Palletizing is a core course of for a lot of companies, however it’s not with out its difficulties. The affect of some widespread pallet issues can embrace larger product prices, delays in supply, and broken items.
Some issues value your online business greater than others. Employee damage, for instance, may be very detrimental, as can buyer dissatisfaction.
There are numerous distinct issues that would happen in a palletizing course of. These vary from system design issues, like badly configured conveyor programs, to human error throughout handbook palletizing.
Step one to overcoming widespread pallet issues is to determine them. By correct planning, coaching, and gear, you possibly can keep away from these widespread issues to maximise productiveness and profitability.
Here’s a information to five of the extra widespread palletizing issues and recommendations on how one can overcome them by including robots to your palletizing course of.
Kinds of palletizing issues you would possibly encounter
For such an apparently easy process, palletizing has many areas during which issues can go improper.
There is no such thing as a definitive checklist of forms of palletizing issues. However listed below are a couple of forms of issues you would possibly encounter:
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Conveyor and feeding issues — Conveyors are used to maneuver supplies and merchandise all through your facility. They’re additionally prone to be the step instantly earlier than your palletizing course of. If not designed or maintained correctly, they will trigger points that have an effect on palletizing.
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Pallet loading points — Most of the product damages which might be prompted throughout palletizing or subsequent cargo may be traced again to loading points. For instance, when items are positioned too shut collectively or too far aside on a pallet, they will transfer in transit.
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Pallet wrapping issues — One other main explanation for product harm is inaccurate wrapping of the stuffed pallet. Wrapping is vital as a result of it helps defend items throughout transit. Widespread issues embrace not utilizing sufficient stretch wrap, utilizing an excessive amount of, or utilizing the improper sort.
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Inconsistency issues — If you carry out palletizing manually, many issues that happen are inconsistent. Individuals turn into drained after an extended shift stacking packing containers onto a pallet. This will result in them making errors that have an effect on the standard or integrity of the palletizing.
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Effectivity issues — Maybe the least apparent sort of palletizing issues are these associated to process effectivity. It is not at all times apparent when a palletizing process is inefficient, however the impacts may be vital. You would lose some huge cash and time by not enhancing the effectivity of the duty.
These are only a few of the forms of palletizing downside you would possibly come throughout. However all can have an effect on the operation of your online business and palletizing course of.
5 widespread pallet issues and how one can overcome them with robots
Robotic palletizing is now some of the efficient methods to beat some widespread palletizing issues. Including a robotic may scale back some of the massive wastage that may happen with handbook palletizing.
Listed here are 5 particular widespread pallet issues and recommendations on how one can overcome every one with robots:
1. Pallet loading inefficiency
One downside with handbook pallet loading is that it’s time consuming and liable to errors. It may take a very long time for human staff to correctly stack gadgets onto a pallet, leading to longer wait instances and decrease throughput.
There’s a complete analysis discipline dedicated to this downside, the place it is named The Palletizing Drawback. On this discipline, researchers try to seek out probably the most environment friendly loading sample of a specific pallet so packages may be securely transported.
Robots have a bonus over handbook palletizing as a result of they may at all times place packages within the programmed sample, which ensures they adhered this optimally environment friendly sample.
2. Misaligned packages on the pallet
Misaligned packages are widespread in handbook palletizing. Such packages could cause an unstable pallet, growing the danger that merchandise will transfer round throughout transit or storage.
Robotic palletizing will help scale back misalignment by guaranteeing a exact placement of packing containers each time. The accuracy required for palletizing is kind of low in comparison with, say, superb meeting actions. Which means that robots can place packages shortly and nonetheless obtain higher accuracy than human staff.
3. Inconsistent palletizing high quality
Inconsistent palletizing is widespread with handbook labor as folks work lengthy shifts. It is typically laborious to trace inconsistencies as a result of, by nature, the errors fluctuate each time. This will trigger a scarcity of visibility of widespread errors, growing the danger of expensive and time-consuming errors.
Consistency is likely one of the main advantages of robots. Robotic palletizing is thus an efficient answer to this widespread downside.
4. Inaccurate stock counts
It is laborious for human staff to recollect to log or scan each merchandise that they place on a pallet. Over lengthy shifts, it is inevitable that folks will inaccurately rely at the very least one thing. This results in inaccurate stock counts.
Robotic palletizing will help scale back the danger of inaccurate stock counts, as robots can precisely rely each field that it locations. You can too add sensors to robotically scan every field utilizing a scanner or imaginative and prescient sensor.
5. Damages brought on by dropping merchandise
Guide palletizing can result in product damages in varied methods. Persons are typically in a rush when palletizing, particularly if it’s only certainly one of their many duties throughout a day.
Examples of ways in which merchandise may be broken embrace packing containers falling in transit due to dangerous stacking and dropping packing containers throughout the palletizing process.
Will robotic palletizing clear up your pallet issues?
In case your palletizing course of has extra issues than you want to it to have, it’s totally seemingly that robotics could possibly be an efficient answer.
To search out out, it is a good suggestion to get in contact with a provider of robotic palletizing options. The Robotiq Palletizing Answer provides varied configurations to swimsuit an unlimited vary of palletizing duties.
With the correct robotic in place, you possibly can enhance the accuracy, effectivity, and security of your palletizing process.
What issues have you ever encountered together with your palletizing? Inform us within the feedback beneath or be part of the dialogue on LinkedIn, Twitter, Fb, or the DoF skilled robotics group.