The persistent financial challenges going through manufacturing stick with regional inflation, world conflicts, an getting old workforce, disruptions within the provide chain, well being epidemics, and different compounding elements, every taking part in a task. Enterprise house owners who reassess their technique and take into account automation are forward of the curve.
As demonstrated all through the COVID pandemic, companies outfitted with automation had been extra resilient to shifts when in comparison with their counterparts. ASME famous that “investing in automation and robotics was a technique corporations coped with the lack of staff.” Guide jobs like palletizing had been comparatively easy to fill not way back. The abundance of accessible staff, restricted e-commerce, and decreased product complexity made conducting enterprise with guide labor attainable.
Right this moment, the financial atmosphere is nearly solely totally different: the accessible (and ) workforce is diminishing, e-commerce continues to develop and product range is increasing. These headwinds have created a brand new growth in automation investments, significantly in collaborative robotics. Producers are discovering that cobot palletizers, for instance, are extra accessible, have a smaller footprint, and are extra budget-friendly. This enables them to deal with individuals, productiveness, and flexibility challenges. This text explores how these automated palletizing methods have gotten important instruments in industries similar to meals & beverage, shopper items, and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Individuals: Enhancing workforce dynamics
Automation is doing jobs that individuals don’t need.
Automation is doing jobs that individuals don’t need.
A frozen fish producer, Korea Pelagic, wanted assist discovering individuals to stack pallets of fish in a freezer. Palletizing fish on very tall pallets is a bodily demanding endeavor within the chilly, making it difficult to seek out prepared staff. There have been only a few individuals prepared to work this repetitive, monotonous, harmful job. Time is important in meals manufacturing, so Korea Pelagic turned to automation to make sure well timed shipments.
A palletizing cobot was the right answer for this demanding atmosphere. Not solely was the cobot prepared to work within the chilly, the end result was a 200% improve in productiveness and a chance to offer extra rewarding and sustainable work for his or her workers. Learn the entire case research.
Present respect for the workforce.
TIDI Merchandise, a frontrunner in an infection prevention and affected person security merchandise, confronted inefficiencies resulting from a scarcity of staff. One particular person did two duties to maintain up with manufacturing calls for. Overburdening an individual slowed down manufacturing, elevated their backlog, decreased morale, and restricted the variety of orders TDI Merchandise may settle for. TIDI invested in end-of-line automated palletizing methods. This answer addressed operational bottlenecks, decreased ergonomic points, and elevated crew job satisfaction.
The palletizers carried out higher than anticipated, so TIDI Merchandise acquired two extra methods.
Initially, individuals nervous that robots would take their jobs. Now, individuals anticipate employers to spend money on supporting and serving to their workers. This consists of making automation take the burden of the guide and repetitive duties they don’t need to do. If workers don’t just like the job or really feel like their employer is just not investing in them, they depart. That is extra prevalent in youthful generations who really feel the necessity to swap jobs to care for his or her pursuits.
In accordance with Enterprise Insider, 73% of Gen Z staff are prepared to take a pay reduce or a decrease place if their job doesn’t meet their wants. Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) is rejecting monotonous, bodily demanding jobs and additional shrinking the accessible labor. As this development continues, companies will inevitably have to spend money on automation.
Firms should spend money on their workers to extend employee retention. TIDI Merchandise Worth Stream Supervisor Cameron Lemke summarizes: “For those who’re in a enterprise that cares about your crew, that is a simple funding to assist them really feel supported and encourage their longevity with your enterprise.”
“For those who’re in a enterprise that cares about your crew, that is a simple funding to assist them really feel supported and encourage their longevity with your enterprise.” |
Learn and watch the TIDI Merchandise case research.
Create sustainable jobs (that individuals need).
Cascade Espresso, a roasting and co-manufacturing firm, skilled persistent labor shortages and issues of safety of their guide palletizing operations. With the deployment of automated palletizing models, job satisfaction and security had been improved. The system’s adaptability allowed for seamless integration, optimizing productiveness and permitting workers to advance. It took 5 minutes to coach an operator on the cobot. Now, the palletizer does the lower-paid job, and the individuals advance within the firm. Watch how Cascade Espresso palletizes 6,500 circumstances a day and grows its workers.
