Traditionally palletising of bags and sacks was done by hand. However, this has many drawbacks including production downtime due to staff breaks, and the high risk of repetitive strain injuries occurring. The subsequent implications of staff having to be off work for long periods of time due to repetitive strain injuries and the cost of any resulting claims can quickly add up. Palletising by hand can also limit throughput capacity and become a bottleneck in your production process.

The hidden winner

Most companies can justify automated palletising on labour savings alone, but they are usually surprised by the hidden winner that brings significantly more benefit.

The hidden winner is this: simply installing a palletiser typically increases production throughput of the whole production line to at least 140%.

You may have dedicated workers that are stacking pallets at a good speed, but however dedicated they are there is nearly always production time lost on the following:

• Moving pallets out to the storage area
• Wrapping pallets
• Completing paperwork
• Taking breaks for lunch or to visit the bathroom
• Stopping to have the odd quick chat
• Operators palletising slower than the production line can actually run

This may not sound much time, but when you add it up it is a lot more than most realise.

Where do I start?

There are many different automated palletising systems available on the market, so we have put together a few key points that you should consider before investing. This will ensure that when you do make your investment, the solution will be able to meet your current needs as well as being flexible enough to cope with any future changes in your requirements.

Futureproof throughput capacity

What throughput do you need to achieve currently? What throughput are you looking to achieve in the future? Not only do you need to be sure that the system can meet your current throughput requirements, but it is also important to ensure that it has the necessary capacity to enable you to expand your sales and increase your throughput in the future.

The last thing you want is to increase your sales only to find your palletiser has become a bottleneck in your production process. Spend time to think about where your business is heading in the future and ensure you invest in a system that will meet your future demands, or is easily scalable to meet them.

Stack neatness

Neatly stacked pallets are key to your product reaching its final destination in the best condition. They also make for safer storage, and easier container and lorry loading. With several different methods of automated pallet stacking available, it is important that you choose a method that creates the best stack for your product.

There are many factors that affect how your bags will stack best such as how full the bag is, what type of product is in the bag, and how free flowing the material is within the bag. Several systems are available for shaping and flattening bags to ensure that they stack in the neatest possible way. Running a trial of your product on a palletising system before you commit to the capital expenditure is a very good way to determine what the best method is for palletising your product neatly.

Ease of use

How easy is the palletising system to use? Can it quickly be reprogrammed to palletise different bag or box sizes? Can your staff reprogram it themselves? With some conventional palletising systems it can be very difficult to change the stacking pattern or bag placing positions without support from a specialist programmer. Therefore it is important to ensure that the system you choose has easy programming software as this will enable your staff to reprogram the palletiser quickly and easily. This saves you the cost of having to call out an expensive robot programmer to reprogram the system when you need to change a stack pattern or bag size.

It is also important to choose a system that has automatic stack generation software so that you can simply choose which stacking pattern you wish to use without having to spend time planning. Having a system with easy programming software will also ensure that your palletising system is future proof against any changes of product size or pallet type.

Easy to move/re-site

Ensure that the system you choose can be easily moved. As your processes evolve over time, the last thing you want is to end up with a palletiser stuck in the wrong corner! There are modular palletising systems available; which means they can be quickly and easily re-situated and reconfigured to a different layout should the need arise. The modularity of these systems also allows you to adapt the palletising process over time by adding further processes at a later date such as pallet shrink wrapping, slip sheet feeding, automated pallet feeding, labelling etc.

Try before you buy

For your own peace of mind, make sure you have tried your product on a palletiser before you purchase it. Whilst palletising is a straightforward process, there are many factors that affect how neatly your products stack, and a trial is the best way to establish the best method. There are automation companies that will offer a free trial of your product on their palletiser before you purchase.

Integration with existing production processes

Buying from a company that has experience in machinery integration is key when purchasing a palletising system. A company with this experience will ensure that your palletising process is linked to your production process in the most efficient and effective manner. A reputable automation company will complete a site visit at the quoting stage and will be able to offer advice, guidance and 3D CAD drawings showing how best to install the system.

Depending on your production layout and throughput speeds, it may well be possible to install one robotic palletising system to palletise product off two or more production lines.

Calculating ROI on investment

Typically the payback time for an automated palletising system is very quick as not only do you remove the manual labour element and associated costs, but production can also continue to run throughout break times; thereby enabling you to improve your production speed and throughput capacity.

Intangible benefits are also something to consider when working out your predicted return on investment as they can have a significant effect on the payback time of your project. An intangible benefits calculator is also included in this pack.

