Espresso manufacturing is rising worldwide.
From roasted beans to capsules and pods, producers are rising output to fulfill rising demand. Capsule codecs similar to Dolce Gusto® and different single-serve programs proceed to develop in each retail and meals service.
However whereas packaging know-how has advanced rapidly, many espresso vegetation nonetheless depend on guide palletizing on the finish of the road.
That’s changing into more and more troublesome to maintain.
Operators are tougher to rent. Labor prices are rising. And palletizing stays one of the vital repetitive jobs on the manufacturing flooring.
Consequently, many espresso producers are actually taking a look at automating palletizing to stabilize operations and cut back labor strain.
Just lately, a significant European espresso producer confronted precisely this case.
Their purpose was easy: take away guide palletizing from their capsule packaging strains with out creating a fancy robotics challenge.
The standard espresso palletizing problem
The producer was working two espresso capsule packaging strains producing instances of pods prepared for cargo.
On the finish of every line, completed instances have been palletized manually by operators working throughout three shifts.
Their setup appeared 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 instances onto pallets all through the shift.
Over time, the challenges turned clear.
Labor prices add up rapidly
With guide palletizing operating throughout three shifts, the corporate was spending roughly:
€180,000 per 12 months in labor prices only for palletizing.
And that price continued to extend as wages rose.
Staffing was troublesome
Like many meals producers, the corporate struggled to maintain palletizing roles crammed.
The job is bodily repetitive:
- Lifting instances
- Repeating the identical movement lots of of instances per hour
- Working constantly on the finish of the manufacturing line
These positions usually expertise excessive turnover and absenteeism, creating further strain on manufacturing groups.
Palletizing can grow to be a bottleneck
When palletizing slows down, all the manufacturing line may be affected.
If instances accumulate on the finish of the road, operators should intervene to clear the backlog, which may gradual manufacturing or disrupt workflows.
For this espresso producer, guide palletizing was changing into each a labor problem and an operational danger.
Not each product is simple to automate.
However espresso instances are sometimes a superb match for collaborative robotic palletizing.
Espresso producers usually share a number of traits that simplify palletizing automation.
Constant case sizes
Espresso capsules and pods are often packed into standardized delivery instances, making them predictable for robotic dealing with.
Predictable pallet patterns
Most espresso vegetation use repeatable pallet configurations optimized for transport and warehouse storage.
Robotic palletizing programs can simply reproduce these pallet patterns.
Reasonable decide charges
Many espresso packaging strains function at reasonable palletizing speeds, usually between 4 and eight picks per minute.
These speeds are nicely inside the capabilities of collaborative palletizing programs.
Steady merchandise
Espresso capsules packaged in corrugated instances are usually light-weight and secure, lowering 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:
- Decide charge: as much as 6 picks per minute
- Pallet peak: as much as ~2.4 meters
- Interlayer placement required
- Two impartial packaging strains
These situations made the applying a powerful match for standardized cobot palletizing quite than a customized robotic challenge.
As an alternative 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 entire palletizing course of:
- Selecting completed espresso instances from the road
- Constructing the pallet sample routinely
- Putting interlayers between pallet layers
- Finishing full pallets prepared for cargo
As a result of the system is constructed round a collaborative robotic (cobot), it might 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 routinely.
Sooner deployment
One other benefit of standardized cobot palletizing programs is less complicated deployment.
Conventional robotic palletizing tasks usually require:
- Customized engineering
- Lengthy integration timelines
- In depth security infrastructure
Collaborative palletizing programs are designed particularly for palletizing, which may considerably cut 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 in a position to take away guide palletizing from each packaging strains.
The cobot palletizing cells now deal with the repetitive stacking work routinely.
This created a number of rapid advantages.
Operators reassigned to higher-value duties
As an alternative of stacking instances all shift, operators might give attention to:
- 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 persistently and precisely, enhancing stability throughout transport and simplifying warehouse dealing with.
Diminished repetitive work
Palletizing includes hundreds of repetitive lifting motions per shift.
Automation helps cut back repetitive pressure duties, enhancing ergonomics for staff.
The economics of the challenge have been simple.
Guide palletizing throughout the 2 strains price roughly:
€180,000 per 12 months in labor.
By automating the palletizing course of, the producer eradicated most of that recurring labor price.
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 advanced robotics integration.
However many purposes are less complicated to automate than anticipated.
In case your manufacturing line contains:
- Reasonable palletizing speeds
- Constant case sizes
- Commonplace pallet patterns
…it might already be a powerful candidate for cobot palletizing automation.
Curious in case your software is an effective match?
Use Robotiq’s Palletizing Match Instrument to rapidly assess whether or not cobot palletizing is sensible to your operation and what a practical deployment might seem like to your facility.
