Espresso manufacturing is rising worldwide.
From roasted beans to capsules and pods, producers are growing output to fulfill rising demand. Capsule codecs corresponding to Dolce Gusto® and different single-serve methods proceed to broaden in each retail and meals service.
However whereas packaging expertise has advanced shortly, many espresso vegetation nonetheless depend on guide palletizing on the finish of the road.
That’s turning into more and more tough to maintain.
Operators are tougher to rent. Labor prices are rising. And palletizing stays one of the repetitive jobs on the manufacturing flooring.
In consequence, many espresso producers at the moment are taking a look at automating palletizing to stabilize operations and cut back labor stress.
Not too long ago, a significant European espresso producer confronted precisely this example.
Their objective was easy: take away guide palletizing from their capsule packaging strains with out creating a fancy robotics undertaking.
The everyday espresso palletizing problem
The producer was working two espresso capsule packaging strains producing instances of pods prepared for cargo.
On the finish of every line, completed instances had been palletized manually by operators working throughout three shifts.
Their setup regarded like this:
- 2 packaging strains
- 3 manufacturing shifts
- 1 palletizing operator per line
- Steady pallet constructing with interlayers
Every line required a devoted operator to stack instances onto pallets all through the shift.
Over time, the challenges grew to become clear.
Labor prices add up shortly
With guide palletizing operating throughout three shifts, the corporate was spending roughly:
€180,000 per yr in labor prices only for palletizing.
And that value continued to extend as wages rose.
Staffing was tough
Like many meals producers, the corporate struggled to maintain palletizing roles stuffed.
The job is bodily repetitive:
- Lifting instances
- Repeating the identical movement a whole bunch of instances per hour
- Working repeatedly on the finish of the manufacturing line
These positions typically expertise excessive turnover and absenteeism, creating extra stress on manufacturing groups.
Palletizing can develop into a bottleneck
When palletizing slows down, your entire manufacturing line will be affected.
If instances accumulate on the finish of the road, operators should intervene to clear the backlog, which may gradual manufacturing or disrupt workflows.
For this espresso producer, guide palletizing was turning into each a labor problem and an operational threat.
Not each product is straightforward to automate.
However espresso instances are sometimes a wonderful match for collaborative robotic palletizing.
Espresso producers sometimes share a number of traits that simplify palletizing automation.
Constant case sizes
Espresso capsules and pods are normally packed into standardized delivery instances, making them predictable for robotic dealing with.
Predictable pallet patterns
Most espresso vegetation use repeatable pallet configurations optimized for transport and warehouse storage.
Robotic palletizing methods can simply reproduce these pallet patterns.
Reasonable decide charges
Many espresso packaging strains function at average palletizing speeds, sometimes between 4 and eight picks per minute.
These speeds are properly inside the capabilities of collaborative palletizing methods.
Secure merchandise
Espresso capsules packaged in corrugated instances are sometimes light-weight and steady, lowering complexity for robotic gripping and stacking.
Collectively, these traits make espresso palletizing a robust candidate for cobot automation.
For this producer, the palletizing necessities had been clear:
- Decide fee: as much as 6 picks per minute
- Pallet peak: as much as ~2.4 meters
- Interlayer placement required
- Two unbiased packaging strains
These situations made the applying a robust match for standardized cobot palletizing somewhat than a customized robotic undertaking.
As a substitute of designing a fancy robotic system, the corporate may deploy pre-engineered palletizing cells designed particularly for end-of-line automation.
The producer put in two collaborative palletizing cells, one devoted to every packaging line.
Every cell handles the entire palletizing course of:
- Choosing completed espresso instances from the road
- Constructing the pallet sample mechanically
- Putting interlayers between pallet layers
- Finishing full pallets prepared for cargo
As a result of the system is constructed round a collaborative robotic (cobot), it may possibly function inside typical manufacturing environments with out the complexity typically related to conventional industrial robotics.
Operators can proceed working close by whereas the palletizing course of runs mechanically.
Sooner deployment
One other benefit of standardized cobot palletizing methods is easier deployment.
Conventional robotic palletizing tasks typically require:
- Customized engineering
- Lengthy integration timelines
- Intensive security infrastructure
Collaborative palletizing methods are designed particularly for palletizing, which may considerably cut back set up and commissioning time.
For a lot of meals producers, this makes automation a lot quicker and simpler to implement.
After automation, the producer was capable of take away guide palletizing from each packaging strains.
The cobot palletizing cells now deal with the repetitive stacking work mechanically.
This created a number of fast advantages.
Operators reassigned to higher-value duties
As a substitute of stacking instances all shift, operators may concentrate on:
- Line supervision
- High quality management
- Materials dealing with and logistics
This allowed the plant to use its workforce extra successfully.
Improved end-of-line consistency
Automated palletizing ensures pallets are constructed constantly and precisely, bettering stability throughout transport and simplifying warehouse dealing with.
Decreased repetitive work
Palletizing entails hundreds of repetitive lifting motions per shift.
Automation helps cut back repetitive pressure duties, bettering ergonomics for staff.
The economics of the undertaking had been easy.
Handbook palletizing throughout the 2 strains value roughly:
€180,000 per yr in labor.
By automating the palletizing course of, the producer eradicated most of that recurring labor value.
The end result was clear:
Payback in lower than 12 months.
For a lot of meals producers, palletizing automation delivers one of many quickest returns on funding within the plant, particularly when labor shortages and rising wages are thought-about.
Many espresso producers assume palletizing automation requires complicated robotics integration.
However many purposes are easier to automate than anticipated.
In case your manufacturing line contains:
- Reasonable palletizing speeds
- Constant case sizes
- Customary pallet patterns
…it might already be a robust candidate for cobot palletizing automation.
Curious in case your utility is an effective match?
Use Robotiq’s Palletizing Match Software to shortly assess whether or not cobot palletizing is smart to your operation and what a sensible deployment may appear to be to your facility.
