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 components, every taking part in a task. Enterprise homeowners 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 method corporations coped with the lack of employees.” Guide jobs like palletizing had been comparatively simple to fill not way back. The abundance of accessible employees, restricted e-commerce, and lowered product complexity made conducting enterprise with guide labor doable.
Right now, the financial surroundings is nearly fully totally different: the out there (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, 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 folks, productiveness, and adaptableness challenges. This text explores how these automated palletizing programs have gotten very important instruments in industries akin to meals & beverage, shopper items, and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Individuals: Enhancing workforce dynamics
Automation is doing jobs that folks don’t need.
Automation is doing jobs that folks don’t need.
A frozen fish producer, Korea Pelagic, wanted assist discovering folks to stack pallets of fish in a freezer. Palletizing fish on very tall pallets is a bodily demanding enterprise within the chilly, making it difficult to seek out prepared employees. There have been only a few folks 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% enhance in productiveness and a chance to offer extra rewarding and sustainable work for his or her staff. Learn the entire case research.
Present respect for the workforce.
TIDI Merchandise, a pacesetter in an infection prevention and affected person security merchandise, confronted inefficiencies resulting from a scarcity of employees. 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 might settle for. TIDI invested in end-of-line automated palletizing programs. This answer addressed operational bottlenecks, decreased ergonomic points, and elevated staff job satisfaction.
The palletizers carried out higher than anticipated, so TIDI Merchandise acquired two extra programs.
Initially, folks fearful that robots would take their jobs. Now, folks anticipate employers to spend money on supporting and serving to their staff. This consists of making automation take the burden of the guide and repetitive duties they don’t need to do. If staff don’t just like the job or really feel like their employer just isn’t investing in them, they depart. That is extra prevalent in youthful generations who really feel the necessity to change jobs to care for his or her pursuits.
In line with Enterprise 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 pattern continues, companies will inevitably must spend money on automation.
Corporations should spend money on their staff to extend employee retention. TIDI Merchandise Worth Stream Supervisor Cameron Lemke summarizes: “When you’re in a enterprise that cares about your staff, that is a simple funding to assist them really feel supported and encourage their longevity with your enterprise.”
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“When you’re in a enterprise that cares about your staff, 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 folks need).
Cascade Espresso, a roasting and co-manufacturing firm, skilled continual 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 staff to advance. It took 5 minutes to coach an operator on the cobot. Now, the palletizer does the lower-paid job, and the folks advance within the firm. Watch how Cascade Espresso palletizes 6,500 circumstances a day and grows its staff.
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 surroundings, 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.
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“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 success of supply deadlines.
Automated palletizing will increase throughput.
TIDI Merchandise skilled important 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 enhance 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 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 traces and elevated manufacturing pace by 30%.
An automatic system can sustain.
Automated palletizing programs present excessive effectivity by maintaining with manufacturing processes. Person-friendly software program makes it straightforward to vary 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 akin 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 bins.
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 slightly than being dictated by exterior components. This implies factories should stay agile and productive.
Napco, a espresso distribution firm, highlights the productiveness positive factors skilled when utilizing palletizing programs. 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% enhance in productiveness.
Streamlined growth: timing your prices with advantages
The flexibleness and modular design of automated palletizing options allow streamlined growth. 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 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 programs with built-in cobots have develop into indispensable allies for meals & beverage, shopper items, and pharmaceutical producers going through continued financial pressures. These programs 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 straightforward to make use of. We perceive the financial pressures in manufacturing and we have now expertise working with meals & beverage, shopper items, and pharmaceutical producers.
Allow us to get you began – implementation is less complicated than you assume. Talk about with considered one of our automation specialists at this time to kickstart your mission.