Conclusion

As you can see, when chosen wisely, an automated palletising system will not only provide the immediate benefits of increased reliability and throughput, but will also service your future requirements. With changing market demands and the ever quickening pace of technology, it is important to ensure that the equipment you choose to invest in is flexible and adaptable enough to cope with these changes without the need for further significant investment.

One of the most adaptable and flexible palletising systems on the market is the Granta GA15 palletising system. It is fast and easy to program without the need for specialist programming skills. The easy programming software also includes automatic stack generation for an infinite variety of products, pallets and stack configurations. Having input the bag or box size you are palletising the optimum stack pattern is shown along with a variety of other stack patterns. All you have to do is simply select the stack pattern you require using the touch screen.

As the Granta GA15 palletising system is a modular system, it can also be simply and quickly reconfigured should your production requirements change. The modularity of the system also results in short lead times and a quick install time.

In summary, here is a quick checklist to use before purchasing an automated palletising system:

• Can the system meet current and future throughput capacity requirements
• Will the system stack my product neatly
• Are staff able to program the system for different bag sizes/stack patterns
• Can the system be moved/re-sited and reconfigured easily
• Has a trial been run on the system
• Can the system be effectively integrated with our current production process
• Has the predicted ROI of the system been calculated including the hidden wins

Visit the Granta Automation website for more information

See all stories for Granta Automation

Often one of the questions asked when introducing automated palletising into a production process is ‘How well will it work for my product?’ and this is a very fair question. Automated palletising works well for virtually all products, but Granta Automation is very happy to prove this to you by demonstrating the palletiser handing your product before you commit to the capital outlay required.

There are many different factors that can influence the optimum method of palletising of your product; shape, size, regularity of shape, weight, texture, solidity, etc. Some products may need different types of gripper due to irregular shape, specific handling points on the product, etc. All of these factors have to be considered before the best method of palletising your product can be ascertained.

Although the company is confident that automated palletising will work, it offers this try before you buy scheme to provide certainty around your investment and to give you peace of mind. Without a trial of your product on a palletiser before you commit to the capital expenditure, it is very difficult for you to be certain as to how well your product will palletise. Whilst you may be palletising bags, and there are multiple bag palletiser options available, there are also multiple factors that can affect how well the bags will stack.

Some of the factors that will have an effect on how well a pallet is stacked include; how full the bag is, are the contents of the bag free flowing, are the bag contents uneven. Sometimes with particularly challenging shapes or types of product, how well your bags will palletise, and what modifications the gripper will need to enable your bags to palletise correctly, can only be determined by a trail.

To take advantage of the try before you buy scheme, you send Granta your product to try on a palletiser and either the company will send you videos of the trial so that you can see whether or not automated palletising is going to work for you, or you can visit Granta to watch a trial of your product on a palletiser.

Both of these methods offer you a fool proof method of ensuring that your investment in robotic palletising is sound and will yield the necessary return on investment for you.

Visit the Granta Automation website for more information

See all stories for Granta Automation

Here we look into some zero cost ways that you can boost your factory output.

Track OEE

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) is a calculation that can be done to show exactly how effective your machinery or factory is. It takes into account the speed at which the machine or factory runs, the quality of the finished products produced and the actual machine operating time versus the available operating time. OEE is best calculated per machine rather than across the whole factory as it is then easier to identify where improvements need to be made to help improve productivity. An OEE calculator can be downloaded from here.

Once you have identified the OEE of your machinery, you will then be able to identify which parts of your process aren’t running at full efficiency. This will enable you to put measures in place to reduce or eliminate the inefficiencies, and thus improve the efficiency of your machinery.

Hold daily improvement meetings

Daily improvement meetings are key to increasing employee engagement and creating an ownership mentality amongst your staff. Hold a daily whole team huddle and ask each of your staff to name an improvement they made the day before, or to make an improvement suggestion. Don’t limit your staff to just the area they work in, and don’t penalise them if they don’t have an idea to mention for a day or two. What you will find as a result from these daily meetings is that your staff start to take ownership for improving the business and driving better results. They become motivated by the part they have to play in the big picture of improving the business and they enjoy seeing their suggestions taken up. Often you will find that given the ‘rope’ to run with, your staff will come up with some very innovative and creative ways of improving processes.

Some of the ideas that come up in these meetings may also cause you to question some of your processes, and whether they are necessary, or duplicative. This is something that you can then investigate further outside of your daily team meetings.

