Production and packing lines will stop working for a number of reasons, yet the default assumption and human impulse will often be that a robotic malfunction is to blame. Sometimes, when there is an element of complexity or variety in the operation, there’s an assumption that robotics is simply not up to the job.

1 A robot is only as good as its programming

It is essential that robots and other automated sections of your line are programmed to recognise and handle every stock-keeping unit (SKU), including all variants at the primary and secondary packaging stage. This means investing an equal amount of time understanding the full project scope as selecting and specifying equipment. Always check that the appropriate programming is available, compatible and easily accessible.

With product handling and case loading, problems may occur when integrators don’t fully consider the movement of the robotic arm from pick point to place point, the timings on the line, etc. To ensure all current and future expectations are considered, involve all personnel, from operator level up to directors, in discussions.

Utilise the knowledge of experienced line operators to pre-empt the types of daily challenges that arise from the products being handled, different fill levels, poor-quality sealing, spillages and other variables and factor into your automation planning.

2 Keep your workforce on-side

Rather than being wary about the impact of automation, turn your workforce into champions of the technology. For operational reasons you may reassign them to more skilled or technical duties, however be mindful that in doing so you could be removing an essential layer of visual monitoring and inspection.

Instead of relying on short-term troubleshooting, encourage all operatives to stay vigilant and take responsibility for thinking through and resolving issues that might cause potential bottlenecks.  

Give clear, comprehensive training to those responsible for line changeovers. For example, the impact of setting guides to the wrong width can be a common issue, which if not corrected swiftly can jam a production line, triggering a machine shutdown.

Although thankfully rare, human actions, like disabling robots, should be considered. Maintain workforce motivation by reinforcing how much you value their support and assign responsibility for monitoring the new equipment.

3 Even the best teams need sound on-going technical support

The most clued-up your workforce can benefit from partnering with integrators that offer strong, on-going technical support. Even with the most well programmed robot, needs change after installation. Usually this will be driven by new customer production requirements. Yet, it’s surprising how often technology is mothballed when it can easily be reprogrammed to accommodate new production requirements.

Wisely, most companies investing in automation regard high-quality technical support as a business prerequisite. A good supplier should also help to make in-house reprogramming easier. For example, Pacepacker is helping to eliminate programming engineer visits for customers with our new Pallet+ software.

4 Good Housekeeping is more than a magazine

Unless systems offer highly sophisticated self-diagnostics, routine actions like checking accumulation of product residues or dust can help avoid vital sensors being blocked or conveyor belts jamming which could trigger an overload.

Likewise, for smooth, uninterrupted operation, monitor wear and tear on key parts. Regular checks during scheduled downtime can help to prevent serious failures.

5 A good grasp on end effectors

As with programming, a robot is only as good as its end effectors. Where a single robot is performing multiple actions and handling a range of pack types and sizes, changeovers may involve substituting an end effector. Robust training and knowledge of processes will ensure the correct tool is selected for the job.

To increase the longevity of different end effectors store them appropriately. For example, compressing a grippers foam pads when not in use can impact their ability to handle product effectively.

Overall, worker ‘buy-in’ at all levels is critical to seamless automated production success. A robotic malfunction is likely to be just part of the story and in most instances robots can’t be blamed for a production blip. In fact, well-programmed and maintained robots can liberate your workforce from mundane, labour intensive tasks, enabling everyone to use their time more productively and pursue more satisfying and professionally challenging career paths.

Several respected market commentators have speculated that the cobot sector will grow by 50% year-on-year, reaching $1bn in 2020. The majority of this growth will be driven by uptake in automotive assembly, electronic parts assembly and medical device manufacturing applications. Thanks to safety and sensing technologies, these cage-free cobots can work side by side with humans on shared or separate tasks.

However, the opportunities in food processing or packing lines may be limited by speed, while payload could prove a challenge for cobots assigned to palletising tasks. Wilkinson explains: “Right now industrial cobots are, by their very nature, small and agile. Although beneficial in a number of manufacturing settings, this can limit their usefulness in food factories.

“To minimise the risk of injury to humans, cobots generally work at much slower speeds than conventional robots. This means a cobot may not achieve comparable product handling pick and place speeds. Meanwhile, in palletising tasks, the weight that can be lifted may prove challenging for all but the strongest cobots. But we must remember that it’s early days for cobots. What’s more, a human/robot collaborative operation can still be accomplished even with the most conventional industrial robots.”

Safety grey areas

Each year around over 5000 injuries in food and drink manufacturing industries are reported to the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), representing about a quarter of all manufacturing injuries.

