APRIL Lauren Moir APRIL Lauren Moir

The Future of Powder Handling Health & Safety: Robotics Takes the Lead

If you’re in the bakery business, you’ll already be familiar with the many health & safety considerations that must be monitored and mitigated. There are the usual ones that come with any industrial facility, but there are a whole host of those specific to the powders and dust and how to protect your operators, without a simple and cost-effective solution. But that’s where robotics comes in.

Health and safety are always top priorities in manufacturing, but when it comes to handling powders and dust, the risks can be particularly challenging to manage. Operators must contend with the potential health risks associated with powders and dust, and finding simple and cost-effective solutions to mitigate these risks can be a major challenge.

Fortunately, robotics is emerging as a game-changer in powder handling safety. By automating the handling of powders and dust, robotics can help protect operators from exposure to hazardous materials and improve overall safety in the workplace. With robotics, manufacturers can reduce the risks associated with powder handling, while also improving efficiency and productivity.


The perils of powders

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Powder ingredients can be difficult for operators to work with safely. Any fine powder in any industry, will create dust that could have a negative impact on operator health as the actions taken with the powders, from sieving and weighing to conveying and blending, all generate dust as the product is moved from one place to another.

Flour dust in particular is labelled a hazardous substance as defined by the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002, because repeated and long-term exposure can cause occupational asthma and respiratory irritation, such as rhinitis, as well as skin conditions like dermatitis. There are many steps that must be taken to reduce the amount of dust people breathe in to the lowest level reasonably practicable, but the measures are not always correctly interpreted as we saw from the £159,000 fine handed to a bakery in 2018 that failed to protect its staff.

The risk of working around these powders in bakeries is stark. While the overall incidence rate of occupational asthma has decreased since 1999, the rate of new cases amongst bakers as reported by occupational physicians is now the highest of any occupation in any industry, according to the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) in the UK. So what are the measures that bakeries can take to protect operators, and are they sufficient?


Rising regulation

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The HSE in the UK requires manufacturers to avoid exposing their employees to dust, or where not practical, to adequately control exposure. The Workplace Exposure Limit (WEL) of flour dust is 10mg/m3 (averaged over 8 hours) for long-term exposure and 30mg/m3 (averaged over 15 minutes) for short-term exposure. Yet the HSE believes that 2mg/m3 dust in the air for staff working in the weighing and handling of powder ingredients is possible to achieve. How, you may wonder?

HSE advises manufacturers to keep ingredient handling to a small, dedicated area with good airflow, only accessible to trained staff who open all containers carefully and scoop gently. It’s recommended that companies implement local exhaust ventilation (LEV) systems at the source of the dust, using short extraction ducts and disposing of the air in a safe place away from windows, doors and air inlets. Manufacturers should also conduct regular maintenance as well as implement alarms for blockages or failures in the extraction system. The facility should try to only use low-dust additives and single dose packets to avoid the need for weighing, as well as supplying the appropriate PPE to its workforce, or even RPE (respiratory protective equipment) in some cases, and ongoing health surveillance for your employees… The list goes on, as do the costs. The bakery that was fined in 2018 spent £232,000 on solutions to ensure compliance and protect its staff - a hefty sum that reveals the potential costs involved in the implementing the current measures.

No one would deny that these are all vital aspects of bakeries’ duty of care to its staff – no one’s health should be in danger in the workplace. Yet it doesn’t seem right that even with all of these measures, there’s still an incidence rate of 38.8 per 100,000 (not accounting for under-reporting) for bakers and confectioners who have been exposed to flour dust during the course of their work.

According to the Federation of Bakers’ publication, A Baker’s Dozen, if there is a solution out there that can help to reduce risk, it should be implemented, as can be seen on page 9:

To comply with the regulations exposure levels should be kept not only below the WELs, but are reduced as low as reasonably practicable. In practice this means that if there is a technically achievable and cost‐effective control that reduces exposure, it must be put in place.
— A Baker's Dozen, Federation of Bakers, page 95

Robotics to the rescue

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We all know that the best way to reduce risk is to ensure that staff are not put into situations where they will encounter a hazard. That’s why the latest solution, the APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling system is the new solution the industry has been waiting for. By using robotics to carry out the manual weighing and ingredient handling tasks, bakeries can transform their operations, achieving unmanned ingredient weighing and taking their operators away from the risk, moving into the ‘Elimination’ section of the above hierarchy of control.