Brainstorm with employees

Hold a brainstorm session with your employees on how to boost your factory output. You will find that as your employees are working on the ‘coal face’, they will often have a different view to you as to what is restricting production output, and given the right forum they will often come up with innovative ways to solve these challenges. It may be a machine that’s always stopping, or a process that is not working properly so the process has to be done twice to achieve the desired result. All too often staff working on the factory floor will just work around inefficiencies in the process, and as a manager you may not even be aware of them. That is why it’s so beneficial to give your staff the forum to share their knowledge of these inefficiencies and to work together with them to find solutions.

Create a daily scoreboard

Everyone plays to win, and if you want your staff to play their best, they need to know if they’re winning. Involve your staff in creating daily personal or small team targets for their area of the production process. Their targets must be something that is directly influenceable by them, and achievable, otherwise it won’t have a motivating effect. If your staff have had part in creating the target there will be a far higher buy in than if the targets are forced on them.

Once you’ve agreed the targets, all you need is a piece of paper and a pen to create a scoreboard. Depending on the type of target you have agreed, all you need to then do is to update the scoreboard daily or hourly so that you staff can see exactly where they are in relation to their target. You will find that as you staff see their score going up and they can see their success, the pace will speed up and your production output will increase.

Identify bottlenecks

Identifying and eliminating bottlenecks in your production process is key to improving output. Information on how to identify bottlenecks in your production process is available here. Once you have identified where your bottlenecks are, you will then be able to put strategies in place to ensure that your bottleneck is running at maximum efficiency. Quality checking parts before they enter the bottleneck, reducing the load on the bottleneck, and increasing the capacity of the bottleneck are all ways to exploit the bottleneck.

Once you have identified and exploited your bottleneck, you will often find that the bottleneck moves to another area of your production and you need to go through this process again to exploit that bottleneck.

Reduce downtime

Reducing unplanned downtime is key to improving production output. Unplanned downtime is usually the result of one of two reasons; machine break downs, or staff breaks.

Machine break downs can be minimised by holding regular preventative maintenance sessions on your machinery. Whilst it may appear inefficient to regularly shut down your production for maintenance, if it is done in a planned manner, you will find there’s less lost production output from this than there would be from unplanned breakdowns.

Staff breaks are the other reason for downtime in a production process. There are two different approaches to minimising downtime from staff breaks, and you will need to decide which method works best for your production process. One method is to ensure that your staff take staggered breaks so that the production process can continue to run constantly. The other method is to ensure that your staff all take their breaks at the same time, for the same length of time. This means that your production process will stop for a set amount of time each day, but it will be predictable and controlled, and you know it will be running efficiently in between these break times.

Stay organised

Disorganisation can result in many lost man-hours and wasted production time. Ensuring that your manufacturing plant is clearly organised and kept tidy will save many hours of lost production. Make sure every tool, part, or product has a clearly marked place where it should live.

When organising each working area think about how and when the tools or parts are going to be used, and ensure that they are stored in the most efficient place for what they are going to be used for. Think about your manufacturing floor as a whole, is everything in the most efficient place? Is there anything that could be easily and simply moved to improve efficiencies and thus improve production output?

Reduce the walking

Reducing the walking that your production staff have to do is a basic lean principle of saving wasted time/motion. However, there is a further significant benefit to reducing walking that is not often talked about. When staff have to walk off your production process to get something, they will often be passing other staff on the way, and will often stop for a quick hello or a chat. Before you know it, 5 wasted minutes have passed. If one member of your production process is having a 5 minute chat every 50 minutes, this is reducing your productivity by 10%!

Look at your production process and see what walking is having to be done by your staff. Find ways to reduce the walking or minimise it as far as possible and you will start to see an increase in productivity.

Daily production line audit

Take a daily walk around your production area, and make sure you do this at a different time each day. Before you go for your walk around, take off your managers ‘hat’ and put on your improvements, problem finder ‘hat’; take a view of your production as a whole with no preconceptions. Talk to your staff, find out what’s gone well for them so far today and what hasn’t.

As you do these daily walk rounds you will begin to build up a picture of what is actually going on in the production process and you will start to see where the inefficiencies are and where improvements could be made. It may even make you start to question some of the processes and whether they are necessary of if there could be a better way of doing them.

Identify wastage

Identifying wastage in your process is key to streamlining and improving your production output. The eight key wastes in lean manufacturing are;

• Overproduction
• Waiting (time on hand)
• Unnecessary transport or conveyance
• Overprocessing or incorrect processing
• Excess inventory
• Motion
• Defects
• Unused employee genius
• Analyse your production processes, which of these wastes do you have, how can you minimise or eliminate them?

