Palletizing can be quite cumbersome. For employees, it can be a soul-draining task that can interfere with their overall productivity. However, given how essential it is to a company fulfilling its duty to its clients, it is a process that cannot be ignored.
Automation offers a great way for small businesses to increase the efficiency of the palletizing process, while also saving their employees from doing repetitive work that makes them feel like they are not adding value to the company. The question is, how do you know when it is time to automate with a palletizing robot? Here are the 3 questions that you should ask yourself.
Are you underutilizing some of your resources?
Packaging and palletizing processes come at the end of the production process. As a result, when these processes are not efficient enough, they end up acting as a bottleneck. They can lead to the poor usage of space where products have to be stacked in a separate space as they await packaging and palletizing. There are even cases where businesses have to stop production in order to wait for these processes to catch up to the throughput of the production process. This is something that will hinder your ability to increase production. It may even lead to an increase in operational costs due to the poor utilization of available resources.
Instead of allowing these processes to choke your business, you can simply decide to automate it with robots. Robots are faster, precise and they never need a break. They can work 24-hour days and as such, they can help to free up other areas in the production process. This will allow your company to take full advantage of all the resources that it has at its disposal. Therefore, if you are seeing inefficiencies that result from having a palletizing and packaging process that cannot keep up with your factory’s production output, it is time to think about automating.
Are customers complaining about quality in packaging and delays?
Human beings make mistakes. They lose concentration, they get bored and they get tired. These mistakes can result in accidents and errors. And when they do, they can lead to damaged products, poor packaging quality, and other losses. Delays due to the need to correct mistakes or wrong deliveries can also lead to an increase in customer complaints.
Robots are extremely accurate and precise. They can do the same palletizing task over and over without making any mistakes or causing accidents. And what is even better is the fact that they can do this at a faster rate than human beings. Therefore, if you are getting complaints from customers about damaged products, poor packaging or generally compromised quality, it is time to consider automation. This includes automating the palletizing process.
Are you experiencing labor shortages?
Labor shortages are a constant headache in the manufacturing industry. As a result, these shortages can hinder your ability to ramp up your production whenever the demand increases. They can even lead to you failing to meet the demands of your existing customers. If this is a problem that you ave been facing on a constant basis, it may be time to shield your business from this uncertainty by taking advantage of automation.
Robotic systems used for palletizing can be great at relieving delivery pressures that tend to mount durng peak seasons. And with the development of incredibly versatile robots like collaborative robots, you can always choose to use automation on an as-needed basis. As a result, you can use them as a buffer against the turmoil that is common in the labor market.
Answers to the above questions should give you a good idea whether your business will benefit from automating the pelletizing process. And while this may mean investing a significant portion of your budget on acquiring a few robots, the productivity and efficiency benefits that you will get from such a move will be worth it since it will improve the overall health of your business.