June 2019

52 n GAMBICA SUPPLEMENT June 2019 www.drivesncontrols.com ADAPTIVE MACHINES CATER TO NEEDS OF NEW-GENERATION CONSUMERS A ny colour you want, so long as it's black” is an attitude that might have made sense back in Henry Ford’s days, but not any more. Today’s customers have other expectations, seeking value, uniqueness or instant gratification. This has an impact on machine-builders, whose designs need to evolve to keep up with demands for flexibility, cost reduction and time-to-market. Automation used to result in installations that were clunky and inflexible. Not so any more. Today’s systems are agile and adaptable, enabling manufacturers to aim for the ultimate goal in customisation – a batch size of just one. While the ultimate goal may not yet be quite achievable, we are well on the way. Today we have adaptable machines that feature independently controlled modules with multidirectional movement, tight synchronisation with other robotic devices, and exceptional flexibility. To this you can add the versatile transport track systems that form the backbone of the adaptive machine, moving items vertically as well as horizontally, synchronising different tracks with varying speeds, and working on products while in transit. This technology enables the type of production that a new generation of consumers demand – a generation that expects to get exactly what they want, when they want it. Customised sizing One of the companies responding to this trend is Tavil, a Spanish manufacturer of packaging machinery. The company has designed a case- packer that can make up, fill and close four different-sized cases on demand, at up to 20 cases per minute, and can change case sizes in just four seconds. This enables mass-customisation without reducing productivity. With major shipping companies now charging by volume as well as by weight, solutions such as this one are well suited to e-commerce. Batch size one – as well as very small batch sizes – allows shipping to consumers directly from the manufacturing line, thus cutting out the middle man. This is an interesting development to many manufacturers, in an era where the balance of power has shifted to the sales channel and production capacity has become a commodity. Here is an opportunity for manufacturers to re-establish a direct link to their end-users. Smaller batch sizes also result in savings, such as reduced costs for inventory of finished goods and for raw materials, fewer distribution centres, less need for servicing different sales channels, and no unsold goods of which to dispose. Emerging technology So the benefits of batch size one are very tangible. What has been lacking, so far, is the technology to service this need. To meet the expectations of a new generation of consumers in a cost-effective manner, a new type of factory is needed – a smart factory. In the smart factory, changeovers become a thing of the past. Instead, the opportunity to change both product and package comes with every cycle. To improve productivity further, accumulation of goods is replaced by synchronisation of flows. Where dissimilar products have different process times, parallel processing in different streams balances the production time to meet the final target. Individual labelling One example of a new generation of packaging machinery now entering the marketplace is the Gen4 labelling system from the Italian manufacturer, Makro Labelling. This takes servo control of bottles to a new level. Two shuttles on two tracks are synchronised to control container movement, while a third shuttle uses linear motion to turn the container label for application. With multiple label applications, different labels can be applied in line, whether for different bottle sizes or shapes, or different products or flavours for batch size one. As the lifecycle of consumer products and packaging keeps getting shorter, the number of items in the product range keeps growing. Given the 15–20 year service life of industrial machinery, it is not possible to anticipate all of the changes that will occur – especially the disruptive ones. The adaptive machine will support rapid changeover and allow reconfiguration with different production modules using the same platform. It is easy to adapt to different sizes and formats. It will also adapt to Product cycles are becoming shorter and consumers more exacting in their demands. For machine-builders, this means a new type of machine is required – the adaptive machine. As Alan Conn, managing director of B&R Industrial Automation UK & Ireland, explains, this is a machine that can change with requirements and alter its output during production, aiming for the ultimate goal in customisation – a batch size of just one unit. Alan Conn ”