More and more stores request that their coffee orders be shipped with four different roasts on one pallet. In order to meet this demand Löfbergs Lila (the second largest roasting house in Sweden, with an annual production of more than 15,000 metric tons) have installed a robot in its packaging department. The robot has made it possible to rapidly palletize different types of coffee according to customer orders. Additional benefits have been an improved working environment and a reduction in the amount of investment tied up in storage.

"Through robotics, we have been able to improve production planning and, thereby, boost effectiveness in both production and distribution," says Kenneth Edvinsson, Production Manager, Löfbergs Lila. "If we receive an order before noon, the shipment is already on its way to the store the next day in our own trucks. This previously took longer.
"The ABB robot was the solution for effectively mixing different coffees from storage and production. The installation of a robot has not resulted in any reduction in employees. Instead, it has meant that we can increase production without having to hire more people, and our employees can avoid the packaging work.
It also gives us greater flexibility for the future. This was more than sufficient to justify the investment, although the robot doesn't run continuously."

Fewer people in production
Löfbergs Lila has an efficient production line. The company is one of the most modern roasting houses in Europe. Only a few of the 140 employees are directly involved in the roasting and packaging stages. By using a robot, one person can handle the entire sorting process, a process in which about 200 mixed pallets are sorted daily. The same person is also the robot operator, who is totally responsible for the robot during production and must be able to do reprogramming. The robot, according to Kenneth Edvinsson, is easy to program and operate.
Previously, the mixing operation was handled directly in production. Today, the various coffees in production are temporarily added to those already in storage. The sorted coffees (different roasts) from storage are rolled on pallets up to the robot. The robot picks up six trays of twelve 500-gram coffee packages each per cycle according to its program. The trays are then placed on a roller conveyor to the packaging line, where they are then sorted and mixed according to the store's requirements. The robot then places the empty pallets on the conveyor, a job that used to be done by hand.

Avoids storage production
Small stores do not always need a whole pallet of coffee. Therefore, they buy shrink-wrapped cartons containing twelve 500-gram packages of coffee each. The robot has made the handling of these cartons more efficient.
Previously, Löfbergs Lila put together the shrink-wrapped cartons containing different coffees right in production. Now, the cartons are shipped directly according to customer orders. Before, storage personnel handled the plastic covering manually, but the company has now integrated a shrink-wrap machine into the automated line.
"The robot installation was part of a more comprehensive investment program," explains Kenneth Edvinsson. "The investment costs added up to more than 340 thousand dollars, including the conveyors. For environmental reasons, we have gone over to aluminum-free packaging, and replaced the cardboard with a paper cover. By doing that, we have cut cardboard consumption by 400 metric tons a year, and aluminum consumption by 50 metric tons. This meant that we have been able to phase out three of the packaging machines of the total of five machines. Nowadays, we have two machines each with a capacity of 127 packages a minute."
Each machine packages one type of coffee at a time, which is transported on roller conveyors to the wholly automatic palletizing line. The roasting house produces more than 100,000 packages of coffee daily, consuming 1,500 sacks of raw coffee beans. This amount of coffee is sufficient to serve about nine million people.

Choosing the right robot for the job
Löfbergs Lila studied two different robot types: a gantry-type robot that moved and worked overhead and a floor-mounted, articulated robot.
"A gantry robot would not, however, give us the necessary flexibility if we were forced to make production changes to meet the fast-changing demands of the market," explains Kenneth Edvinsson. "We therefore chose an articulated robot that required little space, one that, using a circular motion, could pick up coffee packages (depalletize) from a pallet and place them on the roller conveyor."
"There were no reference installations for us to study, neither at other roasting houses nor in the food industry in general. ABB Flexible Automation in Västerås, Sweden, helped us customize an application for our special needs, and also train our personnel. We are very satisfied with the collaboration. We've received all the assistance we needed, and ABB was most helpful when we had to change the pick-up cycle to avoid damaging coffee packages."

Reduced work injuries
"Robots are often associated with the engineering industry. But they are becoming more and more common in the food industry as well," says Silas Nichols, the president of ABB Flexible Automation in the US. "The robot installation at Löfbergs Lila, however, was our first for a roasting house."
Many companies believe that investing in robotics is expensive. "It isn't if the company chooses a flexible application, one in which the robot and other production equipment can handle a large number of changes in the process in which they work," says Silas Nichols.
Besides boosting efficiency in the handling process and reducing tied-up capital in storage, the robot also contributes to a better working environment, and it reduces work-related injuries.
Today, companies in more and more countries are placing environmental symbols on their products in accordance with strict regulations. The manufacturing process must have the least possible impact on the environment, and most of the material used must be recyclable.
"It is important to ABB to care for both the external and the internal environment," says Silas Nichols. "Therefore, we would like to see that companies also package the products they manufacture with the greatest possible consideration to the environment, and let ergonomics and the environment work together. That would be an excellent competitive advantage."
ABB Flexible Automation is a business area within the ABB Group. Its business philosophy is to help customers increase quality, flexibility, and productivity while contributing to an efficient production and a good working environment through the use of flexible automation applications. The company has more than 5,000 employees in more than 20 countries with an annual turnover corresponding to 1.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Captions:
1) The cost-effective robot at work, sorting about 200 mixed pallets daily.

2) "Through robotics, we have been able to improve production planning and, thereby, boost effectiveness in both production and distribution," says Kenneth Edvinsson, Production Manager at Löfbergs Lila.

3) Löfbergs Lila's factory site, one of Europe's most modern roasting houses

For more information, please contact:
ABB Flexible Automation Inc.
Bruce Meyer or Ann Smith
2487 S.Commerce Drive
New Berlin, WI 53151
Tel: +1 414 785 3400
Fax: +1 414 785 0342

or

Löfbergs Lila AB
Kenneth Edvinsson, Production Manager
Hamntorget
P.O. Box 1501
SE-651 21 Karlstad, Sweden
Telephone +46 54 14 0118
Telefax +46 54 14 0135