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7 Signs Your Business Is Ready for Cobot Palletizing

Alex Owen-Hill
by Alex Owen-Hill. Last updated on May 19, 2023 10:00 AM
Posted on Nov 06, 2020 9:59 AM. 5 min read time

Is your business ready for cobot palletizing?

How can you tell if a palletizing cobot will suit you?

Maybe your people are spending far too much time on manual palletizing. You think a robot might help.

Or maybe you've just heard about robot palletizing. You're curious about whether it might meet your business needs.

You're interested to learn more but you don't know how to get started. Perhaps you think that robotic palletizing is only suitable for people with high-volume manufacturing operations.

It would be helpful to be aware of the signs that indicate when a business is ready for automated palletizing.

With the advent of collaborative robotic palletizing, there are now even more opportunities to benefit from this highly effective method of packing automation.

If your process isn't productive enough for conventional robot palletizing…

People often think that automated palletizing is only for manufacturers with very high-volume productions.

This misconception is understandable. When you search for "palletizing automation" you will inevitably find many videos and photos of very high-volume operations — e.g. food manufacturers producing thousands of products per hour, logistics companies shipping hundreds of pallets per day, and videos of huge palletizing robots that could lift a car.

You might see such videos and think "There's no way we could fit a robot that big in our business!"

Most conventional palletizing robots take up a huge amount of floor space. They are big, bulky, and require a high throughput of products for them to be viable.

Like many people, you might see all this and think that palletizing automation is just not suitable for your business. You might decide: "If we ever reach the point of mass production, we will reconsider robotic palletizing, but for now we're just not ready for it."

This would be a mistake.

Cobot palletizing: Bringing palletizing to anyone

Recently, a new form of robotic palletizing has arrived on the scene. It allows anyone to get the benefits of palletizing automation without restricting you by requiring extremely high throughputs.

You have probably heard about collaborative robots by now. They are smaller than your average palletizing robot and are much more accessible to anyone, no matter your level of robotics experience. They are perfectly suited to businesses operating at lower volumes.

Cobot palletizing has recently become even more accessible with the advent of standard solutions that can be deployed rapidly as affordable turnkey solutions. Thanks to these advancements, you can now access the benefits of automated palletizing whatever the size of your operation and without having to plan years in advanced.

But, before taking the plunge to invest in cobot palletizing, it's important to take a step back.

You will still want to determine if cobot palletizing is the right choice for you.

What are the signs that your business is ready for a palletizing cobot?

7 signs your business is ready for cobot palletizing

There are various signs that a business might be ready for a palletizing cobot.

Here are 7 common ones:

1. You spend a lot of person-hours on palletizing

A clear sign that your business is ready for a cobot is when your people are spending a lot of their time on mundane and non-value-adding tasks like manually palletizing products. This can especially help when there's difficulty staffing these types of positions.

Pilling Boxes

2. There is a decent product throughput

If you're shipping only a few products per day, a palletizing cobot is probably not the best option. However, if there is a relatively consistent throughput of products waiting to be palletized, cobot automation is likely to be worth your while. You don't need to be operating at high-volume but you do need to be operating at some volume.

3. You can invest a little time in robot deployment

Cobot palletizing deployment makes end-of-line automation even more accessible by providing standardized, turnkey solutions. Using standard components and intuitive software interfaces, customers can benefit from rapidly deployed and cost-effective systems with much shorter lead times than custom engineering projects require.

Find out how easy it is to operate

4. People are held back from more important tasks

When your people aren't able to do other important tasks because they are spending too much time on manual palletizing, this is a great sign that a cobot will be beneficial. All the time spent manually palletizing products is essentially wasted time that people could be spending on more value-added tasks.

5. Your current palletizing is problematic

Manual palletizing is not just a non-value-added task. It can also be very problematic. The repeated manual handling of products can cause ergonomic problems that lead to worker injury. Plus, it is less consistent than robot palletizing and leads to more product breakages and defects. If you're seeing these problems, a cobot might be a good solution.

6. Competitors are shipping quicker

Of course, the signs that you're ready for a palletizing cobot might not come from inside your company. If your competitors are shipping products quicker than you are able to, there is a possibility that your palletizing operations are to blame. A palletizing cobot can help you to get products out the door quicker.

7. Your employees feel like robots

A common sign that you are ready for robots is when your employees start to feel like robots themselves. The tasks that are perfect for robots are those that are extremely dull for humans to carry out. Palletizing is just such a task. It involves carrying out the same repetitive movements for hours on end.

Robots_Employees

How to move ahead when you've decided you're ready

Do any of these 7 signs fit your situation?

If so, there is a good chance that cobot palletizing could be the right solution for your business. It can help you to palletize your products quicker, more consistently, and without wasting valuable person-hours that could be spent on more value-added tasks.

If you would like to learn more about whether cobot palletizing could help you, check out Robotiq Palletizing Solution.

 

What palletizing task are you currently considering? Tell us in the comments below or join the discussion on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or the DoF professional robotics community.

Leave a comment

Alex Owen-Hill
Written by Alex Owen-Hill
Alex Owen-Hill is a freelance writer and public speaker who blogs about a large range of topics, including science, presentation skills at CreateClarifyArticulate.com, storytelling and (of course) robotics. He completed a PhD in Telerobotics from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid as part of the PURESAFE project, in collaboration with CERN. As a recovering academic, he maintains a firm foot in the robotics world by blogging about industrial robotics.
Connect with the writer:
http://alexowenhill.co.uk/

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