Get new machinery at no net cost to your bottom line

Having worked through all of the above you may find that you need to introduce some new machinery to improve your production process. If this is the case, you need to look for a company that offers finance deals on the purchase of new machinery such as palletisers, bespoke machinery, vision systems, etc. With the right finance deal, you will find that you will be getting more ROI from the new machinery than the repayments on the finance deal. What’s more, with a finance deal there is no need for an initial capital outlay as repayments can be spread over a longer period of time, enabling you to realise the benefit of the new machinery whilst making capital repayments.

Visit the Granta Automation website for more information

See all stories for Granta Automation

The first category outlines ways to directly reduce your overheads, whilst the second and third categories are items that are often not thought of as directly relating to reducing overheads but do indeed have a significant impact.

Reduce overheads

There are several simple steps you can take to reduce your overheads, many of which do not need any capital outlay to introduce.

1. Reduce the cost of materials – Review your buying prices and check that the prices you are paying are competitive. Ask your supplier for an early payment discount. Review your product, is there a cheaper material that could be used without compromising on quality, or could you use less of the same material?
2. Review your production process – Production processes often evolve over time, and can sometimes mean that you end up with processes being applied during the manufacturing process that may no longer be necessary. Are your products being over engineered, are there any non-value adding processes being used? Review your process to see if there are any steps in the production process that could be eliminated or combined to reduce costs.
3. Reduce waste – waste can mean many different things. It can involve time, raw material, downtime and faulty finished products. Does your production process stop when your staff stop for tea breaks? Is there raw material being wasted? Do you have a lot of finished product that has to be rejected due to quality issues? These are all issues that with planning, can be reduced or even eliminated and will result in less waste and more net profit.
4. Introduce lean manufacturing – Lean manufacturing is a proven method for reducing overheads, with the main focus being on reducing waste in the production process.
5. Track expenses and set departmental budgets – tracking expenses and setting departmental budgets with a specific persons responsible for monitoring each departments budget enables you to track and monitor expenses. Once you know what your expenses are, it is then possible to evaluate and reduce your expenses.
6. Identify inefficiencies in your process – do you know exactly how effective your machinery or production process is? Is it being used to its full potential? Use an OEE calculator (Overall Equipment Effectiveness Calculator) to identify how effective your machine or production process is. Find out where your inefficiencies and spare capacity are and then exploit them.
7. Automate to reduce labour costs – Introducing automation can be a very sustainable way to reduce labour overheads. Using an accurate automation payback calculator you will be able to quickly see what the return on investment is for automating any part of your production process.
8. Brainstorm with employees – Hold a brainstorming sessions with your employees on how to reduce overheads. Often we find that our employees who work on the ‘coal face’ see things in a different light to managers. When given the right forum, they will often come up with innovative ideas on how to reduce overheads.

Increase productivity

Increasing the productivity of any machine or indeed your whole production process will have a positive impact on your net profit. This short video explains why productivity is so important. Below are some proven methods that will enable you to increase your productivity.

1. Train your staff – Training your staff enables them to complete their job more effectively and efficiently. Staff that don’t have the needed training to complete their role effectively often end up having to waste time asking other members of staff for help or guidance on how to complete tasks. This has a cost implication to your profit as it results in two people having to waste time on a conversation about how to do something, rather than working on a task that is adding value to the product that you are producing. Training also motivates staff and motivated staff are known to achieve more than unmotivated staff.
2. Identify how productive your processes are – Understanding how productive your current processes are is the first step to improving productivity. There are many methods available for doing this, but the preferred method is to calculate the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of a specific machine, or your production process. Once you have calculated this, you will then have the information you need to enable you to identify how you can improve efficiency.
3. Eliminate bottlenecks – Identifying and eliminating bottlenecks in your production process is key to improving productivity. With an efficient flow of good quality products being produced, you will be able to sell more product with less quality issues which will result in increased profit.
4. Improve production speed – having identified how productive your processes are and where you bottlenecks are, you can then use this information to improve your production speed. With improved production speed, you will be able to produce more parts per hour, which in turn means you have more product to sell and make a profit on.
5. Eliminate downtime – downtime in a production process translates directly to a loss of profits. Every minute that your production process isn’t working, you are losing the opportunity to make more product to sell. There are several different methods that can be used to eliminate downtime such as; staggered staff breaks, instant fault reporting systems, and regular machinery maintenance to minimise the risk of breakdowns. Downtime can also be eliminated by introducing automated systems to remove the need for human input; eg. end of line palletising systems, vision inspection systems for quality control, machine tending robots, etc.
6. Introduce extra shifts with ‘Lights Out Automation’ – Introducing automation that can run without operator input throughout the night, or at least for an hour or two after everyone goes home at the end of the day, is also a sure way to increase your productivity. You may only need a basic end of line system such as a palletising systems to enable you to achieve this, or you many need a more advanced, custom built solution.

