I am Lao Zhou, the project manager of our factory. I just withdrew from a food factory in Shandong with my team last month. Before leaving, the workshop director Lao Ma pulled my hand and kept saying: "This automated packaging production line is simply a life-saving straw! If it was installed three years earlier, I could have half of my white hair!" This made me feel both relieved and emotional-after all, their workshop was a different scene half a year ago...
The late-night workshop "dragged down" by manual packaging
When I first stepped into the customer's workshop, the scene in front of me made my heart tighten: more than 20 workers were flying around the assembly line, and the sealing machine "clicked" and made people panic. Old Ma smiled bitterly and opened the turnover box: "Mr. Zhou, you see, there are always loopholes in manual packing - this batch of sauce packages should have 12 bags per box, but there are always dozens of boxes with one bag more or one bag less every day."
What's more worrying is the night shift scene. At two o'clock in the morning, the sleepy workers pasted the labels crookedly, and the reworked products were piled higher than the operating table. The factory manager told us privately: "Young people now don't want to do this kind of repetitive work. Six temporary workers left last month, and the production capacity dropped by 30%!"
Tailor-made "three-step" transformation
We drew up a blueprint for the transformation of the automated packaging production line overnight, and the core is three words - stable, accurate, and fast:
Stable foundation: Replace the old belt conveyor line with a modular conveyor belt with visual positioning, and reorganize the workshop movement line like building blocks;
Accurate action: Install our patented correction system on the robot arm to control the grasping error at the hair level;
Fast iteration: The entire line reserves intelligent interfaces to facilitate the subsequent expansion of new modules such as labeling and inkjet printing.
The most exciting part is the transformation of the packing process. The glass bottles that were always crooked when stacked manually are now "held" by a six-axis robot with a vacuum suction cup and can automatically identify cracks on the bottle. The customer's quality inspection team leader slapped his thigh and said, "This is more efficient than human eyes in picking out defects!"
Transformation pains and rebirth
Of course, the transformation from manual to automated is not smooth sailing. In the first two days of the trial run, the robot arm suddenly "went on strike" - it turned out that the temperature in the workshop was too high, causing the servo motor to overheat and alarm. Our technical team immediately transformed the cooling system and put on "ice silk vests" (actually customized thermal conductive kits) for key components.
What moved me most was the transformation of the workers. Xiao Liu, a packer who thought he would be replaced by a machine, now wears AR glasses to inspect equipment and shows off to everyone he meets: "I am now the 'commander' of the automated packaging production line. I can adjust the output by tapping the screen with my fingers!"
Written in the end: The butterfly effect of the efficiency revolution
When I visited last week, the workshop was no longer a mess of cartons on the floor. 8 automated packaging production lines are swallowing and discharging materials like silver dragons, and the production capacity curve on the central control screen is steadily climbing. What's more surprising is that inspired by this, the customer's R&D department is planning to develop a small batch customized product line - this is a flexible production that was unthinkable in the past manual packaging era!
Before leaving, the factory manager pointed to the brand new AGV cart in the warehouse and said to me: "Next month, the raw material warehouse will also be transformed into an intelligent stereoscopic warehouse. I will have to trouble you then!" You see, this automation upgrade is like a snowball. Once it starts, it can't be stopped.
If you are also worried about the efficiency of manual packaging, you might as well come to our workshop. Look at those precisely dancing robotic arms and listen to the steady hum of the conveyor belt - this is the most beautiful lullaby for practical people in the intelligent era!