With an APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling system, the task is fully automated, also helping to mitigate the problems of social distancing that are now part of our daily life. Using robotics and advanced automation, bakers can achieve unrivalled accuracy, efficiency and allergen control. The system allows you to weigh out ingredients to an accuracy of +/- 1g every time, improving consistency of batches while reducing waste. Combining exceptional storage density with an unparalleled turndown ratio for high accuracy ingredient scaling, a robot retrieves and manages your ingredients from a network of APRIL smart containers (ASCs) as per your recipe and scales them into an ASC Blend Container. The ASCs are managed through the system, including cleaning operations, offering a reliable and repeatable unmanned operation. 

Furthermore, with APRIL Robotics there is a reduced chance of cross-contamination due the dedicated ingredient containers and contact components within the APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling system. This also offers full traceability for the product, ensuring that products are labelled accurately to reflect the contents of the product on the packaging and helping to prevent product recalls as well as protecting consumer safety. 

In this way, bakeries can not only protect their operators, but also boost productivity, increase accuracy, reduce the risk of cross-contamination and safeguard consumer health.


Remove operators from risky operations with APRIL Robotics while also boosting your bottom line.

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APRIL Lauren Moir APRIL Lauren Moir

Top 7 reasons for switching to robotics

Many industries have yet to take advantage of robotics. Yet there is so much that’s ripe for automation, particularly when it comes to automating processing tasks. Here we outline the top 7 reasons for switching to robots in your processing.

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Many industries have yet to take advantage of robotics. Yet there is so much that’s ripe for automation, particularly when it comes to automating processing tasks. This activity offers significant value, not just in terms of cost savings but also to achieve a step change in quality and traceability. Here we outline the top 7 reasons for switching to robots in your processing.


1) 24/7 reliability

Productivity is a challenge all over the world, and one that has been further impacted by COVID-19. For example, the UK has seen reduced productivity growth over the last ten years, as output per hour and real wages remained no higher in 2020 than they were pre-2008. It’s clear that we all must do something different to produce a step change.

While labour has traditionally been the answer to reduced productivity in many industries due to its flexibility and cost-effectiveness, robots are inherently more reliable than humans. With a mean downtime of 30 minutes per year, they also don’t need to stop to maintain their effectiveness, helping to boost your productivity. This means that they can operate 24/7 with increased levels of accuracy when compared to humans and with zero risk of cross-contamination

Using robots allows manufacturers to do the same tasks as humans currently carry out but much more accurately, without error or waste, and at much faster rates. This can transform productivity levels, allowing manufacturers to become much more competitive, as well as reducing the costs incurred as only one operator is needed to manage the system.


2) Affordable automation

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The cost of robotics is coming down, just at the point when the cost of labour is increasing across the globe. The processing stages in many industries can be particularly affected by these rises due to the number of operators usually involved.

The living wage in the UK is currently at £8.91 (as of April 2021), and is set to rise further so it’s easy to see how these labour-intensive tasks add up and can start to chip away at your bottom line. In addition, rising production costs and cut-throat competition across the board require manufacturers to do something differently, which typically means a high degree of automation to increase efficiency. The manpower required to meet your productivity levels can (almost) never be justified, however, if you can find the areas where you have many people doing manual tasks and automate this, the labour cost reduction alone will soon justify the capital investment upfront.

By implementing robotic ingredient handling or batch processing, it’s possible to remove human intervention from traditionally labour-intensive activities, therefore allowing manufacturers to reduce associated labour costs and boost margins.


3) Accuracy and reduced waste

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Unfortunately humans are, well… only human! When people are involved in processing, they make mistakes; that’s par for the course when performing repetitive tasks during an eight-hour shift. Unmanned facilities remove this risk as once programmed, robots can’t make mistakes.

Human intervention has been found to be the second largest cause of waste in food production. A major study by Brunel University, London, and Ghent University reviewed the production processes at 47 food manufacturers in Belgium and found that human error is a major cause of food waste, accounting for 10.9%*. In addition, human interaction can also be a source of cross-contamination, which can jeopardise consumer health and should be avoided at all costs.

As we’ve seen in the automotive industry, the benefits of robotics in terms of accuracy, quality and productivity cannot be ignored - it’s time to bring these advantages to more industries.


