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Abilities gaps are frequent in manufacturing proper now. In line with some reviews, producers are going through the most important scarcity of staff because the Eighties, with many itemizing it as their prime problem.
How will you overcome abilities gaps in your corporation?
For German baked items producer Hoch Oblaten, the answer got here with robotic palletizing, together with a shocking further profit…
When Hoch Oblaten’s rising gross sales created issues
Hoch Oblaten is a producer of baked items primarily based in Bürgstadt, Germany. They concentrate on producing wafer-based baked merchandise for a spread of makes use of, together with communion wafers and residential baking.
The corporate has about 70 individuals and serves varied worldwide markets, together with the USA.
In mid-2021, Manfred Galetzka grew to become the brand new Technical Supervisor on the firm. When he arrived, the corporate was doing very nicely. In reality, the corporate was doing so nicely that manufacturing was having hassle.
Manfred says:
“We now have one specific product, principally for the US market, that has been rising in demand. This was the rationale we purchased this robotic answer. It is known as “Ostergras” and it is edible grass. We pack it and ship it to the US market.Â
“The German market can be rising due to coronavirus. Persons are staying at house, they’re cooking extra and baking extra.”
Ostergras (which accurately interprets as “Easter grass”) is created from curled, shredded wafer that’s coloured inexperienced. It’s utilized in house baking to create an ornamental backdrop for different edible items, resembling a nest for chocolate eggs at Easter.
The surge in demand for Hoch Oblaten’s merchandise was clearly optimistic. However, it introduced challenges.
Manfred explains that Ostergras, for instance, just isn’t simple to package deal:
“The form of the product does not permit it to be machine packed, so it needs to be executed by hand. It’s delicate and the form makes it unimaginable to course of it robotically. We tried, however the end result did not look good, so nobody was shopping for it.”
How might Hoch Oblaten sustain with the rising orders for such a fragile product?
The issue of discovering staff in baking manufacturing
To make the state of affairs much more troublesome, the corporate was struggling to search out staff. Like many producers, there have been simply not sufficient individuals within the jobs marketplace for the work they wanted to do.
Manfred says:
“Discovering staff is our largest problem. No person needs to work with their palms. The people who find themselves popping out of college need to work with computer systems or be digital nomads. It is troublesome to search out staff for manufacturing.”
This abilities scarcity meant that it wasn’t doable to rent new individuals to maintain up with the rising demand.
They wanted to search out one other answer…
May automated palletizing be the reply?
Someday in late 2021, one among Hoch Oblaten’s suppliers got here to Manfred with a suggestion.
He remembers:
“The provider had a robotic palletizing answer and he thought it will be attention-grabbing for us. We mentioned “okay” and he advised us to return to their workshop to take a look at it.
“Once we have been there, we noticed the robotic working. We appreciated the concept of palletizing with a robotic… however, I did not like the answer they have been utilizing.”
Palletizing was a job that may very well be automated in Hoch Oblaten. Though the main packaging steps wanted to be carried out manually, palletizing was a non-value-added job.
The employees additionally did not like doing the palletizing job. The pallets have been usually stacked very excessive they usually had to make use of a ladder to put the highest layers of bins. This took numerous time.
However, the provider’s robotic answer did not go well with Hoch Oblaten’s wants.
He says:
“Their answer was just one.8 m excessive. Our job wants 2.2-2.3 m. However, the largest drawback was the programming logic.
“The robotic arm did not even know the place it was inside its workspace. So it might occur that the arm would transfer over the finished pallet and it might smash the bins round. That was the impression I acquired of it.”
He wanted to discover a higher robotic palletizing answer…
The right way to conduct a robotic answer search when your organization is small
Manfred started his seek for an answer by mapping out his necessities and drawing some sketches of how the robotic cell might look.
The duty necessities have been:
- The system had to have the ability to stack bins onto pallets as much as 2.3 m excessive.
- It needed to sustain with the variety of bins per minute set by the human packers.
