The persistent financial challenges dealing with manufacturing stick with regional inflation, world conflicts, an growing old workforce, disruptions within the provide chain, well being epidemics, and different compounding elements, every taking part in a task. Enterprise house owners who reassess their technique and think about automation are forward of the curve.
As demonstrated all through the COVID pandemic, companies geared up 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 easy to fill not way back. The abundance of obtainable employees, restricted e-commerce, and lowered product complexity made conducting enterprise with handbook labor doable.
Right this moment, the financial surroundings is sort of fully totally different: the accessible (and ) workforce is diminishing, e-commerce continues to develop and product range is increasing. These headwinds have created a brand new increase 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 flexibility challenges. This text explores how these automated palletizing methods have gotten important instruments in industries akin to meals & beverage, client items, and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Folks: 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 endeavor within the chilly, making it difficult to search out prepared employees. There have been only a few folks prepared to work this repetitive, monotonous, harmful job. Time is important in meals manufacturing, so Korea Pelagic turned to automation to make sure well timed shipments.
A palletizing cobot was the proper resolution for this demanding surroundings. Not solely was the cobot prepared to work within the chilly, the consequence was a 200% improve in productiveness and a possibility to offer extra rewarding and sustainable work for his or her workers. 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 on account of 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 methods. This resolution addressed operational bottlenecks, decreased ergonomic points, and elevated workforce job satisfaction.
The palletizers carried out higher than anticipated, so TIDI Merchandise acquired two extra methods.
Initially, folks anxious that robots would take their jobs. Now, folks count on employers to put money into supporting and serving to their workers. This contains 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 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 accordance with Enterprise Insider, 73% of Gen Z employees 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 accessible labor. As this pattern continues, companies will inevitably have to put money into automation.
Firms should put money into their workers 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 simple funding to assist them really feel supported and encourage their longevity with what you are promoting.”
“For those who’re in a enterprise that cares about your workforce, that is a simple funding to assist them really feel supported and encourage their longevity with what you are promoting.” – Cameron Lemke, TIDI Merchandise Worth Stream Supervisor
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 had 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 often neglected, 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 activity. Automation can alleviate this bottleneck and produce cycle time nearer to takt time. Cascade Espresso’s transition from handbook to automated palletizing resolved labor shortages and eradicated bottlenecks.
“The straightforward handbook 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 complete video.
The cobots guarantee a steady and environment friendly manufacturing move, permitting for the optimization of sources and success of supply deadlines.
Automated palletizing will increase throughput.
TIDI Merchandise skilled important beneficial properties in productiveness after incorporating automated palletizing items. They documented productiveness beneficial properties of 30% from the primary palletizing cell. Subsequent cells have elevated by a equally spectacular 25%. Productiveness beneficial properties permits producers to optimize useful resource utilization, scale back manufacturing prices, and keep 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 resolution 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 simple to alter the palletizing cobot for brand spanking new field sizes or pallet configurations. For instance, the Robotiq Palletizing Answer routinely 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 an alternative of the particular person 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 facility limitations.
Regardless of the financial pressures in manufacturing, each firm goals for customer-driven management reasonably than being dictated by exterior elements. This implies factories should stay agile and productive.
Napco, a espresso distribution firm, highlights the productiveness beneficial properties skilled when utilizing palletizing methods. The lead operator, who had no prior expertise in robotics, was capable of discover ways to function the system rapidly. This automated palletizing system created a 15% improve in productiveness.
Streamlined growth: timing your prices with advantages
The pliability and modular design of automated palletizing options allow streamlined growth. With the flexibility to duplicate 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 methods with built-in cobots have turn into indispensable allies for meals & beverage, client items, and pharmaceutical producers dealing with continued financial pressures. These methods assist them navigate labor-related challenges, improve productiveness, and foster adaptability.
Management your future
At Robotiq, we observe the rules of LEAN ROBOTICS to create a standardized resolution that’s simpler to scale, repeatable, and straightforward to make use of. We perceive the financial pressures in manufacturing and we’ve expertise working with meals & beverage, client items, and pharmaceutical producers.
Allow us to get you began – implementation is less complicated than you suppose. Focus on with one among our automation consultants at present to kickstart your venture.