Greater productivity and better working conditions with robotic solution
Kiviks Musteri is a family-run corporation that dates back to 1888 with an interest in protecting their traditions and at the same time apply new ways of thinking. Kiviks Musteri cultivates fruits and berries, preferably typically Nordic, while preserving the natural good taste without unnecessary additives. The product range includes cider, juice, cream, soup, beverage, soft drinks, jam and wine.
Challenge
- The facility in Stenhamra had a production line with an existing machine for bottles in multipack supplemented with manual handling of free bottles and bottle holding trays. It had become unsatisfactory both in terms of the working environment and capacity, and the machinery was overdue for replacement.
- Kiviks Musteri wanted to have a better and more efficient production line on the existing floor space while keeping the functional equipment, like safety fence, pallet magazines, conveyors etc. It should handle both multipack and free bottles. It was also important that the new production line should be able to operate with the same capacity regardless of the skill of the individual operator.
Solution
- Yaskawa Nordic and ABTrygg worked out a solution with two palletizing robots that could replace the human operators on the existing floor space. These two palletizing robots, MPL500 and MPL80, are able to work separately with different tasks, as well as cooperating in order to speed up the cycle times. The touch panel enables operators to easily choose preprogrammed robot jobs that runs the production workflow through the robot line.
Result
- The robotic cell is working well in its current two shift operation. A potential future improvement is for the small MPL80 to take over the task of supplying new trays, which will save one operator of doing so manually.