4) Overcome labour shortages

Whether it’s Brexit or COVID-19 reducing the available pool, we’ve seen that labour shortages are a recurrent problem for many industries and it’s becoming harder to recruit the labour force upon which we have traditionally relied. Many manufacturers have had to meet increased demand with fewer people while also implementing social distancing measures to protect staff, particularly challenging in labour-intensive areas of a facility.

Automation can vastly reduce the number of operators needed, whether it’s upstream in materials handling or downstream on the packaging line, increasing efficiency and accuracy, saving money but also reducing the number of people on what can sometimes be a crowded factory floor. Automation allows manufacturers to deliver their volumes and keep their people safe.

By investing in fully automated manufacturing systems, companies can mitigate the impact of labour shortages and improve profitability at the same time. To do this, the traditionally complex, labour-intensive manufacturing processes must be converted fully to automated operations and critically this means matching the full flexibility of manual operations. Furthermore, automation can simplify the tasks completed by operators, reducing reliance on highly skilled individuals.


5) Operator health & safety

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Working with many raw materials, from powders to harmful chemicals, every day in manufacturing facilities can pose a significant risk to operator health as exposure to dust can cause occupational asthma and rhinitis. What’s more, lifting and tipping sacks of ingredients all day, every day can cause musculo-skeletal disorders.

Manufacturers must mitigate this risk and the best way to achieve this is to remove the operator from the activity by automating the tasks, protecting operator health and allowing them to move into more value-added roles.


6) Batch of 1

Production lines that can adapt to rapid product changes, customisations and small batch sizes are vital in today’s manufacturing environment. From changing consumer preferences to fluctuating raw material prices it pays to have the ultimate flexibility in your production. Consumers have begun to expect personalisation and customisation in their purchases - fulfilling these by hand would be too expensive, but robotic systems that can adapt and cater to consumer trends will keep themselves ahead of the competition.

To take advantage of this trend for personalisation, smaller batches are required so manufacturers can easily switch to meet customer requirements rather than the bulk processing approach that has been standard. This is where robotic solutions, such as the APRIL Robotics Robot Chef is ideal as you can produce 600L batches and operate much more flexibly to adapt to these growing trends. There are different programmes depending on what is needed for a given run, allowing manufacturers to adapt for a wide range of variables. An operator merely needs to select the correct programme and the robot takes care of the rest. Very little expertise is needed to operate these systems, and no extra time is required to make the change, bringing all of the benefits of robotic automation.


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7) Traceability

With total traceability for your product and a full audit trail, robotic systems can help to prevent product recalls. By linking your system to your ERP, you’re able to track all of your ingredients throughout the entire process to give you a real-time view of your operations.


Working with a dedicated partner like OAL can help manufacturers to realise all these benefits whether it’s starting small or a more radical transformation. From system studies to 3D factory scans, we can ensure you achieve the right results with a clear financial justification for the investment to deliver ROI in under 24 months.

Ready to join the robotic revolution? Get in touch today!

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APRIL Lauren Moir APRIL Lauren Moir

Can robots replicate the flexibility of operators?

For a number of years now robots have been employed on the production and packaging lines. But what about robots in processing? Automation has been largely under-utilised in this area as humans have traditionally offered the greatest flexibility, but is this still the case? Here we explain how robots are more than up to the task.

 
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For a number of years now robots have been employed on the production and packaging lines, taking care of standardised and repetitive tasks. But what about robots in processing functions? Automation has been largely under-utilised in this area as humans have traditionally offered the greatest flexibility, but is this still the case? Here we explain how robots are more than up to the task.


Operator flexibility

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The challenge with any automation project is that people are hugely flexible; they can move from one task to another seamlessly, for example changing quantities of raw materials from one batch to the next and switching outputs at a moment’s notice. Labour in the UK and many other countries has also traditionally been highly cost-effective, which made humans an ideal solution on the processing line, scaling up and down to meet demand.

But as labour costs rise and skills shortages, as well as operator availability, continue to hit all industries hard, it’s clear we need to re-evaluate our reliance on operators and explore new automation opportunities to future-proof production.

It’s understandable that some manufacturers feel that robotics will never be able to replicate the flexibility of a person. It’s often assumed that robotic engineers will be needed onsite to set up each line and make the necessary programming updates for each product changeover. Not only would this be time-consuming but most manufacturers wouldn’t have access to engineers with this sort of expertise, which has meant that robots haven’t appeared to be a viable solution for lines with multiple changeovers. Yet with the right solution, this is not the case at all. Manufacturers need robotics systems to be easily configurable for different products or raw materials and able to adapt to the changes that inevitably occur within any manufacturing facility. With their speed and agility, robots are ideally placed to handle frequent product changes as is often required in today’s manufacturing environment, particularly as we must increasingly cater to the batch of one.


