Sustainability through production efficiency
Author : Tony Coughlan, Turck Banner
13 March 2023
Meat tracking
Sustainability doesn’t have to come at a cost; in fact, many companies are finding that their initiatives are saving them money. Turck Banner, for example, has identified three broad areas where it can assist companies in saving costs as well as in becoming more sustainable: production efficiency, energy management and supply chain management.
Production efficiency
Here, we look at four different applications under the production efficiency category: increasing yields in meat processing; increasing efficiency in assembly stations; edge guiding to reduce waste; and picking solutions to eliminate errors and returns.
Increasing yields in meat processing
A large meat processing company supplying meat products to over 50 countries has teams of highly skilled butchers, processing more than 4 million sheep and cows per year. As every butcher and every animal is unique, achieving the highest meat yield from each animal takes skill. To identify which butchers achieve the highest yields, every animal is tracked throughout the whole butchery process using RFID tags, embedded in the containers which carry the parts.
Meat tracking
At every stage, the bone and fat removed are put into separate containers which are also tracked and weighed. At the end of the process, the exact amounts of the retail meat, fat, bone, and any other waste, are known for every animal. This data also shows which butchers are able to achieve the highest yields from which areas of the animal. Utilising this information allows butchers to be placed where they are most productive, and to pass on their skills to other butchers.
Higher yields ultimately result in less waste, less animals required, and with less time and energy spent producing the retail product.
Call for parts
Increasing efficiency in assembly stations
Assembly station workers need both a constant supply of parts and somewhere to put a completed product. Both are equally important, to maintain maximum efficiency. Empowering operators to call for parts and collection, when they feel it necessary, is the first step in maintaining optimal production speeds. However, with no acknowledgement that a request has been received, and that a forklift or automated guided vehicle (AGV) is on its way, the ‘call’ is often far too early, resulting in congestion around the workstation, which slows production.
By utilising wireless illuminated touch buttons, which change colour to indicate progress, the operator receives direct feedback regarding all stages of the assembly. Illumination is off at the beginning and end of the process, and changes colour with each step, firstly indicating that the button has been pressed, and then that the AGV is in transit. Finally, the operator touches the button to acknowledge the AGV’s arrival with parts, or its departure with a pallet of completed products.
Edge guiding to reduce waste
Timed data from each button press, combined with detection of each completed part, provide the data required to allocate resources and optimise manufacture. Wireless communication and position tracking between the AGV and workstation enable the system to direct the AGV in the most efficient pattern.
This not only results in increased productivity, but mileage on the AGVs and forklifts is also reduced, saving energy and maintenance costs.
Edge guiding to reduce waste
The delicate clear film used in dye sublimation printing has to be handled very carefully, as any blemishes in the film will be transferred to the printed images. The film has to be guided very precisely, to avoid wrinkles or tears, but if the detection method is too close, then there is a risk that the film may be damaged by touch.
Pick to light
A special low-contrast light curtain, placed up to 375mm away from either side of the film, is able to detect the clear edge precisely, and issue instructions to guide the material gently through the machine. The same light curtain is used in carpet manufacturing to detect the two-edge transition on the carpet web. The first transition is air to ‘selvage’ (the substrate material of the carpet), while the second transition is selvage to tufting. Automatically measuring and adjusting these transitions as close to the tufting process as possible greatly reduces any waste that previously occurred in post-manufacturing inspections.
Pick-to-light eliminates picking errors and reduces product returns
The correct supply of a modular product, requiring a specific attachment from hundreds of nearly identical attachments, to fit something that a customer already owns, is a challenge. One example is the supplying roof bars with the correct fitting for one of thousands of different car models and makes. The chance of picking wrong parts in a continuous steam of orders, each requiring different combinations of parts, is extremely high.
As part of its sustainability initiatives, Turck Banner’s target is to plant a grove of 2023 trees in 2023
Ensuring correct parts are picked from a paper list is a very slow process, and is still prone to errors. Turck Banner has seen this problem in industries ranging from car accessory manufacturers to fast food outlets. Pick-to-light systems have solved the problem in almost all cases.
One such system involved installing devices with both a bright indicator and a numeric display on more than 400 part locations. When each operator was assigned their own colour, all they had to do was see which location was illuminated in their colour, and pick the quantity displayed on the device. After touching the illuminated button to acknowledge that the part(s) had been picked, the system would then illuminate the next location in the order sequence.
Unlike the old paper list that would be picked in the order it was printed, the system chooses a pick sequence to minimise the distance that the operator has to move, and sequences the heavy or bulky items last. Orders are picked more quickly, with no errors, resulting in far fewer returns. This, in turn, reduces transport costs and pollution, etc. Not printing picking lists saves on paper and printer ink, filing and recycling.
Conclusion
These are just four examples where careful investment in the right products can have a significant impact on both short- and long-term savings, at the same time making the product or process more sustainable.
More information on Turck Banner here.
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