Cobots reduce employee lifting by 50%

Danish Crown

In Short

Danish Crown, a global leader in pork production, has introduced a significant change at its Svenstrup factory in Northern Denmark. The factory's employees, who handle five tons of meat daily, including packing and palletizing, now have a helping hand in the form of three collaborative UR10e robots. These robots have taken over the physically demanding palletizing process, reducing the number of daily lifts performed by employees by half. This not only increases the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) by 19% but also provides a significant relief from physical strain.

Danish Crown

Industry Food and Beverages

Country Denmark

Number of Employees 300

Cobot used UR10

Watch how Danish Crown, a global leader in pork production, has introduced a significant change at its Svenstrup factory in Northern Denmark

Challenge

As one of the world's largest meat producers, Danish Crown faces significant challenges in handling and palletizing products on a larger scale. The need for staff can vary depending on the season and market demand, making it difficult to fill positions, especially during peak periods. This often leads to the reliance on employee substitutes or additional staff, which can be a cumbersome process. These challenges have prompted Danish Crown to seek innovative solutions.

At one end of the production line, an employee carefully packs eight bags of grill sausages into cardboard boxes, passes them through a taper, and then manually stacks the boxes onto a pallet at the other end of the production line. This process, while essential, can be time-consuming and physically taxing for the employees.

There is a continuous flow of 20 different products, all packed in the same box but with varying weights, which requires quick adjustments when a box with new contents needs to be palletized. At the same time, traditional manual palletizing methods can be time-consuming, physically demanding, and risky for the employees.

Danish Crown, a global leader in pork production, has introduced a significant change at its Svenstrup factory in Northern Denmark

Solution

To address these challenges, Danish Crown has implemented an innovative solution that enhances efficiency while ensuring a better working environment for employees.

In the spring of 2023, the employees in Svenstrup welcomed a new colleague, namely a UR10e cobot from Universal Robots. With a 34 percent market share, Universal Robots is the world's leading global manufacturer of cobots and, thus, a natural choice for Danish Crown. Since then, two more of the same type have been added, bringing the total to three cobots stationed by three of the factory's flow packer conveyor lines.

The three cobots have been implemented in collaboration with the Danish distributor Bila, which specializes in customized palletizing solutions. For Danish Crown, they have used a Safe&Light Foam Vacuum Gripper from UR+ partner Joulin, which is installed with software developed by Bila's technicians specifically for Danish Crown based on the dimensions and weight of the boxes.

Bila's software solution consists of an operator interface that overlays the UR software and is programmed for the boxes depending on their contents as they move through the flow packing conveyor. The user-friendly programming is designed to simply let the operator at the conveyor press a button to switch from palletizing one product type to another.

When an employee packs the eight bags of grill sausages today, they are still sent through a taper as before. However, instead of the employee having to move to the other end of the line and lift the boxes the final distance, the UR10e robot at the other end now handles the task of placing them on pallets.

We are producing the same amount as before, but we are doing it much more efficiently because we have brought in the robots to assist with palletizing. This means that employees no longer have to lift more than absolutely necessary

Lean Manager Jonas Salk co-responsible for daily operation of the production

Overall Equipment Effectiveness increased 19%

In practice, this means that employees now handle the product only once instead of twice, completely eliminating the need to lift the boxes for palletizing—a task they previously managed.

Before Danish Crown installed the robots, peak periods typically required 15 employee substitutes, positions that were difficult to fill. This number has now been reduced to 9, and simultaneously, OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) has increased by a total of 19% across the three lines since the cobots were installed.

Maintenance technician Emil Lykholt also notes that the help from the robots has made the workflow easier:

"The production has become more efficient, and working with new equipment is enjoyable. We also don’t have as many heavy lifts during the day since we got the robots. The robots were also easy to install and didn’t require more specialized training than a two-hour course. As a metalworker and technician, they are straightforward to handle for me," says Emil Lykholt.

It was Bila who provided the training for Danish Crown employees to operate the robots at the conveyor. Thanks to the user-friendly program and the software solution, it is easy for everyone to manage the robot at operator level. They were instructed on how to start, stop, and reset the robot to begin a new program.

"Usability has been our key focus in developing the software for the palletizing solution at Danish Crown," says Brian Spetzler, Product Manager at Bila. "It needs to be easy for any operator to start the cobot at the end of the conveyor, stop it if necessary, and reset it when a new type of product needs to be palletized," he concludes.

Smooth transition

According to Jonas Salk, the transition to integrating the robots into the factory has also been smooth:

“The UR10e robot we received from Universal Robots was easy to implement. With the introduction of the robots, we have reduced the lifting for our operators by 50% because they now handle the product only once, rather than previously when they both packed the boxes and manually palletized them,” says Jonas Salk.

The key to Danish Crown's success with the robot implementation lies partly in the strong communication between management, operators, and technicians, which helped address any concerns. The collaboration between the employees, who pack the boxes, and the robot handling the heavy lifting, has led to a warm reception of the robots from the staff.

The collaboration between the robot and employees also influenced Danish Crown's choice of the UR10e for their factories in Svenstrup and Låsby, where another robot has been installed. The robot is a cobot—a collaborative robot—which means it works alongside humans.

Jonas Salk believes that Danish Crown will benefit from cobots in various areas of production, especially because they reduce the need for heavy and unnecessary lifting by employees.

“We see many opportunities with collaborative robots in various parts of production and at our other factories, where we can eliminate heavy lifting for employees and leave it to the robots,” Jonas Salk concludes.

UR+ products used:

Safe&Light Foam Vacuum Gripper

Key value drivers:

The workflow has become more efficient

Faster and more consistent palletizing

Tasks solved by collaborative robots:

Palletizing of items

Automation challenges solved:

Elimination of manual work from repetitive lifting

Reduction of employee lifting by 50%

Easy and seamlessly implementation and maintenance

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