Robotic accuracy

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When assessing operations to automate, it can be easy to miss certain vital tasks that operators complete. For example, if you take an operator who weighs out powders to a recipe, on the face of it the primary task is weighing. However, the person is also conducting various secondary tasks, e.g. validating the raw materials and their quality, locating the raw material, cleaning etc. If these secondary tasks aren’t incorporated into the robotic solution, the system won’t offer the required performance. It’s important to fully evaluate the full remit of each operator to understand the exact scope of the solution required to deliver positive results from day one and ensure no flexibility on the line is lost.

If, for example, you’re looking for a robotic solution to powder weighing with frequent product changeovers, the first question to answer is, how to define flexibility? In the case of the APRIL Robotics Weighing System, flexibility is defined by the number of raw materials stored and the dosing range. In this instance, the use of robotics gives us a wide operating envelope. This means that, for example, we can go from weighing out a small batch of cocoa powder to a large volume of salt in the same operation with no cross-contamination or time-consuming set-up as the robot is designed to work flexibly. The system has different programmes depending on what is needed for a given run, allowing manufacturers to adapt for a wide range of variables. An operator merely needs to select the correct programme and the APRIL Robotics Weighing System takes care of the rest. Very little expertise is needed to operate the system, and no extra time is required to make the change, bringing all of the benefits of robotic automation, such as increased accuracy and uptime, without the concerns around flexibility that many manufacturers have.


How to build a case for robots

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System studies are a great way to explore automation and how it would meet your requirements without risk or commitment. You can trial your processes on our test equipment to understand how robots would fit into your processes and gain a realistic idea of the return on investment you’re likely to achieve. This makes the whole process a lot safer, not only because you can be sure our robotics solutions will work in your facility but also because it makes it easier to put the financial justification to the business when there is a clear roadmap for payback for the upfront investment.


Explore your options with APRIL Robotics and overcome the challenges of tomorrow.

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Lauren Moir Lauren Moir

Will robots replace humans?

There are many scare-stories about how the adoption of robots in manufacturing facilities will eliminate the need for people on the factory floor. However, far from operators becoming a distant memory, robotics often creates the opportunity for people to take on more value-adding roles, leaving dull and dangerous tasks to the robots.

 
 

There are many scare-stories about how the adoption of robots in manufacturing facilities will eliminate the need for people on the factory floor. However, far from operators becoming a distant memory, robotics often creates the opportunity for people to take on more value-adding roles, leaving dull and dangerous tasks to the robots.


Automating tasks not jobs

There is widespread anxiety that robots will take away jobs from people, however the reality couldn’t be more different. While it’s clear that the factory of the future will have more unmanned areas, we will still need operators to interact with the line, just using their skills in other ways. From reprogramming to maintenance and optimisations, there are a whole host of ways in which the inherently human skills of operators will be required to ensure the lines keep on running.

According to McKinsey Global Institute, tasks are more likely to be automated away rather than entire jobs. Robots offer manufacturers the opportunity to remove dull, repetitive tasks from operators, allowing them to take on more value-adding roles or even move into roles that didn’t previously exist.

Potentially hazardous roles, such as weighing out ingredients, will also become automated, removing health and safety issues and protecting operators. For example, we’ll no longer need people to weigh out powders so they won’t be exposed to the dangers of dust inhalation and the occupational asthma that goes with it. Similarly, robots can pick up heavy items, so musculoskeletal disorders should be avoided.

In our experience deploying robotics and automation solutions, manufacturers become more efficient when these systems, employees become more productive in their new roles and this leads to accelerated company growth, offering new opportunities across the board.


The importance of reskilling

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In order for people to move into these more value-adding roles, and to overcome the labour shortages that have become so acute, it’s vital that we start early. Education and apprenticeships must begin teaching people the skills they’ll need for the manufacturing of tomorrow. And for those already in the workforce, employers must start reskilling to allow employees to take on the problem-solving, programming or maintenance roles that are now available to them.

We work closely with the University of Lincoln to address this problem and ensure that young people across the country have access to the best opportunities, whether it’s through our apprenticeships or our work to support social mobility, ensuring young people thrive no matter where they were born while supporting our manufacturing industry. We also offer work experience to spark the interest in engineering early and help to encourage the next generation into our fascinating industry.


