Packaging is a core job in logistics. However, lots of packaging processes are inefficient. They don’t seem to be nicely suited to the altering wants of the trendy logistics trade.
Collaborative robots are a strong answer for streamlining your packaging duties. They supply a versatile strategy to clear up frequent issues in logistics packaging.
The wants of the logistics trade are continuously altering.
Presently, there may be demand throughout the trade for logistics corporations to rethink packaging. Corporations want to enhance sustainability by optimizing packaging use, introducing extra eco-friendly packaging supplies, and implementing extra reuse.
On high of those new sustainability wants, varied world occasions have put further strain on the logistics trade. Challenges embrace disruptions brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, labor shortages, and the e-commerce increase.
Cobots are a useful instrument to beat these challenges and calls for.
Frequent packaging issues in logistics
You may marvel if your organization is able to add robotics to its operations.
When an trade undergoes as many adjustments because the logistics trade has not too long ago, some corporations assume that they simply must put their head down and preserve working as ordinary. They determine that they’ll innovate “once they have extra time.”
However, some frequent packaging issues in logistics will not go away with out some innovation.
Such issues embrace…
Excessive wastage in packaging processes
The demand for extra sustainable packaging is just more likely to improve within the coming years.
Even following the Covid-19 pandemic (when sustainability took a backseat to sterility), 54% of shoppers nonetheless take into account packaging sustainability when deciding on a product.
Typical approaches to packaging in logistics are sometimes fairly wasteful. This makes packaging a great avenue for corporations to enhance sustainability.
The productiveness hole
In response to research, the logistics trade has extra sick days than common. Consequently, productiveness usually suffers in logistics.
There could possibly be varied causes for this productiveness hole. If musculoskeletal problems are a reason behind the issue, robots have beforehand been discovered to assist scale back the 35% of sick days misplaced to harm.
Labor shortages
The rise of e-commerce is usually nice for the logistics trade. Nonetheless, for a lot of corporations, it has introduced into sharp focus the present labor shortages throughout many elements of the trade.
As this downside is multi-factored, there isn’t any one answer for enhancing this abilities hole for everybody. Nonetheless, robotic packaging is a technique that particular person logistics corporations can mitigate a number of the results of the issue.
The position of robotic packaging in logistics
Automation is nothing new within the logistics trade.
Nonetheless, while you consider logistics automation, you may assume primarily of the machines to shifting packing containers and pallets round. You won’t consider automated packaging.
Packaging is usually considered being primarily a human job.
It is historically been difficult to carry out packaging duties with automation due to the excessive diploma of variability between packaging duties. Typical packaging automation is giant and rigid. It is best suited to extremely common duties with low variability.
Collaborative robots change all that.
With the correct cobot utility equipment, you’ll be able to obtain very versatile automated packaging remarkably simply.
These two cobot functions are most suited to packaging:
- Decide and place — That is usually utilized in main and secondary packaging duties (e.g. placing product into packing containers). The robotic picks up the product and places it right into a container.
- Palletizing — That is the place the robotic stacks and arranges already boxed merchandise onto a pallet.
5 helpful advantages of robotic packaging in logistics
What can including a packaging robotic do to enhance your logistics operations?
Listed below are 5 helpful advantages of packaging in logistics with robots:
1. Extra consistency
The consistency you’ll be able to obtain with a packaging robotic cannot be surpassed by human employees.
By nature, we people are finest at duties that require creativity and problem-solving. We’re not nice at attaining excessive consistency. Packaging is a boring, repetitive job so inconsistencies can creep into an individual’s work over a protracted shift. A robotic will at all times carry out the duty in the identical approach each time.
2. Value reductions
Robots are additionally a extra environment friendly strategy to carry out many packaging duties. After the robotic has achieved a return on funding, the labor value of the packaging job drops to nearly zero.
Consequently, utilizing a packaging robotic lets you spend extra of your packaging price range on different options, corresponding to enhancing packaging sustainability.
3. 24/7 operation
One space the place robots at all times outperform people is of their means to work repeatedly. In order for you, you’ll be able to run a robotic 24 hours a day for 7 days every week.
Because the demand for logistics continues to rise, this functionality may turn out to be a key differentiator between your service and that of your rivals.
4. Higher use of floorspace
Collaborative robots are typically smaller than different robots. They’re considerably smaller than different types of packaging automation.
By selecting a collaborative robotic answer in your packaging, you may make extra economical use of your ground house, which helps make your operation extra sustainable total.
5. Robustness to fluctuations
As we have seen lately, it solely takes one or two main market occasions for demand to fluctuate dramatically. Whether or not you might be experiencing increased demand than ordinary, or decrease, you want to have the ability to reply rapidly and effectively.
An incredible advantage of utilizing cobot packaging options is that they’re so versatile. You possibly can rapidly and simply reprogram the robotic to answer altering demand.
Easy methods to streamline with robotic packaging options
Are you seeking to enhance your packaging processes with robotic automation?
Essentially the most environment friendly strategy to get began is through the use of a collaborative robotic utility equipment. This contains all the parts that it’s essential deploy the cobot to your chosen packaging job.
You could find out about our out there utility kits on our product web page.
Which challenges is your logistics firm experiencing proper now? Inform us within the feedback beneath or be a part of the dialogue on LinkedIn, Twitter, Fb, or the DoF skilled robotics neighborhood.
