‘Cobots’ can strengthen Thailand’s food

[webfact]

‘Cobots’ can strengthen Thailand’s food

By Shermine Gotfredsen 
Special to The Nation 

 

 

The “Kitchen of the World”, Thailand is one of the largest producers of food products including rice, sugar, chicken and frozen seafood -- and the largest food exporter in Southeast Asia.

 

As the processing and distribution centre for the Southeast Asian region, the country’s food product exports reached US$24 billion (Bt768.4 billion) in 2016 and is forecast to reach $26.6 billion (Bt851.6 billion) this year. This growth can be attributed to an abundant supply of food materials and the competitive prices of major agricultural products. 

 

A growing population and changing consumer food preferences, such as increasing demand for various cuisines globally, have also spurred the Thai food production industry over the past five years. As consumer demand rises and diversifies, food manufacturers are looking at automation to boost production and offer consumers more food choices, placing Thailand’s food industry at the forefront of Industry 4.0. 

 

While there are different automation technologies available, certain options are gaining traction as they greatly simplify the automation process while offering enhanced benefits. Collaborative robots (cobots) – robots designed to work sidebyside with people – is one such technology. 

 

Offering a Helping Hand

 

With multiple benefits on offer, cobots are a valuable automation tool. As Thailand looks to strengthen its position as a world leader in the food industry, manufacturers can turn to cobots to reduce production cost, increase productivity through optimisation of processes to stay competitive, all while maintaining worldclass quality standards.

Compared to traditional robots, cobots have enhanced inbuilt safety features, making it perfectly safe for people to work in close proximity with the cobots. These safety features eliminate the need for fencing and bulky barriers (subject to risk assessments). Their ergonomic design also makes them lightweight and compact, and enable cobots to operate even within small and confined spaces. 

Cobots are userfriendly, easy to program and easy to use. This allows them to be integrated into any existing application, regardless of the production type or size, creating endless possibilities for robotic automation across industries. 

 

Automating the Industry

 

While automation adoption is generally associated with high investments, cobots allow for modular implementation – automating selected processes – to achieve progressive automation leading to increased profits. Through this approach the company can incrementally reinvest the additional profits to further automate and maximise profits. 

 

Cobots have found their way into food manufacturing industries around the world. Their precision, flexibility and safety make them capable of handling different tasks, ranging from simple pickandplace and palletising applications, to aiding in testing and development. 

 

Time is of the essence for manufacturers of perishable produce who aim to seal in the freshness and prolong the lifespan of their products. 

This reduces food wastage while allowing the products to be shipped over longer distances to more customers, increasing the manufacturers’ revenue stream. 

 

At Atria, a Northern European manufacturer of gourmet food products for convenience markets and retail chains, Universal Robots’ UR5 and UR10 cobots are used to label, pack and palletise fresh food products. 

 

By automating their production lines with cobots, Atria achieved higher quality output and was able to prepare an average of 228 items per hour for delivery. 

 

The ability to easily redeploy the cobots back and forth between packaging food and labelling packages also reduced downtime significantly – from six hours to 20 minutes – allowing Atria to supply fresh goods to customers at a competitive price. 

 

Using cobots in packaging also enabled the manufacturer to reduce carton waste by 25 per cent. Overall the company achieved considerable cost savings, reaping a substantial return on investment (ROI). 

 

Cobots have also been proven useful in freeing employees from mundane or potentially dangerous tasks. 

 

In one of the largest sugar factories in Europe, cobots have been deployed in the sugar analysis process to inspect and analyse 80,000 sugar beet samples during production. 

 

The cobots scan barcodes and pick up around 45,000 containers with sugar beet samples for analysis, from scales to filters and back again. 

This process is performed by a gripper and a barcode scanner attached to the end of the cobot |arm. 

 

Offering precision and accuracy, the cobots helped employees reduce mistakes by ensuring consistency while reducing the amount of physical effort required to carry out certain tasks. With cobots performing the repetitive tasks, employees can be redeployed to take on more stimulating and higherlevel responsibilities such as process optimisation.

 

The application of cobots has proved useful in ensuring hygienic food processing environments which require sterile conditions. This minimises the likelihood of food contamination that can result in costly product recalls and leave a lasting negative impact on a brand’s reputation.

 

Cobots can also perform a particular task around the clock when required, allowing businesses to maximise operational efficiencies and reduce production downtime. In the manufacturing sector, the deployment of cobots has shown an increase of as much as 30 per cent in output per employee.

 

The Way Forward

 

Cobots are a viable investment for longterm business sustainability and growth. Be it packaging, labelling or scanning, cobots play an integral role in transforming the food and beverage industry. 

 

They can offer Thai food manufacturers a helping hand in automating production processes, delivering increased efficiency and productivity to help the country maintain its status as the Kitchen of The World, and to become the world’s food innovation hub. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Startup_and_IT/30336227

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-01-15

 

[Dave67]

"robots (cobots) – robots designed to work sidebyside with people – is one such technology. "

 

 

I hope they have some kind of Thai sim card to put in them or things might turn ugly

 

 

[Essecola]

Cheaper than hiring extra Burmese or Cambodian workers as well maybe?

[Darcula]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The “Kitchen of the World”, Thailand

Never heard anyone use this term except the Thai media.

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Cobots are userfriendly, easy to program and easy to use.

 

They can be programmed not to dig their nose, and also to wash their hands after using the toilet.

 

[Cadbury]

It might be stretching it but perhaps cobots could be programmed to assist the police in collecting "monthly insurance dues" from a wide cross section of small businesses at strategic locations. Big savings could be made while leaving the police with more free time to explore new avenues of revenue raising.

 

3 hours ago, webfact said:

the world’s food innovation hub

We haven't had a hub for a while so it is good to see a new one added to the existing mountain of hubs that Thailand lays claim to.

[Lupatria]

Soilent Green comes to mind.

[Enoon]

 

Slogan "Kitchen of the World" by kind permission of CP Foods:

Product - Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL.

"With vision to be “Kitchen of the World”, the company is committed to fulfill the longing of quality food products that are nutritious, hygienic and with food safety integrity from consumers whose satisfaction and habit have change from time to time."

 

[holy cow cm]

Ridiculous. Raise the minimum wage, insist factories get more automated, and then the unemployment level rises. True sign of the donkey being walked backwards. 

[Krataiboy]

Three quick questions relevant to this subject:

 

When the cobots and robots take over the vast majority of jobs - as we are told they could well do in next three or four decades - will their labour be taxed like that of humans?

 

If not, where will the money be found to support the redundant masses with the Universal Basic Income or some other subsidy?

 

Or have the get-richer-quicker business entrepreneurs pushing the much-vaunted robotics revolution even bothered to give such a trifling matter any thought?

 

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by Krataiboy

[Speedo1968]

6 hours ago, Enoon said:

 

Slogan "Kitchen of the World" by kind permission of CP Foods:

Product - Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL.

"With vision to be “Kitchen of the World”, the company is committed to fulfill the longing of quality food products that are nutritious, hygienic and with food safety integrity from consumers whose satisfaction and habit have change from time to time."

 

Try reading / understanding the above slogan in English or, is just that my 70+ years of speaking English has confused me ?