Automate tasks not jobs and offer new opportunities to your people with APRIL Robotics.

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Lauren Moir Lauren Moir

Automating minor powder weighing

Weighing out powders is a vital step in many industries. While big bags / super sacks or silos can automate the dosing of large quantities, operators are required for minor additions. However, with concerns around costs, waste, traceability or the health and safety of the operators themselves, manufacturers understand the need to automate these processes.

 
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Weighing out powders is a vital step in many industries. Whether in food production, personal care and FMCG, chemistry, textiles, paints and coatings, plastics or rubber manufacturing, a large number of powdered ingredients must be measured out to an exact recipe to ensure the final product complies with quality and safety checks. And while big bags / super sacks or silos can automate the dosing of large quantities, when it comes to minor additions, the majority of businesses must rely on operators to get the job done. Yet this is far from an ideal solution. Whether it’s concerns around costs, waste, traceability or the health and safety of the operators themselves, manufacturers understand the drawbacks of manual powder handling. What if there were a way to automate these processes?


Robotic powder handling

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Robots are inherently more reliable than humans. When people are involved in powder handling, they make mistakes; that’s human nature when performing repetitive tasks during an eight-hour shift. However, when operators are dealing with allergens or harmful chemicals, this can have dire consequences. If the wrong ingredient is chosen or a label is misread, it can lead to risks to operator and consumer safety. Unmanned facilities remove this risk as once programmed, they can’t make mistakes. With a mean downtime of 30 minutes per year, they also don’t need to stop to maintain their effectiveness, helping to boost your productivity.

The APRIL Robotics Weighing System allows manufacturers to do the same weighing and handling tasks that operators have traditionally completed but much more accurately, without error or waste, and at much faster rates. This can transform productivity levels, allowing you to become more competitive, as well as reducing your costs as only one operator is needed to manage the system.


APRIL Robotics Weighing System

APRIL Robotics Weighing System in a bakery

APRIL Robotics Weighing System in a bakery

The APRIL Robotics Weighing System automates the manual, repetitive weighing / scaling task in a number of industries, offering unrivalled accuracy, efficiency and traceability. The robot weighs out powders to an accuracy of +/- 1g for both free-flowing and non free-flowing components.

Combining robotics and advanced automation, the technology offers manufacturers a flexible and scalable solution that delivers a repeatable and cost-effective alternative to operators on the factory floor. The system offers exceptional storage density within a small footprint and an unparalleled turndown ratio for high precision powder weighing / scaling. There is strict division between components, eliminating the risk of cross-contamination, as the APRIL Smart Container (ASCs) are managed through the system, including cleaning operations, offering a reliable unmanned operation. 

The APRIL Robotics Weighing System integrates seamlessly into your existing ERP or MES, scheduling works orders and ensuring full reporting. If you’re concerned about product safety or quality, the APRIL Weighing System uses advanced vision to track the powders through the entire process offering total traceability for your product and a full audit trail, helping to prevent product recalls. What’s more, secret recipes can be one of their most important pieces of intellectual property. By switching to a fully automated weighing / scaling system, businesses no longer need to share these with operators, controlling and protecting them instead within the system’s software.


Typical operation

  • APRIL Robotics Weighing System receives works order request for weighed materials.

  • The system checks whether all materials are in stock from the network of APRIL Smart Containers (ASCs). If one or more components is missing, the system will request replenishment.

  • APRIL retrieves your powders from the ASCs as per your recipe and weighs them into an ASC Blend Container, bag or box, which can then be delivered directly to the mixer or batch processing vessel or stored for future production.


Unmanned system

Robotics and automation are vital at a time of labour shortages and social distancing, particularly when the additional space required to achieve the latter is not readily available. By investing in fully automated manufacturing systems, businesses can mitigate the impact of these challenges while improving profitability.

In answer to workforce fears of job losses, it’s clear that tasks are more likely to be automated away than entire jobs. Repetitive, routine activities, such as weighing out / scaling ingredients becoming automated removes potential health and safety issues. Operators will no longer be exposed to the dangers of dust inhalation and the occupational asthma that goes with it. Similarly, robots can pick up heavy items, so musculoskeletal disorders should be avoided. With the introduction of automation, operators will be needed in more value-added roles such as controlling robots or maintenance of equipment. The challenge will be to ensure that our workforce has the right skills to meet this future vision.


