All around the world we are all fighting against the invisible enemy that is COVID-19. Whether that is building our businesses back up, or trying to develop a vaccine within the pharmaceutical industry. We are all fighting our own battles, and here at Euroflow Automation we have something that may well strengthen your armoury… Social Distancing Solutions.
Working Conditions For Employees
Within the world of manufacturing, many companies are trying to adapt to the ‘new normal’ and work out ways that they can run their businesses like usual. This involves implementing stringent health & safety policies to keep their employees safe and well. Now in a normal office environment, this is fairly easy to implement. By seating employees at desks over 1m apart from each other, it is a quick-fix.
When it comes to large warehouses with packing and processing lines, this becomes a bit more of a challenge. With hundreds of people working on large packaging lines, shoulder to shoulder, introducing social distancing solutions can seem impossible. This is where bespoke automation solutions come in.
Automation Vs COVID
The main driver for switching from human-based manual labour to fully automated packaging and processing lines is the lower risk of the virus spreading within your factory or warehouse. Even if you currently have a semi-automatic packaging line it is likely that you employ hundreds of employees. Particularly if you are running a 24/7 shift pattern and have a variety of operators entering and leaving your facilities throughout the day.
If you choose to continue using manual labour, there are lots of things you can do to keep your workers safe. From plexiglass safety screens between each worker, to providing mandatory face masks. Whilst these preventative measures will definitely help, having a large volume of humans on the floor will still give COVID a good chance of spreading.
This brings us to collaborative robotics… a happy-medium. Collaborative robots are single or double-armed robots that learn the repetitive motions of human labourers. Meaning they can carry out the repetitive tasks, freeing up your staff for more important roles.
Lidding Automation
One of the main ways that you can reduce the need for human labour within your processing line is by integrating lidding automation. Whether you need something to automate your lid capping or lidding, we can create the bespoke solution for your individual requirements.
Fully automated processing machinery requires very little, if any, human interaction other than the initial programming and set up. Once this is done, your new lidding system will run on its own and help speed your processes up. Capable of operating at a bespoke range of speeds, our lidding machines are suitable for a wide variety of lid sizes and styles.
Automation Can Lower Costs
Whilst there is a cost associated with adding automated processing equipment to your current facilities, the production and efficiency of your systems will increase almost instantly. Depending on what your goals are, by using automation you could create several days’ worth of volume within a much shorter timescale.
Manual labour is an integral part of many businesses, but even when operating at peak efficiency humans can only do so much at one time. With shorter production times using automation, you can yield more products, whilst keeping your employees safer from the threat of COVID by reassigning them.
If you would like any further information on the bespoke Social Distancing Solutions, in particular our lidding automation, please contact us on 01205 357887.
