New Delhi: ABB’s YuMi cobots are enabling the reshoring of manufacturing and serving to to handle challenges offered by workforce shortages for SUS Company, a significant provider of aluminium frames and die-cast aluminium parts for the automotive and different manufacturing industries.
“Reshoring is more and more considered as a strategy to tackle the challenges of disruptive provide chains and uncertainty, however it will possibly introduce complexities of its personal,” Joerg Reger, Managing Director of ABB Robotics Automotive Enterprise Line.
“Our vary of versatile automation options may also help resolve these, and we’re delighted to see that SUS is benefiting from important time-savings, enhanced manufacturing effectivity and the flexibility to rapidly adapt to altering provide situations. This demonstrates how automation is now not the protect of enormous OEMs alone,” he added.
Within the wake of great disruption to world provide chains in recent times, SUS Company selected to return to home manufacturing in Shizuoka, Japan, to higher handle its lead instances and introduce larger flexibility. Nevertheless, the handbook and repetitive nature of the manufacturing course of, coupled with mounting labor shortages, has made it tough for the corporate to recruit and retain enough staff to attain the required manufacturing volumes.
The answer – a sequence of YuMi dual-armed collaborative robots – has diminished the meeting time, elevated productiveness by 20 %, and launched much-needed flexibility in response to fluctuations in demand. The corporate expects to attain payback on its funding inside two years.
The automated answer was developed utilizing ABB’s RobotStudio simulation software program to design and optimize the operation in a digital area, forward of deployment in the true world. The simulation verified that YuMi’s seven-axes of motion per arm had been in a position to replicate the advanced twisting actions wanted through the meeting course of.
RobotStudio’s correct calculations for achievable manufacturing volumes additionally made it straightforward for SUS to make knowledgeable choices about their funding. The corporate is now investigating including additional cells for different merchandise and automating different processes.
“The robots have taken on monotonous, repetitive jobs, enabling staff to be reassigned to extra rewarding duties reminiscent of operation administration. The brand new system has additionally made it attainable to function at night time with fewer staff, with the variety of devoted meeting machines in operation diminished from 11 to 5,” Akihiro Taki, Staff Supervisor, Die-casting Staff, at SUS Company’s Shizuoka web site.
ABB’s current Automotive Manufacturing Outlook Survey found that almost a 3rd (31%) of all respondents listed labor shortages amongst their high three challenges, whereas 35% ranked labor as their most regarding space when it got here to rising prices.