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 components, every taking part in a job. Enterprise homeowners who reassess their technique and take into account automation are forward of the curve.
As demonstrated all through the COVID pandemic, companies geared up 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 employees.” Handbook jobs like palletizing have been comparatively simple to fill not way back. The abundance of obtainable employees, restricted e-commerce, and decreased product complexity made conducting enterprise with guide labor potential.
At this time, the financial setting is sort of totally totally different: the obtainable (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, significantly 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 adaptableness challenges. This text explores how these automated palletizing programs have gotten very 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 keen employees. There have been only a few folks keen 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 setting. Not solely was the cobot keen to work within the chilly, the outcome was a 200% enhance in productiveness and a possibility to supply extra rewarding and sustainable work for his or her staff. Learn the entire case examine.
Present respect for the workforce.
TIDI Merchandise, a frontrunner in an infection prevention and affected person security merchandise, confronted inefficiencies on account 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 programs. 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 programs.
Initially, folks apprehensive that robots would take their jobs. Now, folks count on employers to put money into supporting and serving to their staff. This contains making automation take the burden of the guide and repetitive duties they don’t wish to do. If staff don’t just like the job or really feel like their employer will not be 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 employees are keen 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 obtainable labor. As this pattern continues, companies will inevitably must put money into automation.
Corporations should put money into their staff to extend employee retention. TIDI Merchandise Worth Stream Supervisor Cameron Lemke summarizes: “For those who’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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“For those who’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 Merchandise case examine.
Create sustainable jobs (that folks need).
Cascade Espresso, a roasting and co-manufacturing firm, skilled persistent labor shortages and questions of safety of their guide 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 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 often missed, the palletization course of can emerge as a bottleneck. In a one-piece-flow setting, the cycle time must lower to match the velocity of the slowest process. 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 easy guide 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 circulation, permitting for the optimization of assets and achievement of supply deadlines.
Automated palletizing will increase throughput.
TIDI Merchandise skilled vital 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 keep 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 numerous 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 elevated manufacturing velocity by 30%.
An automatic system can sustain.
Automated palletizing programs present excessive effectivity by maintaining with manufacturing processes. Consumer-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 Resolution 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 containers.
Adaptability: Assembly market calls for with ease
Be led by buyer necessities and market alternatives, not manufacturing unit limitations.
Regardless of the financial pressures in manufacturing, each firm goals for customer-driven management quite 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 shortly. This automated palletizing system created a 15% enhance in productiveness.
Streamlined growth: timing your prices with advantages
The pliability and modular design of automated palletizing options allow streamlined growth. With the power to copy and combine extra 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 programs with built-in cobots have develop into indispensable allies for meals & beverage, client 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 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 simpler than you suppose. Focus on with certainly one of our automation specialists right now to kickstart your venture.
