Small in size, big in performance: The future of productive automation

At a glance

“We provide you with a high degree of delivery flexibility and reliability,” promises Sirl Interaktive Logistik, which offers complete logistics service chains worldwide from several locations in Germany with over 100,000 m² of its own storage space. With such high standards, internal operations must also be at the highest level. To this end, Sirl uses a “Basic Move” robot solution from coboworx in the packaging logistics area for palletizing cartons of beer for export. This relieves employees of around 57 tons per shift. In addition to the palletizing performance, the rapid implementation of the project and coboworx's “Robotics as a Service” rental model were decisive factors in the procurement decision.

The challenge

In logistics, service providers often have no leeway in terms of time. The delivery date is specified by the customer. Predictability and high adherence to deadlines are particularly important for export orders. There is virtually no time buffer for transport dates by container ship. The availability of all production stages must be correspondingly high. In addition to this external challenge, there is the internal requirement for the procured palletizing system to handle 18 kg cartons and ensure a throughput of 400 units per hour. The robotic solution had to be designed for this throughput in any case, as the main cycle time at Sirl is determined by the repackaging system. Reducing the volume of the system in order to automate palletizing was out of the question. Logistics service providers need to be extremely flexible. This applies to both personnel and technology. In the case of the automated palletizing solution, Sirl has to handle 17 different carton patterns. The packing patterns are stored in the cell control system and can be adapted to changing customer requirements at the touch of a button. Space is always a sensitive issue in existing production facilities: One of Sirl's requirements was that the robot solution should not take up more space than was already available for manual palletizing. A slim, compact robot cell was therefore required—a characteristic feature of the mobile “Basic Move” cell. "We use just under 6 m² of space for the system, so we didn't have to take any additional storage space out of our storage space planning. All safety issues were also wonderfully resolved with the safety door. By opening the sliding door, we have access to the interior at any time to clean up any dirt or breakages that may occur in the system, so we are very clean here," explains Konrad Götz, who is responsible for warehouse logistics and production at Sirl.

The solution

With the coboworx “Basic Move” cell, Sirl Interaktive Logistik opted for a mobile robot solution. The coboworx cell was installed during a planned two-day production shutdown. During this time, the conveyor system and feed logistics also had to be adapted to the robot cell. Production was back up and running on the third day and reached the desired throughput within 24 hours. The mobile cell was set up parallel to production next to the manual station and then moved to its intended location on rollers. In principle, the system can also be moved to another comparable packaging station in the factory by two people with minimal effort. All that is required is to connect the power and compressed air, and the cell is ready for operation again. Sirl is also enthusiastic about the possibility of the palletizing system responding to the quality of the cardboard: “If the cardboard quality is good, the system runs at 100% capacity; if it is not so good, the system can be set to 80%, for example,” reports Konrad Götz. Sirl receives the cardboard boxes for the containers that run through the coboworx system from the customer. Experienced logistics specialists know that the quality of the cardboard boxes on automated systems can have a significant impact on smooth throughput.