As he points out, case packing and palletizing at the end of the line are operations that now need to be automated. "The physical demands are such that it's becoming virtually impossible to keep someone assigned to these positions. I've already met companies that were forced to slow down their production rates due to a lack of staff at the end of the line. This resulted in lost orders or penalties for late deliveries."
When lost revenue is significant or recruitment is impossible, automation is the obvious solution. But in other cases, the investment decision is hampered by profitability concerns. "You can compare buying a robot to buying bandwidth: it's a capacity, in this case, a working capacity, sold at a fixed price. This capacity must be considered in relation to the number of hours the robot operates, but also to the number of operations performed by the robot within its operating range: the fewer operations the robot performs per hour, the higher the cost per carton or pallet," explains Brian Boulanger.
The solution is then to assign several tasks to the robot to increase the number of cycles completed. "The idea is really to use the robot to its fullest potential, and there are several ways to do this," he adds. "A robot can easily pick up boxes, position dividers, and pick up pallets all at the same station. Or it can perform case packing and palletizing consecutively. Or even pick up and position several products/objects in each cycle. If we leverage the robot's versatility from the line design stage, we can go even further: I have the example of a robot installed in a factory that, with two heads and a tool-changing system, is capable of packing trays into boxes either on their sides or flat, depending on the market. Without this versatility, there might have been two separate case packing stations."
Faced with the traditional Cartesian robot, limited in its movements, the multi-articulated robot is becoming the standard in multi-task cells. The performance of these cells depends largely on the integrator's expertise and their ability to develop customized solutions, particularly in terms of grippers. According to Brian Boulanger, "The integrator's role is also to minimize the cell's footprint; all factories are short on space. We can also support our clients in their environmental responsibility initiatives. For example, we designed a cell to form recycled cardboard for a client who wanted to operate in a circular economy."
End-of-line robots never cease to amaze us!
