The persistent financial challenges going through manufacturing stick with regional inflation, world conflicts, an ageing 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 contemplate 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 staff.” Guide jobs like palletizing had been comparatively easy to fill not way back. The abundance of accessible staff, restricted e-commerce, and decreased product complexity made conducting enterprise with guide labor doable.

As we speak, the financial setting is nearly totally completely 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 enables them to handle folks, productiveness, and adaptableness challenges. This text explores how these automated palletizing methods have gotten very important instruments in industries corresponding 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 endeavor within the chilly, making it difficult to seek out keen staff. There have been only a few folks keen 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 right 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 whole case research.

Present respect for the workforce.

TIDI Merchandise, a pacesetter in an infection prevention and affected person security merchandise, confronted inefficiencies resulting from a scarcity of staff. 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 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 anxious that robots would take their jobs. Now, folks count on employers to spend money on 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 shouldn’t be investing in them, they depart. That is extra prevalent in youthful generations who really feel the necessity to change jobs to care for his or her pursuits. 

Based on Enterprise Insider, 73% of Gen Z staff are keen to take a pay reduce 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 must spend money on automation. 

Corporations should spend money on 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 crew, that is a straightforward funding to assist them really feel supported and encourage their longevity with your online business.”

Learn and watch the TIDI Merchandise case research.
 

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 models, job satisfaction and security had 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 regularly neglected, 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 process. Automation can alleviate this bottleneck and produce cycle time nearer to takt time. Cascade Espresso’s transition from guide to automated palletizing resolved labor shortages and eradicated bottlenecks.

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 vital beneficial properties in productiveness after incorporating automated palletizing models. 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, cut back manufacturing prices, and preserve aggressive pricing.

Robotic palletizers additionally enhance productiveness in meals manufacturing. Bread producer Antic in Spain confronted difficulties manually palletizing merchandise on two manufacturing strains. The corporate wanted a scalable, automated answer to accommodate numerous 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 strains 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 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 corresponding to:

1. Field dimensions, weight, and orientation
2. Pallet dimensions
3. 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 packing 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 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 in a position to learn to function the system shortly. This automated palletizing system created a 15% enhance in productiveness.

Streamlined growth: timing your prices with advantages

The flexibleness and modular design of automated palletizing options allow streamlined growth. With the flexibility to copy and combine extra models onto completely different manufacturing strains, 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 change 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 rules of LEAN ROBOTICS to create a standardized answer 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 considered one of our automation consultants right this moment to kickstart your venture.