According to a November 2019 report by the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry is India’s 4th largest sector, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of almost 28%. The rapid growth is undoubtedly an indication of a multitude of upcoming opportunities, along with the need to optimize efficiency with the very latest technology to enable India to truly compete on a global level.
What goes unnoticed about this rapidly growing industry is the challenges it faces every day, particularly the routine, labour-intensive activities such as packaging and palletising, all of which cause physical and mental stress to employees, and pose as ergonomic risks to them. Furthermore, these strenuous tasks often prevent FMCG companies from reaching full organisational efficiency.
While automation seems like the obvious answer in this scenario, manufacturers in India often face challenges on their journey to automation. For example, an abundance of unskilled labor, a lack of space on the shop floor, or the lack of technical expertise to operate complex new technology are all some common automation barriers faced by Indian FMCG companies. FMCG industry leaders, therefore, are increasingly turning to collaborative robots, or cobots, as the solution to their problems of efficiency, quality, and increased product variability.
While industrial robots have been around for years. collaborative robots, commonly known as cobots, are a much newer, niche technology. It is an advanced robotic arm that – unlike its industrial robot predecessors – was created with the intention of sharing the same workspace as humans. Pioneered by Universal Robots, cobots have a protective stop that is enabled when an object obstructs its path, making it safe to work alongside humans without the need for any cumbersome caging or fencing (subject to risk assessment). This means that cobots enable partial automation on the shop floor, an especially appealing and affordable solution to a labor-intensive country like India. It is Plug & Play, requiring just a standard power supply, unlike industrial robots, which require a heavier power source. Even the programming of cobots is easily done through a teach pendant, with no prior programming experience required – in fact, a large number of cobot customers have never worked with robots before, and the cobots are being operated by people who have just completed their basic education.
The Chakan manufacturing unit of L’Oréal India is an example of an industry leader that has benefitted from deploying collaborative robots. Realising that the strenuous task of manual palletising posed a Level 4 ergonomic risk to their employees, the company immediately turned to cobots to automate the process. In addition to completely eradicating this risk, the company experienced a 5% jump in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) at their plant. The flexible redeployment of the cobots was also a useful feature for the L’Oréal team, who found it extremely easy to dismount and redeploy the cobots on different lines, depending on demand.
While most FMCG giants are benefitting from the technology, there are still a multitude of companies that are unaware of just how collaborative technology can be used to skyrocket the manufacturing efficiency of the company. People who aren’t educated about the concept often mistake cobots for the robots which exist to replace the human workforce and are unsafe to employ at workstations, which is a notion far, far away from the truth. In truth, collaborative robots were designed to be utilised as a tool for their human counterparts, taking over labor-intensive work and creating opportunities for employees to take on more meaningful work.
According to a report by KPMG, India is expected to become the world’s fifth-largest consumer market. By helping companies of all sizes to overcome common automation barriers, cobots are enabling man and machine to work together and focus on what each does best, safely. In a world of increasing competition, collaborative robots are ‘’the great equaliser’’ that allow even small-scale manufacturers to evolve and produce world-class products.