Food production is especially fast paced. Workplace safety is forever evolving and for repetitive and strenuous tasks like manual product handling and packing, robots can address some of the key causes of human injuries. “When it comes to safety, you are ultimately reliant on people understanding and following the rules. Equally, safety risks will vary depending on your chosen robot and application,” highlights Wilkinson.

Robotic work cells and plant layouts evolve quickly. This means that the risks can change rapidly too, so it’s advisable to regularly schedule a review of your safety policies. Contrary to popular belief, installing a cobot doesn’t eliminate workplace risk assessments. In fact, the ISO/TS 15066 safety standard introduced for cobots in March 2016 means that a comprehensive risk assessment is still required for both the robot and peripheral equipment.  

“It must be noted that there are different degrees of collaboration and there are safe ways of introducing robot-human collaboration,” Wilkinson emphasises. “A fully-caged, perimeter guarded robot at the end of the line isn’t always necessary, although may be warranted for heavy duty palletising operations.” 

Adding virtual fencing software is one way to bring physical safety guards down and protect your workforce from automation hazards. Providing safety zones are not breached the robot operates at a normal speed. With this sensing software, the robot can be programmed with different ‘reactions’ for different zones and scenarios. For example, it can be programmed to perform an emergency stop when necessary or to alter its speed according to operator proximity.

Fenceless robot cells also facilitate quicker access for performing maintenance and part changeover tasks, notes Wilkinson. “In contrast, shutting down a fully guarded system could result in considerable production downtime, more product waste and requires skilled engineering operatives, which may not be available in-house.”

The number of industrial robots deployed worldwide is expected to increase to around 2.6 million units by 2019 according to the 2016 World Robotics Report published by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). If the commentators are correct, cobots could account for a large chunk of these sales. Yet, like other forms of automation, deployment of cobots within the food sector may be slower to emerge than other manufacturing industries. “Collaboration between humans and machines will be a key driver for future technological trends,” adds Paul. “In time, cobots may very well become the mainstay in food production too.”

Rather than relying solely on robot teach pendants, Pallet+ allows users to easily programme, change, store and recall new or revised robotic palletising ‘recipes’ using a more intuitive and easy-to-use interface. Catering to ever-changing product formats and designs, including volume, shape and size, Pallet+ users can easily modify the packaging parameters on the fly and in a very short space of time, with little or no robot programming knowledge. More importantly, once set up, modifying recipes doesn’t require constant intervention from the machine’s supplier.

“Traditional reprogramming of palletising machines can be a laborious, time consuming, trial-and-error process in primary, secondary and even tertiary packaging processes,” highlights Lee Moss, Pacepacker’s electrical design engineer, who created the Pallet+ software.

For highly efficient palletising, the FANUC M410iC robot has the payload and multitasking ability to stack anything, ranging from 25kg potato sacks, to tubs of animal feed and bales of pet bedding. For increased flexibility, this high-speed robot can be fitted with different end effectors to suit any task. The unit can be easily moved to other production areas to suit business demands.

With a payload of 12kg and capable of picking and packing up to 80 items per minute, the FANUC M10 pick and place robotic arm can be fitted with any end effector to suit the application. There are more than 80 to choose from, including mechanical grippers for gently cradling fresh poly bags of produce, or delicately transferring potatoes and freshly harvested root vegetables into bulk display units, to suction cups for loading tubs and pots into retail ready trays.

Launched at the PPMA Total Show, the workshops will focus on how customers can integrate systems and extract full benefit from them quickly and efficiently. The half-day events will be free to a given number of attendees from each company.

Increasing numbers of manufacturers in sectors such as food and drink are recognising the benefits of automation, whether in terms of output, yield, reliability, product quality or traceability. However fewer are aware of the less obvious factors influencing how readily that desired result can be fully achieved.

“From upstream machines, which affect the efficiency of the rest of the line, to missed opportunities in enlisting the positive support of the workforce, it is important that we educate our customers and increase overall awareness as part of the process of integrating automation.” Pacepacker’s business development manager, Paul Wilkinson explains.

Each workshop is specifically crafted to be extremely useful and relevant to the specifics of each company’s operations, with full engagement from key company stakeholders, from operators and line supervisors, to engineering team members and directors.

Other opportunities the workshops will highlight include practical preparations for installation and how to manage training or recruitment to ensure customers have the correct in-house expertise to meet the needs of automation.

“This is about smoothing the process of automation inside the factory, it’s about you and your team being ready, and it is about external factors which may affect how the overall system performs,” says Wilkinson. “The end result may be all to do with speed, product quality, reduced wastage and rejects or a combination of all of these and more. Ultimately, this is about maximising return on investment (ROI), in the shortest possible time.”