Reduce production costs per hour

Whilst this many not be an entirely obvious method for reducing your overheads, reducing your production costs per hour does have a direct impact on overheads. The money you save in the production of the products that you sell converts directly to an increased profit.

Reducing production costs can be done in a variety of different ways, some of which have been outlined below:

1. Reduce the walking – Reducing the walking time for staff is a basic lean principal as it reduces wasted motion. However there is also a further significant impact in reducing the walking in that it removes unnecessary socialising between production staff. When staff have to walk off from the production area to get something, pass a few other staff members on the way and have a quick chat, before you know it 5 wasted minutes have passed. If there is one of these chats every 50 minutes that is reducing your productivity by 10%! Reducing the walking reduces the chances of these chats happening and in turn reduces your production costs.
2. Daily improvements and suggestions – your staff on the factory floor know your production process the best. Asking your staff on a daily basis to make an improvement or suggest an improvement has a significant impact. Your staff then start to develop an ownership mentality and are continually looking for ways to improve. Whilst a lot of these improvements may be small, when improvements are made daily by every member of staff, the net result is significant. Improvements in time and efficiency will have a direct result in reducing production costs.
3. Create production targets and display them live in your factory – Include your staff in creating a production target that they will be able to directly influence. Displaying this target live in the factory, along with their current score, will have an incredible motivating effect on your staff. As with any game, if you’re playing to win, you need to know your current position to enable you to win. If you then tie these targets in with a reward system, you will find that your staff will become self-motivated to hit production targets.
4. Pace staff with automation – It is a known fact that as staff reach the end of their shift, their concentration begins to lapse, and their pace is likely to slow down. This can have an impact on production speeds and quality control, which in turn limits the amount of products produced and can result in increased quality control issues. This issue can be overcome by pacing staff with automation; which could be something as simple as a slow moving conveyor that moves products past staff at a set pace. The other option is to automate particular parts of the process such as product labelling, vision inspection or product counting.
5. Introduce automated processes – Automation allows you to reduce the labour costs of your production process without compromising on the standard of items being produced. One machine can perform the task of a number of workers, while never falling sick, taking time off or requiring lunch breaks; making production even more cost effective. Automation of quality control processes also reduces production costs as it eliminates the risk of human error in detecting faulty parts and products.  It also ensures that faulty parts and products are rejected before reaching despatch.

As you can see, reducing overheads does not need to be a costly exercise. Often some of the simplest activities can have a significant impact.

Visit the Granta Automation website for more information

See all stories for Granta Automation

Automated packaging of products can mean many different things to different people and your interpretation depends entirely on the market you are in. For some it may mean the packaging of food into containers, or liquids into bottles; whereas for others, it may mean the binding together and wrapping of large sheets of material. With this diversity of product, automated packaging systems are also very diverse, and often have to be bespoke made to meet a company’s requirements.

Whilst these is often the need to package each individual product, there is also often the need to further box and palletise these products to make them ready to ship. When this process is automated, it can also be referred to as automated packaging.

Tangible benefits

Let’s start by looking into some of the tangible benefits of automated packaging:

Reduced risk of repetitive strain injury: Repetitive strain injury risks are lowered when products are packed automatically rather than manually. This is due to the fact that automation removes the need for human input to complete repetitive manual tasks.

Eliminate potential bottlenecks: Manual packaging processes can often lead to bottlenecks within a production process when human errors occur. Automated packaging processes can help to eliminate this bottleneck as a bespoke machine will be designed to keep up with the flow off the production line. With automated packaging there is also less scope for packaging errors, which in turn leads to less downtime and bottlenecks.

Improved production speed: Automating your packaging process can lead to improved production speeds. Often when there is a manual packaging process, the machine producing the product is not able to run at full capacity as the manual packaging process is not able to keep up with this level of output. By automating the packaging of the products you are then able to remove this constraint and improve your production speed.

Eliminate downtime: As with any process involving manual labour, staff are entitled to breaks. Often in factories this means that production stops during these breaks resulting in downtime and loss of production. With an automated packaging solution, these breaks no longer happen, and the machines can be run 24/7 if required.