Productiveness: Unleashing operational potential
Each pallet counts.
The target is to stop unplanned downtime. Though regularly ignored, the palletization course of can emerge as a bottleneck. In a one-piece-flow atmosphere, the cycle time must lower to match the pace of the slowest job. Automation can alleviate this bottleneck and convey cycle time nearer to takt time. Cascade Espresso’s transition from guide to automated palletizing resolved labor shortages and eradicated bottlenecks.
“The straightforward guide processes had been consuming simply an immense period of time to the place machines would cease as a result of operators really couldn’t palletize quick sufficient.” – Ron Kane, COO of Cascade Espresso. Watch the full video. |
The cobots guarantee a steady and environment friendly manufacturing move, permitting for the optimization of assets and achievement of supply deadlines.
Automated palletizing will increase throughput.
TIDI Merchandise skilled vital positive factors in productiveness after incorporating automated palletizing models. They documented productiveness positive factors of 30% from the primary palletizing cell. Subsequent cells have elevated by a equally spectacular 25%. Productiveness positive factors permits producers to optimize useful resource utilization, cut back manufacturing prices, and preserve aggressive pricing.
Robotic palletizers additionally improve productiveness in meals manufacturing. Bread producer Antic in Spain confronted difficulties manually palletizing merchandise on two manufacturing strains. The corporate wanted a scalable, automated answer to accommodate numerous product weights and enhance manufacturing pace. Labor shortages added to the urgency of discovering an efficient decision. Their search led them to a palletizing collaborative robotic that runs two automated strains and elevated manufacturing pace by 30%.
An automatic system can sustain.
Automated palletizing methods present excessive effectivity by maintaining with manufacturing processes. Consumer-friendly software program makes it straightforward to alter the palletizing cobot for brand spanking new field sizes or pallet configurations. For instance, the Robotiq Palletizing Resolution robotically generates and optimizes trajectories and cobot actions. Robotiq makes use of assistant instruments and easy configurations. Enter necessities similar to:
- Field dimensions, weight, and orientation
- Pallet dimensions
- Pallet configuration
This software program works for the particular person as a substitute of the particular person working for it. With a couple of minutes of coaching, operators can have the automated palletizer stacking packing containers.
Adaptability: Assembly market calls for with ease
Be led by buyer necessities and market alternatives, not manufacturing unit limitations.
Regardless of the financial pressures in manufacturing, each firm goals for customer-driven management slightly than being dictated by exterior elements. This implies factories should stay agile and productive.
Napco, a espresso distribution firm, highlights the productiveness positive factors skilled when utilizing palletizing methods. The lead operator, who had no prior expertise in robotics, was in a position to learn to function the system rapidly. This automated palletizing system created a 15% improve in productiveness.
Streamlined enlargement: timing your prices with advantages
The pliability and modular design of automated palletizing options allow streamlined enlargement. With the flexibility to duplicate and combine extra models onto totally different manufacturing strains, producers can scale successfully in response to fluctuations in demand. TIDI noticed this primary hand. Scalability, mixed with a typical payback interval of 1 yr, ensures a considerable return on funding and positively impacts the underside line.
Automated palletizing methods with built-in cobots have develop into indispensable allies for meals & beverage, shopper items, and pharmaceutical producers going through continued financial pressures. These methods assist them navigate labor-related challenges, improve productiveness, and foster adaptability.
Management your future
At Robotiq, we comply with the ideas of LEAN ROBOTICS to create a standardized answer that’s simpler to scale, repeatable, and straightforward to make use of. We perceive the financial pressures in manufacturing and we’ve expertise working with meals & beverage, shopper items, and pharmaceutical producers.
Allow us to get you began – implementation is simpler than you assume. Talk about with certainly one of our automation specialists as we speak to kickstart your challenge.