In practical terms, this new approach to automation awareness could well reduce the period when the line is either not running at all, or running below its optimal performance.

Wilkinson adds: “From Pacepacker’s point of view, we want satisfied customers. This is yet another way we can demonstrate the high levels of support we consistently provide our customers with.”

Festo, though known principally as a manufacturer of automation systems and components, has a strong track record in training and consultancy rooted in its real-world experience. In fact, the company runs 2,900 courses worldwide every year, training no fewer than 42,000 individuals.

The Festo-designed workshops will bring together attendees from different companies at Pacepacker’s head office in Essex. For larger customers, there will be the opportunity for cross-site events where representatives of different operations will be able to pool their experiences and observations.

“Pacepacker is in alignment with our objective to look beyond the supply of components and solutions and to help our customers not just succeed, but to excel in their markets,” explains Neil Lewin, senior consultant for Festo Training & Consultancy. “The course will raise awareness of the complete approach required when engaging in automation projects, and provide customers with a strategic plan for implementation of automation in to their plant. The end result being a solution that meets its promises on ROI and sustainability.”

A white paper and ‘automation checklist’ will perform a similar function for businesses installing smaller systems.

It’s a fact of life; mundane tasks are not something people passionately relish. Yet, the fear of job losses due to automation continues to unsettle workers in the manufacturing sector.

“When reports are released it creates an element of scaremongering among the workforce,” notes Dennis. “The fact is, robots and smart technologies are filtering into every work environment. For the manufacturing sector, rather than dehumanising people, many of the tools today can free workers from the labour intensive and mundane tasks, enabling them to focus on more creative aspects of their job, like problem solving.”

According to the most recent research into automation adoption prepared by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), two million jobs will be created by 2020 because of the robotics industry. What’s more, a further 60,000-80,000 new activity jobs will be created in the food industry alone by 2016*. “Our study proves that robots create jobs," said Gudrun Litzenberger, General Secretary of IFR. "Productivity and competiveness are indispensable for a manufacturing enterprise to be successful on the global market. Robotics and automation are the solution. Certain jobs may be reduced by robotics and automation. But the study highlights that consequently many more jobs are created."

This opinion is echoed by the labour market intelligence published in the UKCES Advanced Manufacturing Sector Insights report**, which suggests that manufacturing in the future is going to be heavily influenced by advanced technologies. Dennis puts this into context. “In response to changing customer demands we’re already seeing a shift in shorter production runs and more personalised products. What’s more, a number of food suppliers sub-contract the packing aspect of the supply chain. This is creating greater demand for people with more specialist technical and project management skills coupled with broader science and engineering capabilities.”

In light of these skills, Dennis is reassured that there appears to be plenty of existing and fresh talent to fill these job roles, saying that automation is a hot ticket right now for career advancement. Through community activities, Pacepacker is observing a surge of interest among young people eager to get into robotics, programming and research and development.

Last summer the company hosted an open day for two local secondary schools. Throughout the day the students were encouraged to explore the ladders of opportunity and encouraged to get hands on with some of the newest technology “Everything starts with an idea and STEM subjects are used throughout the entire process, from design through to installation. It is always a pleasure to see how inquisitive these young students’ minds are and how fast their skills are developing,” says Dennis. The company also joined the Chelmsford Engineering and Innovation Community in late 2014 and teamed up with Anglia Ruskin University to offer graduate workshops and industrial placements.

Rather than people’s jobs being displaced, Dennis believes that these machines can help enrich people’s lives and create greater job satisfaction. People whose positions become redundant due to automation are invariably given roles elsewhere within the business, he claims. “Automation is often referred to as AI - artificial intelligence. I would argue that automation still requires personal input and numerous human attributes like problem solving. That means it isn’t artificial, but natural progression.”

Although there might be fewer jobs on the production line, automation will help manufacturing business models to evolve faster, increasing their chance of survival, points out Dennis. “It’s a tough time for manufacturers right now. Many are competing harder on price and business costs are being further compounded by recent policy announcements like the national living wage, new pension arrangements and the introduction of the apprenticeship levy. Enterprises of all sizes are realising that they can take labour out of their costs and redeploy it elsewhere if they automate. In our view, automation safeguards the roles of the majority, making the business more efficient and enabling it to maintain and hopefully expand its contracts by improved quality and production throughput.”

Summing up, Dennis says: “Work should be a source of inspiration and happier employees equate to more productive employees. If automation can assist businesses to survive, increase productivity and create greater human fulfilment, everyone benefits.”

