
In 1897, Steve Papanicholas immigrated from Greece to Chicago, where he founded Overland Coffee Co., now Napco Brands, a family-owned coffee company that uses the same robust sourcing, roasting, and blending practices developed by Papanicholas at the turn of the century. Since its founding, the company has expanded from roasting and packaging a single in-house brand to producing four distinct coffee brands: Papanicholas, Day to Day, Versanto, and Basic Joe. It also offers a growing line of private-label coffees.
βAt Napco, we have a lot of capability to pack for private label,β explains Eric Latsch, vice president of operations for Napco and Papanicholasβ great-grandson. βWe have a lot of factory services we can offer, anywhere from roasting [the coffee] to packing it into a sealed container for retail sale or for restaurant or foodservice businesses.β
Eric Latsch, great-grandson of company founder Steve Papanicholas, is vice president of operations for Napco, which produces a range of its own coffee brands as well as private-label options.
Cobots prove cost effective, reliable
At its facility in Naperville, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, Napco has two production lines manufacturing single-serve coffee capsules. Before installing the robotic palletizers, all of the companyβs operations were manual: An operator placed capsules into cartons and brought the cartons to another operator, who taped and palletized them.
To find areas where the process could be optimized, Latsch worked with Brian Einzig, sales engineer at FPE Automation, who evaluated the line to pinpoint areas of opportunity for automation. For the end-of-line palletizing task, Einzig recommended the AX10 Robotiq Palletizing Solution with a UR10e cobot due to the systemβs ease of deployment and its ability to handle a wide variety of pallet heights. Einzig then enlisted Jeff Benning, chief executive officer of DesignHawk Innovations, to integrate the two new palletizers into the existing line.
Before he selected the Robotiq system, Latsch shares that he had considered many different types of packaging equipment to improve production, but he found the costs prohibitive. βThereβs a large barrier to entry when youβre talking millions of dollars in a single packaging line that may or may not help you,β he says.
Collaborative robots were a much easier and more cost-effective option, he notes. In fact, the Robotiq Palletizing Solution paid for itself in less than a year, while other parts of the project returned their investment in about two years. The cobot palletizers run two shifts, operating 18 to 20 hours per day. Each day, each palletizing cell fills 1,500 cartons, totaling 180,000 single-serve coffee capsules packed daily between the two cells. The robots have helped increase productivity at Napco by about 15%.
According to Latsch, because costs are now fixed rather than variable and since the system has significantly reduced overtime, the company has been able to be more aggressive on bidding new business. βHaving this automation with a higher efficiency has made it possible for us to acquire new customers,β he says. βWe have several new private-label customers we couldnβt have dreamed of two years ago.β
He adds that the robots also provide the reliability that is so critical to Napcoβs private-label business. βWith our own brands, if you donβt get something out as soon as you can, you only have to answer to yourself. If weβre making a product for another customer, we have to make sure itβs done on time, and to get it done on time, we have to have something like a robot thatβs going to show up and perform,β he says.
Eight operators freed up from palletizing
Napco has never had an employee layoff, and automation hasnβt changed that approach. Instead, in todayβs tight labor market, the two robotic palletizers have allowed the company to redeploy eight valued workers per day. Rather than performing the manual task of palletizing, the employees have been reassigned to operate larger equipment at higher pay in specialized tasks that require human capabilities.
In addition, the robotic palletizers have eliminated employee injuries resulting from lifting and bending to palletize cartons, along with the high employee turnover associated with repetitive jobs. The cobotsβ built-in safety features also provide employees with additional protection against injury. The UR10e features force-sensing technology and collision detection that allow the cobots to work alongside operators without the need for safety barriers or cages, promoting a safe working environment.
Up and running in a day
As Benning of DesignHawk explains, while Napcoβs packaging line uses a PLC to communicate, the cobot palletizers use a built-in controller from UR, with no additional PLC required. βEach robot knows the other exists, so if thereβs an issue with one, itβs transmitted to the other,β he says.
The built-in controller also eliminates the need for additional hardware. βItβs all right there,β Benning says. βThereβs less to diagnose, thereβs less to program, thereβs less we have to teach Napco to maintain, and then ultimately, thereβs just less that can go wrong.β
The palletizing system features an intuitive online configurator, which enabled Benning to quickly map out the application during setup. Once carton sizes, pallet dimensions, and format are entered, the simulation provides an accurate cycle time for the process. βThatβs always one of the difficult parts of our job, determining exactly how the final system will run,β says Benning. βIt was a huge benefit knowing that weβre going to meet the cycle time we need; weβre going to put enough material in boxes at the right rate for Napco. After seeing the simulation software and realizing that Robotiq had the whole palletizing package, it was a really obvious choice.β
When the palletizers were installed, Latsch was surprised by their small footprint and how fast they were to set up. βInstalling the Robotiq Palletizing Solution with UR cobots was definitely the easiest thing weβve ever done,β says Latsch. βI donβt even know if it was more than a shift to get it up and running from when they delivered it. I couldnβt imagine it going any better.β
Easy programming and minimal training
According to DesignHawkβs Benning, one advantage of the Robotiq palletizing system is the ease of programming and ongoing use. He adds that after deploying a new system at a customerβs site, his focus is on working with them to make sure they feel confident in maintaining the system and taking ownership of it over its lifetime. He says that URβs intuitive cobots and Robotiqβs palletizing software have make his job simpler. βOnce the system is set up, itβs very easy for Napco to add new boxes or different size pallets,β he explains.
Notes Robotiq, the palletizing software makes changeovers quick and easy. It takes less than a minute on the cobotβs touchscreen to change the size of a box, the number of boxes that go on a pallet, and the direction of the boxes. When a new product comes in, an operator is able to take an existing installed program and modify it for new requirements. βItβs a very simple process,β confirms Napco Brands Production Floor Manager Eric Matthews, who had no previous experience with robots before the new system was installed. βDesignHawk walked me through itβno more than five to 10 minutes of trainingβand I can take any size box, with any parameters, and program the system myself.β
One of Napcoβs two Robotiq cobot palletizers picks a sealed carton of coffee capsules from a conveyor for placement on a pallet.
As Latsch looks across his business and the manual packaging processes still required for different coffee products, he sees many other opportunities for collaborative robots. βI think cobots would be helpful in almost any factory setting,β he says. βIt depends on the task, of course, but I could find a use for them anywhere.β He also recognizes the importance of the right integrator and distributor, saying, βDesignHawk and FPE Automation made the process as easy as it could be.β PW
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