Innovations in robotics for the packaging industry are enabling greater f lexibility, efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness.According to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) industrial robotics startup, Mech-Mind Robotics, it helped increase the operational efficiency of over 110 partners in the logistics sector during 2020 alone.With online retail sales growing ten-fold in ten years in China, there is enormous demand for technological solutions to ‘fine task’-oriented processes in logistics.In addition, the latest reports from Logistics IQ show an expected compound annual growth rate of 14% worldwide in the market of logistics automation, reaching $30 billion by 2026. In adapting to the sheer volumes of packages that are expected to be moved around the world every day, technology companies like Mech-Mind are poised to provide crucial and cost-effective solutions that genuinely improve operations for logistics providers.“Complex picking activities in logistics, such as mixed-carton palletising and depalletising, order picking and parcel loading, seem fairly complicated and hard to achieve by robots. But actually, it is no longer like that today. We empower integrators with our AI abilities," said Tianlan Shao, CEO of Mech-Mind Robotics.Shao said adapting robots instead of people allowed for round-the-clock processing and packing of packages, and had successfully been used to alleviate some of the pressure caused by the rise in demand for shipping coupled with the reduction in staff numbers due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides, labour dependence was reduced, warehouse management efficiency was improved, and overall transfer capacity was increased.According to Chris Savoia, an ecosystem manager at Universal Robots, robotics is driving major changes in the manufacturing sector, addressing some of the biggest challenges around packaging.“Manufacturers everywhere are facing unprecedented challenges in productivity, quality assurance, manpower shortages and logistics – both internally and externally,” he said during a recent webinar. “Automation systems are being designed to help producers overcome those challenges, improving output and quality.Experts agree the shift to robotics is becoming increasingly vital for the packaging industry.Even before Covid-19 reared its formidable head, the adoption of robotics, automated material handling equipment, AI, and other advanced technologies into warehouses and distribution centres (DCs) was on the rise, propelled by the need to manage high-velocity operations with limited and increasingly expensive labour resources while meeting the ever-changing demands generated by digital commerce.Savoia said robotic palletisers provided a viable method to reduce operational costs and improve work efficiency for industries that employed the manual workforce for repetitive tasks, such as loading/unloading goods, packaging, and palletising.Also, the technology was developing so fast that it was becoming easier to introduce robots into operations – as well as more cost effective.“We assisted a small American-headquartered manufacturer of knife sharpeners with a robotic packaging solution. The first robot was implemented into the small company’s operations by an in-house team with no robot experience that did all their training online,” said Savoia. “The production capacity increased so quickly that they were able to pay back the investment within a year of purchase.”Nicolas Lauzier, a senior product manager at Robotiq, said the introduction of robots into the manufacturing sector was not all that new any more, but what was changing was the size of the machines and the ease of use.“Collaborative robots (cobots) that combine fast setup and programming with other business benefits such as faster cycle times, small footprints and f lexibility for quick changeovers are becoming far more common.”
