Chery Dalian by the Numbers：

484 AMRs deployed across the facility~1,000 vehicles produced daily127 material categories automatedBodyshop and Final Assembly workshops coveredProduction maintained throughout deployment

BEIJING, June 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Most automotive factories are not built for automation. They are built for production.

More than one year after deployment began, ForwardX’s AMR system continues to scale across Chery Automobile’s Dalian manufacturing facility without disrupting production. Today, the project ranks among the largest brownfield AMR deployments in the automotive industry.

That reality makes brownfield automation one of the industry’s most difficult challenges. Unlike greenfield facilities, existing factories must modernize while maintaining output. Automation must adapt to legacy systems, fixed layouts, and active operations rather than being designed into the facility from the start.

With a fleet of 484 AMRs, the deployment continues to expand while production remains fully operational, allowing automation to scale without major reconstruction or factory shutdowns.

The Chery Dalian facility produces approximately 1,000 vehicles per day, making production continuity a critical operational requirement. Across its welding and final assembly workshops, AMRs support a wide range of intralogistics processes, including line-side delivery, SPS cart transportation, powertrain delivery, and empty-container return.

In the Bodyshop, 204 AMRs currently support delivery of 32 material categories, covering more than 80% of required material demand. In final assembly, 280 AMRs manage transportation for 95 material categories, supporting nearly 90% of assembly-line material requirements.

Brownfield success depends on much more than vehicle autonomy.

Existing factories present a unique set of challenges: limited line-side space, mixed traffic involving workers and forklifts, legacy IT infrastructure, changing production requirements, and minimal deployment windows. The challenge is transforming an existing logistics system without disrupting production. While many automation projects demonstrate success at the pilot stage, scaling to hundreds of robots in active automotive production environments is a different challenge altogether.

To address these challenges, ForwardX combined vision-based autonomy, fleet orchestration, manufacturing integration, and phased implementation strategies. Rather than requiring major facility changes, the deployment was integrated into existing production and logistics workflows.

The system operates alongside workers, conveyors, robotic equipment, and existing material-handling assets. Through phased rollout and continuous optimization, automation was introduced progressively while maintaining production stability.

“The challenge is transforming an operating factory while protecting production,” said Nicolas Chee, Founder and CEO of ForwardX Robotics. “Brownfield automation requires much more than robotics. It requires integration, orchestration, and a deep understanding of manufacturing operations.”

As OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers continue upgrading existing facilities, brownfield transformation is becoming a key focus across the automotive industry.

For most manufacturers, future automation investments will be deployed inside existing factories rather than new ones.

Greenfield projects prove that robots can operate.
Brownfield projects prove that automation can scale inside real-world manufacturing environments.
Chery Dalian demonstrates what that transformation looks like in practice.

Want the full story?
Download the Chery Dalian Brownfield Automation White Paper here: https://www.forwardx.com/ 

Join us at Automate 2026 in Booth #1025 to experience the future of automotive logistics.

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BALTIMORE, June 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — RPI Consultants, a leading ERP implementation, optimization, and software firm, has launched Invoice Statement Reconciliation for its Yoga for FSM accounts payable (AP) solution. The new feature matches vendor statements against AP data, researches unmatched lines, and automatically surfaces exceptions.

The feature was introduced to address ongoing vendor statement reconciliation challenges. Teams often receive statements of what vendors believe they’re owed, then spend hours cross-referencing invoice records against PDFs and tracking open items in spreadsheets. As a result, mismatches go unnoticed and missed invoices show up as unexpected costs.

Yoga’s Invoice Statement Reconciliation simplifies the process by capturing every vendor statement, creating a clean workspace for the reviewer, and running pre-investigation on every unmatched line; including fuzzy invoice-number search, amount matching, PO and payment-history lookups. The solution flags and resolves exceptions as they enter the system.

For teams that operate in complex AP environments, Invoice Statement Reconciliation also supports optional accrual tracking and automation. When an invoice hasn’t arrived yet, Yoga can track the accrual and automate its reversal when it does, with all activity confirmed in the ERP.

“AP teams shouldn’t be spending hours reconciling spreadsheets against PDF statements,” said Chad Tucker, VP Yoga Software. “Yoga does the research before the reviewer ever opens the statement, saving them time so that they can instead focus their efforts on higher value work.”

Yoga for FSM seamlessly integrates with Infor CloudSuite, Lawson V10, and Workday. The solution is fully hosted and managed by RPI and is built on more than 25 years of AP automation experience across hundreds of client engagements. To learn more about Yoga’s Invoice Statement Reconciliation, visit www.rpic.com/how-tos/invoice-statement-reconciliation-in-yoga/.

About RPI Consultants
RPI Consultants is an ERP implementation, optimization, and software firm with over 25 years of experience delivering best practices through technology, systems integration, and process redesign. As a premier Infor CloudSuite implementation partner, RPI prides itself on providing customers with the expertise and strategic thought leadership they need to be successful. For more information on RPI, visit www.rpic.com.

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SOURCE RPI Consultants

BOSTON, June 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — VODA.ai, the leading AI decision support software for water utilities, announced today VODA.ai Advisor, a conversational and agentic AI that helps water professionals move from data to decisions faster.

Built specifically for water utilities and engineering consultants, VODA.ai Advisor allows users to interact with intelligent planning and analytics workflows through simple natural language. Users can ask VODA.ai Advisor to generate project plans, adjust criteria and settings, evaluate scenarios, and provide advice on industry best practices to support more informed decision-making.

“Every person at a utility should be able to turn data into a decision,” said Benjamin Schroeder, CTO of VODA.ai. “We are building VODA.ai Advisor to give everyone at a utility a faster way to ask questions, understand risk, explain recommendations, and move from analysis to action. It helps everyone access the insight they need to make better infrastructure decisions.”

VODA.ai Advisor supports pipe replacement planning, project justification and verification, meter revenue protection, lead service line programs, water loss initiatives, executive reporting, and project prioritization. The VODA.ai team will be demonstrating its capabilities at the 2026 American Water Works Association ACE Conference in Washington, D.C.

As AI reshapes how organizations interact with data, VODA.ai is expanding its native AI capabilities and bringing that shift to the water sector. With VODA.ai Advisor, utilities and their partners can simplify sophisticated analysis, unlock insights faster, and make confident decisions about the infrastructure their communities rely on every day.

VODA.ai Advisor will be available to customers later this year.

About VODA.ai 

VODA.ai provides AI decision support software for water professionals. The company helps turn infrastructure data into defensible decisions that prevent failures, prioritize capital, reduce risk, and protect revenue. VODA.ai supports utilities and engineering consultants with predictive analytics for pipe risk, meter accuracy, capital planning, lead service line management, and other critical infrastructure challenges. 

For more information, visit www.voda.ai. 

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SOURCE VODA.ai