EMS provider Qisda has disclosed it has seen 74% in improvement in production efficiency from adopting collaborative robots for production lines at its factory in northern Taiwan, with about 30 workers originally assigned for a production line reduced to 12-15 ones.
Qisda said its production lines need to be adjusted quite often to cater to different specifications and sizes for diverse product models. To facilitate flexible adjustments, Qisda sid it began to deploy collaborative robots in 2016, with such robots collaborating with workers to reach flexibility in adjusting production lines.
A large portion of collaborative robots are used in assembling, testing and packaging processes involving complicated work, Qisda noted. Collaborative robots equipped with machine vision and AI-based inspection are used in the testing process, and robotic arms are used in the packaging process in combination with AGVs (automated guided vehicles), Qisda indicated.
The use of collaborative robots is in connection with MES (manufacturing execution system) and WMS (warehouse management system), Qisda added.
With collaborative robots, the time taken to adjust a production line for different product models has been shortened from 30 minutes to less than three minutes, Qisda said.
Making collaborative robots easy to operate by simplifying programming and optimizing user interfaces is key to boosting use of such robots, according to Taiwan-based collaborative robot maker Techman Robot. Techman has offered TM Plug & Play kits which enable users of its collective robots to quickly finish hardware/software setting to reduce part of cost for system integration.
Qisda's production lines with collaborative robots and workers
Photo: Company