American blow molding manufacturer Cox Container deployed Rethink Robotics’ Sawyer intelligent collaborative robot at its Alabama plant to fill the factory workforce gap and free employees from tedious repetitive tasks to engage in more creative work Improving employee satisfaction. Like other manufacturers in the injection molding industry, Cox Container faces 'recruitment difficulties' and makes it harder to leave skilled employees. To solve these problems, Cox Container began to adopt automated solutions to fill labor gaps and increase Factory productivity.
Cox Container was established in 1984 as B&D Plastics. Currently, the Cox Container factory covers an area of 73,000 square feet (about 6,782 square meters). It owns several blow molding machines and operates 24 hours a day. Unlike many other companies, Cox Container provides customized production services. Therefore, the factory needs different modes of operation, frequent switching between high-volume, low-mix and small-batch, and high-mix, which requires more flexibility for employees and machines. Like most manufacturers in the world , Cox Container encountered 'recruitment difficulties' and 'difficulties', especially in the need for two employees to cooperate with each other to perform bottling tasks. In this position if only one person is recruited, the workload is too great to keep up. If you have two people, you will have too much manpower. Sawyer Smart Cooperative Robot helps Cox Container solve this dilemma. Sawyer assists an employee in packaging, other employees can work in other positions in the factory. Plus all shifts, Sawyer Three full-time employees can be liberated and they can engage in more creative work.
Gary Fox, Cox Container Plant Manager, said: 'We have high requirements for recruiting employees, so it has been a headache for us to find a suitable employee. Now that we have Sawyer, we have reduced the number of employees by 50. %, and for some employees to change jobs so that they can perform some more value-added work. Thanks to this, our talent retention rate has greatly improved. ' In the Cox Container factory, Sawyer intelligent collaborative robot picks up from the conveyor belt The bottles are then placed in a custom box. This box is specially designed by Cox Container. When the box is half loaded, Sawyer picks up a piece of cardboard from another picking area and puts it in the box. A layer of bottles. When the box is full, the operator will give Sawyer a new box and perform a new packing job. The operator will complete the final packing of the product. Jim Lawton, chief operating officer of Rethink Robotics, points out: 'Like Sawyer' Such collaborative robots are easy to deploy and can help manufacturers fill labor gaps while also Freedom from tedious tasks and execution of more creative tasks. This can increase talent retention. In an increasingly competitive market, for small manufacturers such as Cox Container, cost-effective automation solutions are technological innovations and The key to improving adaptability. '
Gary Fox said: 'The Sawyer Smart Collaboration Robot has been deployed and operational smoothly in less than a day since it arrived at the Cox Container Plant, and the company expects to see a return on investment within 6 to 8 months. We will give Sawyer a visit to the factory. It trains the task and will be able to perform the bottling work the next day. Since then, Sawyer has never been late for leave, has never had a rest, and has been very dedicated and reliable. ' In the coming year, Cox Container hopes to be in the other three More Sawyer intelligent collaborative robots are deployed on the production line. Gary Fox said with great interest: 'Sawyer is an important part of our team, filling the vacancies and directly driving the business. I now have many ideas and want to be at the factory other The Sawyer Smart Collaboration Robot is also deployed in the area.