How cobots are transforming food and beverage businesses

90% of food and beverage businesses now rely on some form of robotics to maintain their production lines. Innovations in automation and robotics mean that no company is too small to benefit from cutting costly downtime, ensuring high quality and better utilising their human workforce.

Cobots are a more affordable and compact solution than heavy-duty industrial robots. They handle heavy lifting, take over repetitive or dangerous jobs that put workers at risk of injury and keep operations running 24/7. And cobots are highly versatile, allowing them to be reprogrammed to fill gaps in the production line potentially in a matter of minutes. But these are not the only benefits they can bring to food and beverage businesses.

Keeping goods affordable

As the cost of energy and materials continue to rise, maintaining the competitive price of pantry goods is a key concern for companies like Atria Scandinavia, which handles packaging, labelling and palletizing of goods such as olives and dried tomatoes. One of the key factors that could force the manufacturer to increase its prices is downtime, which cobots help it avoid.

Atria’s three cobots work efficiently on the conveyor belt, having paid for themselves in less than a year, and have led to 25% less packaging waste. In fact, they have been so transformative that they have now replaced traditional industrial robots across all of the company’s packaging lines.

Protecting workers’ safety

Cobots can also prevent human employees from working in unsavory conditions or at unsociable hours. In India, Sri Lakshmi Agro Foods needed to find a solution that would keep productivity high during busy holiday seasons, such as Diwali, to meet demand for its staple food line, Udhaiyam Dhall. Its mostly female workforce was reluctant to work night shifts due to safety concerns, making it difficult to retain employees.

The UR5 cobot was able to begin working alongside the existing secondary packaging machines on the line almost immediately. The unique robot helper was also mounted upside down, preserving vital floor space. Now, thanks to the cobot’s 24/7 output capabilities, the factory enjoys very little downtime and its staff no longer have to worry about night shifts.

Utilizing limited floor space

It's not just task efficiency that cobots improve; manufacturing plants with extremely limited room on the floor can use them as a space-saving automated solution. Their built-in safety features allow them to operate safely alongside people without the need for a cage or other bulky safety railings.

For Cascina Italia, the small size of our cobots made them the obvious choice for the egg processor’s busy processing plant. It took employees just half a day to understand how to operate the cobot alone and it has taken on an exhausting end-of-line task from its human colleagues. Now, it handles around 1.5 million eggs every single day.

Whether food and beverage businesses are looking to improve productivity, protect staff wellbeing or protect their bottom-line, cobots are an exceptionally versatile way to make your business even stronger.