Denso and Toyota Industries Begin Automating Factory Truck Loading, Sankei Reports

Sankei Shimbun reported on October 26, 2026, that Denso and Toyota Industries had begun automating truck loading and unloading at Denso’s Anjo Plant. The initiative links sensors installed inside the factory with autonomous forklifts to detect people and other objects nearby, the report said.

According to Sankei Shimbun, Denso’s Anjo Plant is linking sensors with autonomous forklifts to automate truck loading and unloading inside the factory. The effort connects detection of nearby activity with vehicle operations during loading and unloading. Actual results on safety and work efficiency will be key to assessing its impact.

The focus of the report is not autonomous forklift operation alone, but the integration of nearby-object detection by factory sensors with loading and unloading work. However, the report does not specify the types of sensors, their detection range or how control instructions are sent to the forklifts. It is therefore not possible to treat as confirmed facts any broader interpretation of which tasks have been automated or how safety functions are configured. Related developments involving Toyota Industries include Sharp and Toyota Industries cut calculation time for warehouse retrieval plans, published on September 8, 2026, which covered technology for calculating retrieval plans for automated warehouses. While that article addressed the process of calculating plans, this report concerns coordination on the factory floor to detect people and vehicles and carry out loading and unloading. There is no basis for treating the two as part of the same system or deployment plan, though planning and on-site operations can be distinguished as different layers of automation. The initiative describes a division of roles in which sensors monitor surrounding conditions and forklifts handle loading and unloading. During these operations, how to respond when people are nearby is an operational issue as well as vehicle movement. Assessing the implementation would require details on how detection results are coordinated with vehicle movements, behavior such as safety stops, and the scope of work covered. The report, however, does not provide these details. The stated aim is to improve efficiency and reduce workloads, but no comparative figures are given for processing time, work volume or operating rates. Going forward, key points to watch include the scope of automation and assessments of safety and work efficiency under actual operating conditions. At this stage, there is no basis to infer expansion to other sites or standardization beyond what was reported as an initiative at a single factory.