The concept presents products in an upright manner and packs fresh form, fill and seal packs into retail crates. Previously a conventional ‘turntable style’ operation employing multiple people to manually load supermarket trays vertically, now reaches 90 packs per minute, ensuring consistent presentation.

Incorporating the latest FANUC M-710iC/45M robot and Pacepacker’s own-design shingle feed end-effector and tray denester, the STL can vertically pack everything from fresh produce bags (e.g. salad, chopped vegetables, stir fry mixes and noodles), to FMCG ambient goods (coffee, dried pasta, flour) and household cleaning products.

Sharing the benefits of vertically packing, Pacepacker’s business development manager Paul Wilkinson says: “Waste through product spoiling and bags bursting can be a big problem when packs are laid flat and compressed, especially when filled trays are then stacked on top of each other. Another logical benefit of upright stacking is you can fit more product packs into each tray.” For extra flexibility, the system can switch to stack produce trays horizontally.

The bespoke end-effector solves the ‘last product in the tray’ issue. Attached to the robot arm, the stainless steel device, which weighs close to 20kg, moves left and right and adjusts its position in graduated steps to catch each product as it shoots off the end of a conveyor until several packs are stacked one on top of the other. Once the end effector is full, the robot arm tilts into a horizontal position above a waiting full or half-sized crate, releasing the entire collection of products uniformly into the tray - in one action.

From start to finish, the production flow is fully synchronised. A multi-tasking pack diverter, also designed by Pacepacker, counts and indexes packs before they are presented to the end-effector. While the tray denester separates the stacks of crates one by one for filling, pushing them along the conveyor to the shingle packing operation. Up to 20 half trays per line per minute can be processed, which ensures there are no packing bottlenecks.

The entire system footprint measures just 7.5 x 4m.

Although the average number of operatives previously performing this vertical packing operation will vary by manufacturers, a 12-month ROI for a larger packing plant is very feasible claims Pacepacker managing director, Dennis Allison: “What makes the STL so innovative is the sheer volume of product that can be handled by a single robot and end-effector. Because the end-effector never changes and because each aspect has been designed to work in unison, no product changeover should take an operative more than two minutes to complete, boosting productivity for packing plants even further.

“In the last 10 years the UK manufacturing landscape has profoundly altered. External market forces have projected automation into the mainstream, with the need for labour efficiency and productivity driving packing plants towards new and innovative technology like the STL.”

The unit can also handle an unprecedented range of sacks, including those made from difficult-to-pick-up materials such as hessian and net. This development follows a growth in demand for these bags, in particular from its European customers and UK exporters packing bags of produce, pulses, rice and coffee beans in bags weighing 25kg and over.

While most conventional machines rely on suction cups to pick up the bags, ruling out the use of very porous bag materials such as hessian and net, the newly enhanced sack placer has an option for a system of mechanical grippers so it can handle porous materials in addition to paper and plastics.

The FastPac range of sack placers also manoeuvre the sacks in a different way from most of the range, picking them up by the bottom and peeling them off the stack, rather than picking up the top of the bag. This ensures that bags which have a tendency to stick together can be handled more effectively.

With this in mind, Pacepacker Services is also upgrading other bagging steps to optimise the overall speed of FastPac lines. For instance, the company can already offer an upgraded Total Bag Control (TBC) system to match the faster speed of the enhanced sack placers. Stand C50

The product swap unit, known as the Mixed Tray Loader (MTL), has already been installed at one UK manufacturer of own-label dips. An MTL with a pneumatic Cartesian pick-and-place system positioned over twin lanes of filled trays has been installed.

The picking heads remove one line of product from the first tray, and places it into the second. The process is then reversed to swap items in both trays.

The Cartesian designed by Pacepacker can be re-programmed for a diverse range of tasks and differing packaging sizes, improving the flexibility of the overall solution.

"The system has two axes of movement as standard and is a good typical solution for most pick and place operations where packaged items are placed into distribution packaging, like cardboard boxes, cases, retail trays and trolleys,” explains Paul Wilkinson, Pacepacker’s BDM.

Additional axis can easily be added to create more complex solutions. "One advantage of the modular system is that you can fully mix and match the technologies. If complex motions are needed in X and Y and only up and down movement in Z, then you can opt for two axes of electrical motion and a single Z axis in pneumatic, reducing the cost and increasing simplicity. Motion control can be provided via complex motion co-ordinators, allowing full interpolated path control, right down to point to point pick & place for the simplest and most cost effective solutions.”