The persistent financial challenges going through manufacturing stick with regional inflation, world conflicts, an ageing workforce, disruptions within the provide chain, well being epidemics, and different compounding elements, every taking part in a task. Enterprise homeowners who reassess their technique and think about automation are forward of the curve.
As demonstrated all through the COVID pandemic, companies outfitted with automation have been extra resilient to shifts when in comparison with their counterparts. ASME famous that “investing in automation and robotics was a technique firms coped with the lack of employees.” Guide jobs like palletizing have been comparatively easy to fill not way back. The abundance of accessible employees, restricted e-commerce, and decreased product complexity made conducting enterprise with handbook labor potential.
At present, the financial surroundings is sort of solely totally different: the out there (and ) workforce is diminishing, e-commerce continues to develop and product variety is increasing. These headwinds have created a brand new increase in automation investments, notably in collaborative robotics. Producers are discovering that cobot palletizers, for instance, are extra accessible, have a smaller footprint, and are extra budget-friendly. This permits them to handle individuals, productiveness, and flexibility challenges. This text explores how these automated palletizing methods have gotten very important instruments in industries equivalent 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 employees. There have been only a few individuals prepared to work this repetitive, monotonous, harmful job. Time is crucial in meals manufacturing, so Korea Pelagic turned to automation to make sure well timed shipments.
A palletizing cobot was the proper answer for this demanding surroundings. 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. Read the complete case study.
Present respect for the workforce.
TIDI Merchandise, a pacesetter in an infection prevention and affected person security merchandise, confronted inefficiencies because of a scarcity of employees. One individual 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 workforce 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 count on employers to spend money on supporting and serving to their workers. This consists of making automation take the burden of the handbook 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 go away. That is extra prevalent in youthful generations who really feel the necessity to change jobs to care for his or her pursuits.
Based on Business Insider, 73% of Gen Z employees 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 out there labor. As this development continues, companies will inevitably must spend money on automation.
Corporations should spend money on their workers to extend employee retention. TIDI Merchandise Worth Stream Supervisor Cameron Lemke summarizes: “Should you’re in a enterprise that cares about your workforce, that is a straightforward funding to assist them really feel supported and encourage their longevity with your small business.”
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“Should you’re in a enterprise that cares about your workforce, that is a straightforward funding to assist them really feel supported and encourage their longevity with your small business.” |
Learn and watch the TIDI Products case study.
Create sustainable jobs (that individuals need).
Cascade Espresso, a roasting and co-manufacturing firm, skilled power labor shortages and issues of safety of their handbook palletizing operations. With the deployment of automated palletizing models, job satisfaction and security have 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 often ignored, the palletization course of can emerge as a bottleneck. In a one-piece-flow surroundings, the cycle time must lower to match the velocity of the slowest job. Automation can alleviate this bottleneck and convey cycle time nearer to takt time. Cascade Espresso’s transition from handbook to automated palletizing resolved labor shortages and eradicated bottlenecks.
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“The straightforward handbook processes have been consuming simply an immense period of time to the place machines would cease as a result of operators truly couldn’t palletize quick sufficient.” – Ron Kane, COO of Cascade Espresso. Watch the full video. |
The cobots guarantee a steady and environment friendly manufacturing stream, permitting for the optimization of assets and success of supply deadlines.
Automated palletizing will increase throughput.
TIDI Merchandise skilled vital beneficial properties in productiveness after incorporating automated palletizing models. They documented productivity gains of 30% from the primary palletizing cell. Subsequent cells have elevated by a equally spectacular 25%. Productiveness beneficial properties 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 traces. The corporate wanted a scalable, automated answer to accommodate varied product weights and enhance manufacturing velocity. Labor shortages added to the urgency of discovering an efficient decision. Their search led them to a palletizing collaborative robotic that runs two automated traces and increased production speed by 30%.
An automatic system can sustain.
Automated palletizing methods present excessive effectivity by maintaining with manufacturing processes. Person-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 Solution robotically generates and optimizes trajectories and cobot actions. Robotiq makes use of assistant instruments and easy configurations. Enter necessities equivalent to:
- Field dimensions, weight, and orientation
- Pallet dimensions
- Pallet configuration
This software program works for the individual as a substitute of the individual 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 facility limitations.
Regardless of the financial pressures in manufacturing, each firm goals for customer-driven management fairly than being dictated by exterior elements. This implies factories should stay agile and productive.
Napco, a espresso distribution firm, highlights the productiveness beneficial properties skilled when utilizing palletizing methods. The lead operator, who had no prior expertise in robotics, was in a position to discover ways to function the system rapidly. This automated palletizing system created a 15% increase in productivity.
Streamlined enlargement: timing your prices with advantages
The pliability and modular design of automated palletizing options allow streamlined enlargement. With the power to duplicate and combine further models onto totally different manufacturing traces, producers can scale successfully in response to fluctuations in demand. TIDI saw this first 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 turn 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 rules of LEAN ROBOTICS to create a standardized answer that’s simpler to scale, repeatable, and simple to make use of. We perceive the financial pressures in manufacturing and we now have expertise working with meals & beverage, shopper items, and pharmaceutical producers.
Allow us to get you began – implementation is less complicated than you suppose. Focus on with one in every of our automation specialists at the moment to kickstart your challenge.
