Relieving the financial pressures in manufacturing with automated palletizing

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The persistent financial challenges dealing with manufacturing stick with regional inflation, international conflicts, an growing older workforce, disruptions within the provide chain, well being epidemics, and different compounding elements, every taking part in a job. 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 employees.” Handbook 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 guide labor potential.

Right now, the financial surroundings is sort of completely completely different: the out there (and ) workforce is diminishing, e-commerce continues to develop and product range is increasing. These headwinds have created a brand new growth 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 techniques have gotten very important instruments in industries corresponding to meals & beverage, shopper items, and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

 

Individuals: Enhancing workforce dynamics

Automation is doing jobs that individuals don’t need.

Automation is doing jobs that individuals 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 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 right answer for this demanding surroundings. Not solely was the cobot keen to work within the chilly, the outcome was a 200% enhance in productiveness and a chance to offer extra rewarding and sustainable work for his or her workers. Learn the whole case examine.

Present respect for the workforce.

TIDI Merchandise, a frontrunner in an infection prevention and affected person security merchandise, confronted inefficiencies because 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 may settle for. TIDI invested in end-of-line automated palletizing techniques. 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 techniques.

Initially, folks nervous that robots would take their jobs. Now, folks count on employers to put money into supporting and serving to their workers. This consists of making automation take the burden of the guide and repetitive duties they don’t wish to do. If workers don’t just like the job or really feel like their employer just isn’t investing in them, they depart. 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 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 out there labor. As this development 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: “When you’re in a enterprise that cares about your crew, that is a simple funding to assist them really feel supported and encourage their longevity with what you are promoting.”

“When you’re in a enterprise that cares about your crew, 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 examine.
 

Create sustainable jobs (that individuals 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 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 regularly ignored, the palletization course of can emerge as a bottleneck. In a one-piece-flow surroundings, the cycle time must lower to match the velocity of the slowest activity. 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.

“The straightforward guide 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 full video.

The cobots guarantee a steady and environment friendly manufacturing move, permitting for the optimization of assets and achievement of supply deadlines.

Automated palletizing will increase throughput.

TIDI Merchandise skilled important features in productiveness after incorporating automated palletizing items. They documented productiveness features of 30% from the primary palletizing cell. Subsequent cells have elevated by a equally spectacular 25%. Productiveness features 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 strains. 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 strains and elevated manufacturing velocity by 30%.

An automatic system can sustain.

Automated palletizing techniques present excessive effectivity by maintaining with manufacturing processes. Person-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 mechanically generates and optimizes trajectories and cobot actions. Robotiq makes use of assistant instruments and easy configurations. Enter necessities corresponding 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 packing 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 quite than being dictated by exterior elements. This implies factories should stay agile and productive. 

Napco, a espresso distribution firm, highlights the productiveness features skilled when utilizing palletizing techniques. The lead operator, who had no prior expertise in robotics, was capable of 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 flexibleness and modular design of automated palletizing options allow streamlined growth. With the power to copy and combine extra items 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 techniques with built-in cobots have turn out to be indispensable allies for meals & beverage, shopper items, and pharmaceutical producers dealing with continued financial pressures. These techniques assist them navigate labor-related challenges, improve productiveness, and foster adaptability.

 

Management your future

At Robotiq, we comply with 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 got expertise working with meals & beverage, shopper items, and pharmaceutical producers. 

Allow us to get you began – implementation is less complicated than you assume. Focus on with one among our automation consultants immediately to kickstart your venture. 

Talk to an expert

 

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