Cut labour costs while boosting accuracy and productivity with automated powder handling.

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APRIL Lauren Moir APRIL Lauren Moir

Checklist for robotic transformation

While robots are well-established in a number of industries, it’s only more recently that the potential for robotics in the food industry has begun to be realised. Yet the challenges of recent years have encouraged forward-thinking food and beverage manufacturers to consider the benefits of robotics. But where do you start?

While robots are well-established in a number of industries, from automotive to electronic, it’s only more recently that the potential for robotics in the food industry has begun to be realised. And while robots in the packaging line have become more commonplace, it’s still rare to see them in the processing stages. Yet the challenges of recent years, from labour and skills shortages to COVID and productivity slumps, have encouraged forward-thinking food and beverage manufacturers to consider the benefits of robotics. But where do you start?

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As with any digital transformation project, the key is preparation. Ensuring you’re clear on your objectives before beginning the project will ensure results and ROI can be achieved from day one, and working with a trusted and experienced partner will help to guide you on the journey. Below we’ve put together a brief checklist outlining some of the main steps you’ll encounter on your transformation journey, explaining how you can plan your way to a successful robotic processing project. 


1) Instigating the project 

  • High level scoping of project 

Identify the broad areas that can drive the biggest improvements to the business. Where are there opportunities to make significant cost savings or generate competitive advantages? Could changing the way you make your products dramatically improve your flexibility or efficiency? Is this important to your customer? This is where automating your manual handling and batch processing systems through robotic transformation comes into the mix. Location, timescales, budgets and critical results will be key at this stage.

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  • Appoint the owner and project team 

Like all projects, having a project owner is vital to champion the robotic transformation, push activities forward and get them over the line. We find that these projects tend to have a Group lead and as well as one at a site level – usually these people are in the Operations team. It’s important to assign these roles as early as possible to give the project momentum and instil clear lines of communication. Consider any other stakeholders that might need to be involved in the project and assemble your project team. 

  • Engage the IT team and technical specialists within the organisation 

These key stakeholders will be critical to any transformational project so it’s best to get their buy-in early and bring them on the journey with regular updates and check-ins. 

  • Establish your objectives & KPIs

Are you clear on the drivers of the project? What problem will a robotic system solve? Are you trying to reduce costs while boosting productivity? Is it more about health and safety? Or are you looking to cut waste? Understanding the answers to these questions will determine the success of the project. 


2) Defining the project  

  • Understand your current manual processes and workflows 

To achieve this stage, the APRIL Robotics team undertakes a system study. Typically, we request up to a year’s data to fully understand your processes and products, allowing us to define your system requirements. We also conduct a site visit to get to grips with your existing operations. You’ll need a process flow diagram to help us understand how the tasks are currently undertaken and where any value-added tasks might be hidden to ensure no operations will be missed in the switch from manual to robotic processing. 

  • Set your benchmarks 

Once you’ve understood your current operations, it’s really important to define what you’re benchmarking against so that you can measure the success of the project and understand the ROI. What does good look like now and how much does the new process need to improve on this to justify the investment? This information will help in the decision-making process as well as playing an important role in judging the success of the project to determine future roll-out plans.  

  • Determine integration requirements 

It’s important to plan how the robotic system will integrate with your existing manufacturing systems, for example, do you use SAP? Do you have an MES that the robot will need to connect to? Establishing this information at the start can prevent delays down the road. 

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  • Conduct trials to validate concept 

The APRIL Robotics team conducts trials before taking on any project to ensure that the specific ingredients involved can be weighed accurately or that the batch production achieves the desired results, giving you the confidence to push ahead. 

  • Create your project plan and timeline 

Once you’re happy with the first five points, the APRIL Robotics team will help to define your project plan and timeline to meet any critical dates and ensure you’re operational and meeting your objectives within the defined time frame.  


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3) Completing the project 

Now it’s just the small matter of carrying out the project! Having regular reviews between the project team members from the outset ensures you remain focused on the defined objectives, facilitates the transfer of information, keeps the project on schedule and fosters good working relationships internally and with your partners. The APRIL Robotics team also arranges regular check-ins to make the process as smooth as possible and work round any unforeseen hurdles that are sure to crop up! 


There are a whole host of specific activities that may need to be undertaken in your specific project, but with a partner like APRIL Robotics, you won’t miss a step in your journey towards robotic transformation. If you want to learn more about what it takes to automate your operations, get in touch with our experts.

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