At first look, palletizing ice cream cone bins doesn’t sound like a high-risk job. However when these bins weigh 35 to 40 kilos and have to be stacked shoulder-high, shift after shift, 5 days per week—you begin to perceive the pressure it places on folks.
That’s precisely what one main U.S. meals producer realized. They produce a variety of cones—waffles, sugar, and cake. Regardless of their scale and attain, what actually stood out to us was one thing else: their tradition.
This firm operates as an ESOP—an Worker Inventory Possession Plan—which implies each individual on the ground has actual pores and skin within the recreation. From the entrance workplace to the manufacturing line, all of them personal a chunk of the enterprise. And when that’s the case, security turns into greater than a coverage. It turns into private.
Why automate?
It wasn’t a labor scarcity that drove their choice to automate palletizing. It wasn’t even about effectivity within the conventional sense. The spark got here from a really human place: too many shoulder accidents. Lifting heavy bins time and again, particularly to the highest of a pallet, was inflicting issues. The type that takes folks out of labor and places long-term pressure on the staff. They didn’t wish to await the subsequent damage. They needed to stop it.
So, they made a transfer. They selected to usher in a robotic palletizing system—to not substitute somebody, however to take away the chance from a process that simply didn’t make sense for folks to be doing anymore.
What made this a superb match?
The technical facet was simple. The bins are hefty, they’re nicely throughout the payload vary of a cobot palletizer. The corporate already had Common Robots on-site, so integrating one other one with our PE20 was acquainted territory.
However the actual match wasn’t about pace or specs. It was about care. They weren’t attempting to eradicate a job. The palletizing process was simply one in all many dealt with by their staff. What they needed was to eradicate the damage danger. Plain and easy. Plus, the benefit of use of the programming interface allowed to upskill some operators who can now use the robotic.
A takeaway for meals producers
Automation sometimes will get evaluated by way of the lens of labor financial savings. However this story is a reminder: ergonomics matter. Employee security isn’t a delicate metric—it’s a strong cause to rethink handbook duties. Heavy lifting, repetitive motions, and awkward positions take a toll. And even for those who’ve bought succesful folks in your staff, that doesn’t imply they need to be doing these jobs.
This isn’t about chasing buzzwords like “lights-out manufacturing.” It’s about fixing actual issues in actual crops, with sensible instruments that work.
And for those who’re working a facility the place your staff is your biggest asset—like this one—you would possibly discover that the enterprise case for automation is stronger than you suppose. For in-depth insights on the toll handbook palletizing can tackle an organization and the way automation can alleviate these strains, obtain our Handbook Palletizing Ergonomic Dangers book by trade professional, Carla Silver.
