The persistent financial challenges going through manufacturing stick with regional inflation, world conflicts, an growing older workforce, disruptions within the provide chain, well being epidemics, and different compounding elements, every enjoying a job. Enterprise house owners 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 corporations coped with the lack of staff.” Guide jobs like palletizing have been comparatively simple to fill not way back. The abundance of accessible staff, restricted e-commerce, and lowered product complexity made conducting enterprise with handbook labor attainable.
As we speak, the financial setting is nearly completely 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 enables them to handle folks, productiveness, and flexibility challenges. This text explores how these automated palletizing methods have gotten important instruments in industries equivalent to meals & beverage, client 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 staff. 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 right answer for this demanding setting. Not solely was the cobot prepared to work within the chilly, the outcome was a 200% improve in productiveness and a chance to supply extra rewarding and sustainable work for his or her workers. Learn the whole case research.
Present respect for the workforce.
TIDI Merchandise, a pacesetter in an infection prevention and affected person security merchandise, confronted inefficiencies attributable to 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 might 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, folks frightened that robots would take their jobs. Now, folks anticipate 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 just isn’t investing in them, they go away. That is extra prevalent in youthful generations who really feel the necessity to swap jobs to care for his or her pursuits.
In response to Enterprise Insider, 73% of Gen Z staff are prepared to take a pay lower 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: “In case you’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.”
“In case you’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 folks need).
Cascade Espresso, a roasting and co-manufacturing firm, skilled power labor shortages and questions of safety of their handbook palletizing operations. With the deployment of automated palletizing items, 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 folks advance within the firm. Watch how Cascade Espresso palletizes 6,500 instances a day and grows its workers.
Productiveness: Unleashing operational potential
Each pallet counts.
The target is to forestall unplanned downtime. Though regularly missed, the palletization course of can emerge as a bottleneck. In a one-piece-flow setting, 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 handbook to automated palletizing resolved labor shortages and eradicated bottlenecks.
“The easy handbook processes have 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 circulate, permitting for the optimization of sources and achievement of supply deadlines.
Automated palletizing will increase throughput.
TIDI Merchandise skilled important positive factors in productiveness after incorporating automated palletizing items. 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 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 methods present excessive effectivity by maintaining with manufacturing processes. Person-friendly software program makes it straightforward to vary the palletizing cobot for brand new field sizes or pallet configurations. For instance, the Robotiq Palletizing Resolution mechanically 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 particular person as an alternative 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 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 discover ways to function the system shortly. This automated palletizing system created a 15% improve in productiveness.
Streamlined enlargement: timing your prices with advantages
The flexibleness and modular design of automated palletizing options allow streamlined enlargement. With the power to copy and combine further items 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 12 months, 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, client 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 observe the ideas 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’ve got expertise working with meals & beverage, client items, and pharmaceutical producers.
Allow us to get you began – implementation is less complicated than you suppose. Talk about with one in all our automation specialists right now to kickstart your venture.
