By Paul Richards, Partner Sales Manager, FANUC UK
The latest robot installation figures paint a familiar picture of UK manufacturing. With just 119 robots per 10,000 workers (against a global average of 162), we rank 23rd in the world in the global robot league table[1]. When you remove the automotive sector from these statistics, the picture is worse still, with just 69 robots per 10,000 workers. But there is one industry that’s bucking the trend and embracing automation like never before – food and beverage production.
Traditionally, the food and beverage sector has been slow to automate, making up just 3% of global robot installations in 2023. But for once, the picture in the UK is more positive – food and beverage production here has bucked the international trend by accounting for 14% of UK orders in 2023[2].
Mitigating labour shortages
It’s easy to see why automation is finally proving attractive to food and drink producers. The sector is in the grip of an unprecedented labour shortage which is affecting not only productivity but also profitability. According to the Food & Drink Federation, food and drink producers lost in the region of £1.4bn in the year to July 2023 as a direct result of the labour crisis. And recruitment is not the only issue. Often involving work that is repetitive, poorly paid and low-skilled, retention is a problem, too.
Automation is the obvious solution. Robots don’t get tired, don’t need time off, can work for hours even in the dark, and complete their work to a consistent level, time and time again. They are perfect for dull, dirty and dangerous tasks, freeing up human employees to take on more value-added tasks. But without the right support, business owners are in danger of over-specifying their automation requirements, resulting in expensive equipment laying idle or being under-utilised.
Solutions for existing problems
To avoid this, it is advisable to work with a robot supplier or system integrator that understands the needs of food factories and can solve immediate problems with minimal disruption to existing processes. By working together to find automated solutions to remediate current issues – rather than investing in equipment that looks great but isn’t fit for purpose – food businesses can increase their productivity, reduce their energy and labour costs, improve product quality and consistency, and boost their bottom line.
Paul Richards, Partner Sales Manager, FANUC UK.
Automate for success
Here are five ‘quick win’ areas in which robots can add immediate value to labour-stretched food and beverage manufacturers:
- End-of-line palletising – A notoriously monotonous, back-breaking and labour intensive role, end-of-line palletising unsurprisingly correlates to a high turnover of staff. Using robots for this task will improve staff wellbeing and increase efficiency on the line. Today’s industrial robots (including collaborative options) are flexible, agile and come with intuitive programming systems as standard, so short product lifecycles and changing shapes and sizes of boxes present no problem. Operators can easily reconfigure the robot using a simple touch screen, with no advanced programming skills required.
- Picking and placing – With manual labour increasingly hard to come by, it makes sense to employ a robot for applications that require repeatable precision. Monotonous tasks that require accuracy over a sustained period of time can place significant strain on human employees, leading to errors caused by tiredness or boredom. As well as the inevitable impact on productivity, this also increases the likelihood of high staff turnover. Using automation for such tasks will ensure accurate and efficient picking and placing of food items, time after time, while allowing human workers to focus on higher-value roles.
- Primary processing – When handling raw foodstuffs, food safety is paramount. Today’s industrial robots and collaborative models, such as FANUC’s CRX cobot range, are available with features specifically designed to prevent cross contamination and maintain the highest levels of food hygiene, while maximising speed and versatility in primary food processing. With options including food-grade grease, IP67 washdown features and specialised modifications such as hidden cables to limit the risk of food being trapped, manufacturers can prioritise food hygiene and consumer safety while increasing efficiency on their production line.
- Bridging gaps between processes – Traditionally, food and beverage manufacturing facilities comprise many individual pieces of equipment, which complete different processes. This piecemeal approach can create an inefficient, disparate workflow with lots of stopping and starting, relying on manual handling to bridge the gaps (in stark contrast to automotive manufacturing, for example).
End of line palletising – using robots for this pick-and-place task will improve staff wellbeing and increase efficiency on the line.
Take cooked meats as an example – the meat enters the production line, is formed into a shape, then chilled, sliced, weighed, labelled, boxed and shipped. In some factories, each stage of this process will be separated by manual handing, reducing productivity.
Historically, the need for human workers to bridge these gaps has been due to the inherent need for flexibility in food and beverage production, as a result of ever-changing product lines. But with today’s robots and cobots able to handle different shapes, sizes, weights and textures with ease thanks to their intuitive programming systems and built-in intelligence, this is no longer a barrier to automation.
Today’s robots and cobots are able to handle different shapes, sizes, weights and textures with ease thanks to their intuitive programming systems.
- Quality control – Another area which is ripe for automating is quality control. Robotic vision inspection systems using AI and machine learning can detect product faults quickly, accurately and reliably, helping to speed up production lines. This technology can also be used for product sorting and grading. Repetitive, manual tasks are ideal for being completed by AI-powered vision-guided robots, helping to free up valuable human employees.
[1] IFR World Robotics Industrial Robots 2024
[2] IFR World Robotics Industrial Robots 2024
