Espresso manufacturing is rising worldwide.
From roasted beans to capsules and pods, producers are growing output to satisfy rising demand. Capsule codecs similar to Dolce Gusto® and different single-serve techniques proceed to increase in each retail and meals service.
However whereas packaging expertise has advanced rapidly, many espresso crops nonetheless depend on guide palletizing on the finish of the road.
That’s turning into more and more troublesome to maintain.
Operators are more durable to rent. Labor prices are rising. And palletizing stays one of the vital repetitive jobs on the manufacturing ground.
Because of this, many espresso producers are actually automating palletizing to stabilize operations and scale back labor strain.
Lately, a serious European espresso producer confronted precisely this example.
Their aim was easy: take away guide palletizing from their capsule packaging strains with out creating a fancy robotics mission.
The everyday espresso palletizing problem
The producer was working two espresso capsule packaging strains producing circumstances of pods prepared for cargo.
On the finish of every line, completed circumstances have been palletized manually by operators working throughout three shifts.
Their setup regarded like this:
- 2 packaging strains
- 3 manufacturing shifts
- 1 palletizing operator per line
- Steady pallet constructing with interlayers
Every line required a devoted operator to stack circumstances onto pallets all through the shift.
Over time, the challenges grew to become clear.
Labor prices add up rapidly
With guide palletizing working throughout three shifts, the corporate was spending roughly:
€180,000 per 12 months in labor prices only for palletizing.
And that value continued to extend as wages rose.
Staffing was troublesome
Like many meals producers, the corporate struggled to maintain palletizing roles stuffed.
The job is bodily repetitive:
- Lifting circumstances
- Repeating the identical movement tons of of instances per hour
- Working repeatedly on the finish of the manufacturing line
These positions usually expertise excessive turnover and absenteeism, creating further strain on manufacturing groups.
Palletizing can turn out to be a bottleneck
When palletizing slows down, the whole manufacturing line may be affected.
If circumstances accumulate on the finish of the road, operators should intervene to clear the backlog, which might gradual manufacturing or disrupt workflows.
For this espresso producer, guide palletizing was turning into each a labor problem and an operational danger.
Not each product is simple to automate.
However espresso circumstances are sometimes a wonderful match for collaborative robotic palletizing.
Espresso producers sometimes share a number of traits that simplify palletizing automation.
Constant case sizes
Espresso capsules and pods are normally packed into standardized transport circumstances, making them predictable for robotic dealing with.
Predictable pallet patterns
Most espresso crops use repeatable pallet configurations optimized for transport and warehouse storage.
Robotic palletizing techniques can simply reproduce these pallet patterns.
Reasonable decide charges
Many espresso packaging strains function at reasonable palletizing speeds, sometimes between 4 and eight picks per minute.
These speeds are nicely inside the capabilities of collaborative palletizing techniques.
Steady merchandise
Espresso capsules packaged in corrugated circumstances are sometimes light-weight and steady, decreasing complexity for robotic gripping and stacking.
Collectively, these traits make espresso palletizing a powerful candidate for cobot automation.
For this producer, the palletizing necessities have been clear:
- Choose price: as much as 6 picks per minute
- Pallet top: as much as ~2.4 meters
- Interlayer placement required
- Two impartial packaging strains
These circumstances made the applying a powerful match for standardized cobot palletizing slightly than a customized robotic mission.
As a substitute of designing a fancy robotic system, the corporate might deploy pre-engineered palletizing cells designed particularly for end-of-line automation.
The producer put in two collaborative palletizing cells, one devoted to every packaging line.
Every cell handles the whole palletizing course of:
- Selecting completed espresso circumstances from the road
- Constructing the pallet sample robotically
- Inserting interlayers between pallet layers
- Finishing full pallets prepared for cargo
As a result of the system is constructed round a collaborative robotic (cobot), it may well function inside typical manufacturing environments with out the complexity usually related to conventional industrial robotics.
Operators can proceed working close by whereas the palletizing course of runs robotically.
Sooner deployment
One other benefit of standardized cobot palletizing techniques is less complicated deployment.
Conventional robotic palletizing initiatives usually require:
- Customized engineering
- Lengthy integration timelines
- Intensive security infrastructure
Collaborative palletizing techniques are designed particularly for palletizing, which might considerably scale back set up and commissioning time.
For a lot of meals producers, this makes automation a lot sooner and simpler to implement.
After automation, the producer was capable of take away guide palletizing from each packaging strains.
The cobot palletizing cells now deal with the repetitive stacking work robotically.
This created a number of fast advantages.
Operators reassigned to higher-value duties
As a substitute of stacking circumstances all shift, operators might concentrate on:
- Line supervision
- High quality management
- Materials dealing with and logistics
This allowed the plant to use its workforce extra successfully.
Improved end-of-line consistency
Automated palletizing ensures pallets are constructed constantly and precisely, bettering stability throughout transport and simplifying warehouse dealing with.
Decreased repetitive work
Palletizing includes hundreds of repetitive lifting motions per shift.
Automation helps scale back repetitive pressure duties, bettering ergonomics for employees.
The economics of the mission have been simple.
Guide palletizing throughout the 2 strains value roughly:
€180,000 per 12 months in labor.
By automating the palletizing course of, the producer eradicated most of that recurring labor value.
The outcome was clear:
Payback in lower than 12 months.
For a lot of meals producers, palletizing automation delivers one of many quickest returns on funding within the plant, particularly when labor shortages and rising wages are thought of.
Many espresso producers assume palletizing automation requires complicated robotics integration.
However many purposes are less complicated to automate than anticipated.
In case your manufacturing line contains:
- Reasonable palletizing speeds
- Constant case sizes
- Normal pallet patterns
…it could already be a powerful candidate for cobot palletizing automation.
Curious in case your software is an efficient match?
Use Robotiq’s Palletizing Match Software to rapidly assess whether or not cobot palletizing is sensible on your operation and what a practical deployment might seem like on your facility.
