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In modern industry, the introduction of modern solutions is beneficial to both the business owner and the employees doing the manual labor. One such solution is automatic palletization of bulk packaging. Under this term is the use of palletizers – stations using cobots from the Kassow Robots or Fanuc family. Such a palletizer does the hard work of stacking packages on a pallet in a preset pattern, places spacers between layers. It does not get tired doing this and can work without interruption all the time. All that is left for the workers is to regularly pick up the packed pallets, replace the empty ones and refill the interlayer tray. Such a device can take an average of 4 to 9 tons of products off the worker’s back per shift.
Health benefits for employees and the organization
From the above, there are very positive health effects for workers and organizational effects for the factory. As we have already mentioned, the automation of robotic palletizing eliminates the need for heavy and, importantly, very repetitive physical labor. It is always many tons of palletized goods per shift, while performing the same movements over and over again. Palletizing is done from floor level, up to sometimes 2m. All of this leads to musculoskeletal injuries and strains in the workforce. Injuries and long-term fatigue can lead to permanent damage to workers’ health. Lifting and carrying heavy objects can lead to injuries to the back, shoulders and other parts of the body. Second, robotic automation of palletizing reduces the amount of repetitive manual labor. Performing the same movements for long periods of time can cause joint and muscle strain, leading to injury.
Thus, the introduction of robotic palletization for the worker means preventing the negative health effects of such manual work. It also improves work comfort. For the production plant, on the other hand, the benefit is the avoidance of costs associated with potential worker’s compensation, a reduction in turnover (associated with job dissatisfaction), or a reduction in the number of people needed to operate the line. This allows better management of the human resources at hand, for example, allowing people to be redeployed to more important activities.
A separate issue is the elimination of health risks when palletizing products that are in some way hazardous or harmful to health (e.g., due to dust, fumes, or extremely high weight). Here, too, the benefits are obvious.