Bastian Robotics Automation Case Study: Newell Rubbermaid Facility

00:05 Speaker 1: So Newell Brands is a consumer goods powerhouse. It’s mostly consumer goods, such as Rubbermaid, Rubbermaid Commercial, Sharpie markers, PaperMate pens, Calphalon cookware, and the Mr. Coffee.

00:16 Speaker 2: Here at the Rubbermaid facility in Ohio, we were assembling all the kits on a box line. Basically, the box line was a 100-foot long conveyor with anywhere from 15 to 20 operators.

00:29 Speaker 1: The overall facility is 850,000 square feet, of which 500,000 is manufacturing and 300,000 is warehouse.

00:38 Speaker 2: The major challenge we were trying to solve with the robotic automation was gaining productivity with packing up these set boxes.

00:50 Speaker 1: The system will help us serve our customers by hopefully improve our margin. Approximately 80% of our set volume will be able to be processed by this robotic cell, and shipping a more accurate product to the customer, which is the most important thing.

01:04 Speaker 2: We wanted to improve on the ergonomics. We also wanted to improve on our quality.

01:09 Speaker 1: Along with our cost of failure metrics, one of our biggest components is how many parts we put in a box. We’re hoping with the accuracy of the cell, we’ll be able to improve that going forward.

01:21 Speaker 2: We decided to work with Bastian Robotics because their project management team was very knowledgeable of our business, our products. They put a lot of time and effort into understanding what our needs were.

01:33 Speaker 1: The parts are made in injection molding in this facility. So we mold the parts here, then we store the parts in the warehouse, from the warehouse are moved to our pack and assembly operation within the same warehouse. The different product lines will be EFLs, as we call our Easy Find Lids, it’s where the lid attaches to the base. They’re more of a thicker part, more of a durable product. We also do TakeAlongs, the very thin-walled product and more of a disposable product. Both those will be processed on this line.

01:58 Speaker 3: Once they get conveyed into the system, we have a special device called the denesting device. It’s a mechanical device that pulls product from the NP conveyor and presents it to the robot in a specific quantity. There’s up to 10 robots in the system, and those 10 robots can pick from one or two denesters on either side, depending on what the recipe calls for. Once the case gets to the end of the system, the last robot does something a little bit different. The last product, if it’s a lid, a twist and seal lid, it doesn’t nest like the rest of the products. So those are caps, they get fed to the robot and the robot would put down the standard tool, pick up a vacuum tool, pick those lids, and place those into the case. After the product exits the system, it’s either sent down one of the additional process lines or a reject conveyor.

02:51 Speaker 1: The robotics system will process items at two different cycle times. We’ll do some of our sets at a 4-1/2-second cycle, which is about 800 parts per hour, and we’ll do some at 6-second cycle, which is 600 parts per hour.

03:05 Speaker 2: My experience with Bastian has been really good. The project managers, the sales, the engineering as far as mechanical, electrical, and programming have all been a really good help with the project, helping us understand the nuts and bolts behind the project.

03:23 Speaker 1: My experience working with Bastian Robotics has been both positive and informative. Positive as I see the progress we’ve made on the cell, and the improvements that are in front of us that could help us go to the next level. And also informative, through all the project and from all the information sessions and team that we would be able to answer questions, and to walk us through logistics, willing to work with us, listen to both sides of the story. It’s not always their solution, but it can be a team solution, and they’ve been able to work with us to come to the resolution we have today.

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