Intangible benefits

Intangible benefits are harder to define, but below are some of the more common intangible benefits:

Increased staff morale: Factory staff packaging products are often working relatively long hours on repetitive tasks that quickly become mind numbing and boring. As the boredom sets in, the pace unintentionally slows and very quickly the production output can settle to a pace that is a lot less efficient and effective than it could be. Also, when staff are bored and only half concentrating on the job at hand, mistakes start to happen, which can then result in product defects or health and safety issues etc. If repetitive jobs, such are packaging of products, are automated then staff can be re-deployed to other areas of the business that are less mundane; which in turn creates more engagement and job satisfaction.

Increased sales due to reduced product cost: Whilst there is the initial need for capital outlay when introducing an automated packaging system to your process this needs to be considered carefully. It is important to calculate what your current costs are in terms of production speeds, staffing costs, product defects, RSI claims, etc. Without a complete picture of your current cost, and a knowledge of the added value of increased production speeds that an automated packaging system would bring, it is impossible to get a complete picture of how quickly your capital investment will pay for itself. Introducing an automated packaging system usually results in reduced product cost and the capacity to manufacture more products, thus creating more product to sell and resulting in increased profit on your bottom line.

Better customer service: With an automated packaging process the risk of product defects and recalls is significantly decreased. This along with the increased production capacity enables you to give your customers a better service. As we all know, better customer services results in more loyal customers and repeat business bringing greater profits to your company.

Visit the Granta Automation website for more information

See all stories for Granta Automation

Advantages of Industrial Robots

1. Increased efficiency: Industrial robots are able to complete certain tasks faster and better than people, as they are designed to perform these tasks with a higher accuracy level. This and the fact that they are used to automate processes which previously might have taken significantly more time and resources, means that you can often use industrial robots to increase the efficiency of your production line.

2. Higher quality: Due to their high accuracy levels, robots can also be used to produce higher quality products which adhere to certain standards of quality, whilst also reducing the time needed for quality control.

3. Improved working environment: Industrial robots are often used for performing tasks which are deemed as dangerous for humans, as well as being able to perform highly laborious and repetitive tasks. Overall, by using industrial robots you can improve the working conditions and safety in your factory or production plant. Robots don’t get tired and make dangerous mistakes, neither do they suffer from repetitive strain injury.

4. Increased profitability: By increasing the efficiency of your production process, reducing the resource and time needed to complete it, and also achieving higher quality products, industrial robots can thus be used to achieve higher profitability levels overall, with lower cost per product.

5. Longer working hours: Typically people have to have breaks, get distracted and after time attention drops and pace slows. With a robot it can work 24/7, and keeps running at 100%. Typically if you replace one person on a key process in a production line with a robot the output increases by 40% in the same working hours just because a robot has more stamina and never stops. Robots also don’t take holidays or have unexpected days off sick.

6. Prestige: You set yourself at the cutting edge of your industry and wow your customers when they come to see you. As a marketing tool robots are fantastic, boost your brand image, and have often been used simply for the PR even if they don’t offer many benefits over a bespoke non-robotic system.

Disadvantages of Industrial Robots

1. Capital cost: Whilst industrial robots can prove highly effective and bring you a positive ROI, implementing them might require a fairly high capital cost. That’s why, before making a decision we recommend considering both the investment needed and also the ROI you expect to achieve. Often the easiest way to get round this issue is to take out asset finance and the ROI of the robot more than pays for the interest on the asset finance. Use Granta’s project builder to find out how much industrial robots would cost you in just a few minutes.

2. Expertise: Whilst industrial robots are excellent for performing many tasks, as with any other type of technology, they require more training and expertise to initially set up. The expertise of a good automation company with a support package will be very important. To minimise your reliance on automation companies you can train some of your engineers on how to program robots, but you will still need the assistance of experienced automation companies for the original integration of the robot.

3. Limitations: In recent years the number of industrial robots and the applications they can be used for has increased significantly. However, there still are some limitations in terms of the type of tasks they can perform, which is why we suggest that an automation company looks at your requirement to assess the options first. Sometimes a bespoke automated system may give a better or faster result than a robot. Also, a robot does not have everything built into it, often the success or failure of an industrial robotic system depends on how well the surrounding systems are integrated for example grippers, vision systems, conveyor systems etc. Only use good trusted robot integrators to be sure of the optimum results if you do choose to use industrial robots.

Visit the Granta Automation website for more information

See all stories for Granta Automation