2_1_ScanMag_79_August_2015_Text.qxp_Scan Magazine 1 06/08/2015 15:41 Page 38
Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Made in Sweden
Photo: Mattias Blomqvist
FlexQube – Lego inspired logistics Sweden has a long history of inventors and innovative products. A challenge in today’s global world is production logistics since the product variation increases at the same time as product life cycles gets shorter and shorter. Swedish FlexQube has found a way for companies to overcome these challenges – inspired by the flexibility of Lego. By Anita Karlsson | Photos: Flexqube
Like many other inventions, the company FlexQube started out with an interest to make an improvement. One of the company's founders, Per Augustsson, worked as a project leader in the vehicle industry, managing and developing new ways to improve intralogistics flow in manufacturing. He noticed that the racks and carts in welded steel used to store and transport components, did not prove to be flexible enough to withstand changes in production. Furthermore, the forklifts used when moving goods induced a dangerous and inefficient working environment, something that the industry wanted to
38 | Issue 79 | August 2015
move away from. The new tugger trains that were coming into the market had the benefit of being more easy-moving, safer, quieter and could take on more material on the wagon trail. To switch from forklifts to tugger trains imposed requirements that the carts used would be robust, flexible and ergonomic enough to make such a transition. A flexible system to suit every need With a background in mechanical engineering, Augustsson’s interest in product development was awakened. A year and hundreds of sketches later he had devel-
oped the prototype for such a flexible system – and his inspiration was Lego building bricks. The carts and racks made by FlexQube consist of four basic building blocks: a beam, a tube, a locking plate and a joint. All have the same assembly interface and the same seven centimetre dimensional range to facilitate the design process as well as assembling, re-assembling and recycling. The joint is a cube named FlexQube, just as the company name, and according to Christian Thiel, CFO and co-founder: “It is the heart in our concept so to speak. When Per had developed that part the other three pieces came easily together.” With the FlexQube concept it is possible to design and manufacture any type of cart or racks for light weight or heavy duty internal material handling in an infinite number of variants. Since the components are easy to re-assemble, they have a clear