- The programming wanted to be simple and the robotic wanted to know the place it was in house.
- Deployment wanted to be easy sufficient that he might deploy the system himself.
- It wanted to assist completely different pallet sizes.
- Brief supply time was very important as Hoch Oblaten wanted to automate the duty as quickly as doable.
As is usually the case with small firms, Manfred needed to analysis the answer himself. He started by looking on-line…
The appropriate palletizing answer for Hoch Oblaten arrives
After some looking, a promising-looking answer got here alongside.
On the web site of an area distributor, Jugard+künstner, Manfred first noticed the Robotiq Palletizing Resolution.
The Robotiq answer met all of his necessities. It additionally allowed the robotic to load the primary pallet whereas ready for intermediate layers on the second pallet, which most different options did not assist.
The fast supply time was a key think about his shopping for choice. He ordered the Robotiq answer and it arrived in round solely 2 to three weeks.
A standard roadblock that occurs in a DIY robotic deployment
The deployment of the robotic was quite simple.
Manfred says:
“To deploy the robotic and the palletizing answer, I believe I wanted 1.5 days. However, I used to be alone so this was no drawback. The actual work was in integrating the conveyor.”
As is usually the case with out-of-the-box robotic purposes, the roadblocks throughout deployment hardly ever come from the answer itself. On this case, the second-hand conveyor that Manfred had purchased induced probably the most challenges.
He explains:
“The conveyor was a bit damaged and I needed to repair it. This took perhaps 1 week. I additionally thought that I wanted a brand new PLC to regulate the conveyor and the sensors.”
How will you get assist when you find yourself deploying your robotic alone?
Like many new clients, Manfred made use of Robotiq’s assist line.
“After a telephone name with Robotiq assist, I noticed that I did not want an exterior PLC as a result of the robotic can management the conveyor and sensors.
“In 1.5 weeks the answer was totally working for the primary time. Then Robotiq helped me to unravel some minor issues with the collision mannequin. However, this was fastened very quick.”
In simply 2 weeks, Hoch Oblaten had a operating robotic palletizing answer on their manufacturing line. This timeframe can be unimaginable with most typical robotic palletizing options, which might simply take months to deploy and require knowledgeable integrator.
A shocking end result that has improved productiveness even additional
What has been the affect of the palletizing robotic on the manufacturing at Hoch Oblaten?
Manfred says:
“Since October, it has been working 8-16 hours a day. Due to the robotic, we now have one employee extra who would have executed the palletizing earlier than. They’ll do some work that earns cash, resembling packaging the Ostergras.
“I believe the employees are very pleased as a result of they do not must elevate the bins to the excessive peak onto the pallet. It is a lot simpler for them to let the machine do that.”
Hoch Oblaten has additionally seen an sudden profit attributable to including the robotic to the road.
He explains:
“Generally the employees need to beat the robotic, so they’re now working sooner. The bottleneck is now the employees!”
What’s subsequent for robotics at Hoch Oblaten?
Having seen the good prospects of robotics, Manfred is now seeking to the longer term.
He says:
“This was the primary robotic we’ve got in our manufacturing unit. Now that I’ve seen how simple it was to deploy it, I am seeing robots in my thoughts in all places within the workshop.
“I am pondering of fabric selecting and decide and place — each for shifting the wafers of their packaged and the unpackaged kind.
What recommendation would you give to anybody beginning with robotic palletizing?
Manfred has recommendation for anybody who is considering beginning with robotic palletizing.
He says:
“Simply do it. Do not wait. As a result of the time you take to consider whether or not or not you are able to do it’s misplaced time. As quickly as you do it the robotic earns cash.
“You needn’t assume. You are able to do it.”
You may be taught extra in regards to the Robotiq Palletizing Resolution on our options web page.
What questions do you have got about robotic palletizing? Inform us within the feedback under or be part of the dialogue on LinkedIn, Twitter, Fb, or the DoF skilled robotics neighborhood.
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