Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto by Brian Beckman, Maintenance Manager
The Styx may have said it first, but I think we can all relate to “Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto”. Translated form Japa- nese it means “Thank You, Mr Roboto”. And we have a lot of robots around here now to thank. While some people would maybe coin a different term other than thank you, the automation we have implemented has been saving us. Some of the implementations have been down right terrible, but overall we are on pace to do some won- derful things here at Crest Foods when it comes to our automation. When I sat back and thought about my short tenure here at Crest, and the amount of automation we have complet- ed, I really had to think about how much we have actually accomplished. Here is a list for those that may not be fully aware: Line 01 – Massman timing gate – reduces 1 person per shift Line 02 – Massman timing gate – reduces 1 person per shift Line 03 – Massman timing gate – reduces 1 person per shift Line 14 – Robotic Palletizer – reduces 1 person per shift Line 22 – Robotic Palletizer - reduces 1 person per shift Line 27 – Robotic Palletizer - reduces 1 person per shift Line 70 – Case packer and palletizer – reduces 3 people per shift Line 72 – Robotic pouch placer, robotic case packer, robotic palletizer – reduces 5 people per shift That is a staggering 13 people per shift that we have reduced in our plant in two years, but we need more! We are woefully short staffed in the production department and the automation we have completed is the tip of the spear. As we continue to add more and more, our demand for highly skilled technicians increases as well. We are lucky to have people like Cody Brill, Matthias Kemmeren, and Rick Rice on staff that can work on these pieces of equip- ment with computers instead of wrenches. We have invested heavily in automation and robots in the past few years. This is to help us to be able to run more products, while we are short staffed, and to reduce the amount of physically taxing or repetitive injury prone posi- tions. We will continue to invest in automation and try to make the daily lives of those on the floor better. If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to reach out! Robotic Palletizer Line 83 – Case packer – reduces 2 people per shift Line 85 – Case packer – reduces 2 people per shift Line 89 – Robotic Palletizer – reduces 1 person per shift
Pictured to the left is a robotic palletizer on line 14. These are very versatile and small foot print units. We have multiple throughout both plants and they usually work pretty well after getting them setup properly. This unit is a collaborative robot, meaning the speed it travels is slow enough that if it were to run into a person, it would stop without causing serious injury. We also have non- collaborative versions that are able to run at faster speeds with guarding around them. If you get to close to one of the non-col- laborative units, it will slow down or stop depending on how close you get.
6 Crest Ink April, May & June 2022
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