10%, Labor Shrinks by 30 Workers Per Shift
The numbers are concrete. Logistics cost per vehicle fell 10%, according to DC Velocity. Labor costs in the first automated zones dropped 30%. Each shift now runs with 30 fewer workers handling material movement. Energy use per material move fell 30% to 50% by replacing fuel-dependent forklifts with battery-powered AMRs, per ForwardX's own sustainability data.
Chery frames the workforce change as "labor allocation optimization" — moving workers to higher-value roles. But labor researchers at the MIT Industrial Performance Center note there is little public data on long-term retention or reskilling costs for displaced logistics staff. The factory employs 9,000-plus workers, and the shift to unmanned material movement raises real questions about where those jobs go next.
China Automates Fast While Western Rivals Move Slowly
The Chery-ForwardX project is not just a factory story — it is a competitive signal. Chinese automakers are aggressively retrofitting existing plants with robotics. Western rivals face higher capital costs, legacy union agreements, and slower approval cycles. The result is a widening gap in production efficiency, with Chinese manufacturers lowering per-unit costs while facing tariffs as high as 245% on some exports to the U.S., according to ForwardX Robotics.
The Dalian project started as a pilot with 100-plus robots in Qingdao in July 2023, per Modern Materials Handling. It has since become a template for full-scale brownfield automation. ForwardX marked the one-year milestone of large-scale operations in March 2026, according to Yahoo Finance. The message to the industry: scaling AMRs in a live factory is no longer experimental — it is proven.
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