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 should be stacked shoulder-high, shift after shift, 5 days every 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 particular person 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 resolution 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 workforce. They didn’t need to look forward to the subsequent harm. They wished to forestall it.
So, they made a transfer. They selected to herald a robotic palletizing system—to not substitute somebody, however to take away the danger from a job that simply didn’t make sense for folks to be doing anymore.
What made this an excellent match?
The technical aspect was easy. The bins are hefty, they’re properly inside 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 making an attempt to eradicate a job. The palletizing job was simply certainly one of many dealt with by their workforce. What they wished was to eradicate the harm threat. 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 via the lens of labor financial savings. However this story is a reminder: ergonomics matter. Employee security isn’t a smooth metric—it’s a robust purpose to rethink guide duties. Heavy lifting, repetitive motions, and awkward positions take a toll. And even in the event you’ve acquired succesful folks in your workforce, 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 in the event you’re working a facility the place your workforce is your biggest asset—like this one—you may discover that the enterprise case for automation is stronger than you assume. For in-depth insights on the toll guide palletizing can tackle an organization and the way automation can alleviate these strains, obtain our Guide Palletizing Ergonomic Dangers book by business professional, Carla Silver.
