Robot-In-A-Box at Arla Foods solved “the impossible job”

Experience from Sara Lee provides new inspiration for Castello cheeses at Arla Foods

At the beginning of 2010, packaging manager at Arla Foods, Benny Henriksen, read about the compact Robot-In-A-Box in operation at Sara Lee and was stunned. Previous analyses at Arla Foods based on traditional solutions such as free arm robots and pallet loaders were too space-consuming and were unable to ensure profitability in automation.

Limited space could not stop Robot-In-A-Box
However, this solution at Sara Lee made Benny Henriksen call Soco System. The limited measures were no problem at all for Soco System as the compact gantry robot does not take up more space than 2800 mm x 1800 mm x 2285 mm. In contrast to the traditional free arm robots, the gantry robot has a much smaller working area without compromising with the speed.

“Plug & play” rather than engineer solutions!
Benny Henriksen tells: “I particularly noticed that this was a standard “plug & play” product. Until then, I only knew robot projects as heavy and complex demanding considerable resources. We are not quite looking for “engineer projects” at a dairy focusing on ensuring efficient production and logistics.

Packaging manager, Benny Henriksen, at Arla Foods in front of the robot solution from Soco System: “With Robot-In-A-Box, we found the simple solution to the difficult job”.

  
Payback in just 1½ years and good ergonomics
Calculations showed that the payback on Robot-In-A-Box was 1½ years. Such short investment horizon eliminated the known budget rounds and the robot was ordered at the beginning of March 2010. It was delivered at the end of June.

Operator, Søs Nielsen, tells: “We were all very anxious to see how the new robot could eliminate the repetitive heavy lifts of cartons high on the pallets”.

 
Robot-In-A-Box - a “plug & play” solution: “Unpack - connect - operate”, and does not take up much more space than a pallet.

24/7 operation with up to 20 cartons per minute
The dairy is now in the peak season with 24/7 operation. Benny Henriksen tells: “We have had very few stops on the system. And when the robot stops we can usually get it started within very short time. The simple operation is quite unique compared to the free arm robots we have. They are so complex that we typically have to call in specialists. We can also type in new pallet patterns ourselves direct from the control panel and have them operational within 10-15 minutes”.

Operator, Søs Nielsen, is pleased with the user friendly touch screen and the speedy activation of new pallet patterns.

 Annual saving of DKK 400,000 and elimination of the red Ega zone
The saving is a fact that speaks for itself. A second robot has, therefore, now been put on the budget for 2011. And there is virtually no chance that this project will be forgotten because the employees on the adjacent packaging line have already started asking when they too will get a “work-horse” to simplify the daily routines at the famous dairy.

The special multifunctional gripper collects up to 4 cartons at a time and places them on the pallet with spacing to ensure correct cooling during storage.

On Arla Foods, Castello dairy:
The dairy was founded in 1895 and is situated in the village Gjesing in Denmark - the place where the Castello cheese was “invented”. They are manufactured in 3 variants: Blue Castello, Black Castello, and an organic variant. They are packed in 6 or 10 unit display cartons. The Arla Foods dairy employs 120 employees today, of which 35 employees are in the packaging division. The dairy primarily manufactures Castello cheeses for most European countries and for distant markets such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South America, South Africa, and Singapore.

For more information, see: www.arlafoods.com

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