OAL News
APRIL™ Robotics Features in BDO’s Food & Drink Industry Report 2018
We’re very proud to feature in BDO’s Food and Drink Industry Report 2018 published to encourage the industry to move towards a more productive, post-brexit world.
Our APRIL™ Robotics food manufacturing system is highlighted as a case study in BDO’s Food and Drink Industry Report 2018. The report is published to encourage the industry to move towards a more productive, post-Brexit world.
It also explains how over the next few years food manufacturers need to make a pivotal point decision:
Option 1 - stick with the status quo & absorb costs
Effectively, ride out the storm (increasing labour and ingredient costs) with existing technologies. Maintain competitive whilst absorbing potential cost increases.
Option 2 - automate & proactively future-proof factories
Invest in automation and create a step change in food manufacturing capabilities to overcome rising labour costs.
The report highlights that for businesses who rise to the automation challenge, the falling cost and increased functionality of robotics offer quick productivity gains and an ability to exploit new market opportunities.
At OAL, we firmly believe in Option 2 and would love to help you on your journey towards a fully automated, robotic factory to boost productivity and profitability.
How to become the global leader in robotic food processing - Roythornes Food Business Breakfast
The UK will be the global market leader for robotic food processing. At the recent Roythornes Food Business Breakfast, Samantha Norman (BEng) shared how OAL is working with academia, our customers and the supply chain to make this vision a reality.
The UK will be the global market leader for robotic food processing. At the recent Roythornes' Food Business Breakfast, Samantha Norman shared how OAL is working with academia, customers and the supply chain to make this vision a reality.
Number 1 in robotic food processing
It sounds good, doesn’t it?
The UK food industry is widely recognised as the global leader in convenience food and innovation but our ability to embrace automation, digital and robotics is critical to ensuring our leadership. It's this leadership that will ensure strong exports and create new jobs in the largest UK manufacturing industry.
We must work together as a supply chain to realise this vision.
Samantha shared how OAL are working with our partners to lead the robotic revolution in ingredient handling and processing. Over 150 delegates from across the supply chain caught a glimpse of this future with a live demonstration of our APRIL Robotics Ingredient Handling System.
Rather than a person handling and weighing out ingredients by hand, APRIL automates the task!
Roythornes Food Business Breakfast
Roythornes Solicitors’ bi-annual business breakfasts invites food and drink industry professionals from a multitude of backgrounds to network; sparking discussion, debate and a collaborative approach to driving improvements in the food and drink industry.
“Our Food Business Breakfast has become a key staple in the networking calendar for business professionals based in both Peterborough and other areas of the UK.
Improved efficiency, reduced labour costs and reliability are all potential benefits to implementing robotics, and Sam offered an interesting perspective on what this actually means in practice, exploring the use of robots in the sector and how the industry needs to work collaboratively in order to stay flexible and compete with organisations within Europe and across the world.”
Join the robotics revolution!
New racing season dates released
With the 2018 racing season nearly upon us, OAL is excited to be sponsoring their very own Dan Nemati once again in his No Limits Racing competition!
With the 2018 racing season nearly upon us, OAL is excited to be sponsoring their very own Dan Nemati once again in his No Limits Racing competition! After coming third in the 2017 season in his Pre Injection 600, we're hoping that 2018 will be his winning year!
Dan, a Support Engineer for OAL Connected has been committed to racing for three years and is now in the No Limits Pre Injection 600 category racing with a Yamaha R6.
The races he will be competing in are as follows:
March 24-25 – Round 1: Snetterton 300.
April 21-22 – Round 2: Cadwell Park.
May 19-20 – Round 3: Donnington Park.
July 14-15 – Round 5: Croft.
July 28 – 8 Hour Endurance.
August 10-11 – Round 6: Oulton Park (Friday and Saturday event).
September 1-2 – Round 7: Cadwell Park.
October 6-7 – Round 8: Donnington Park.
If you or your colleagues wish to attend to support Dan in his racing, please get in touch here. It would be great to see as many people there as possible.
Dan would also like to take this opportunity to thank all who supported him in 2017.
APRIL™ Robotic Weighing shortlisted for World Food Innovation Award
We are pleased to announce that our APRIL Robotics Weighing Station has been shortlisted for “Best Technology Innovation” in the World Food Innovations Award 2018.
We are pleased to announce that our APRIL™ Robotics Ingredient Handling system has been shortlisted for Best Technology Innovation in the World Food Innovations Award 2018.
It’s fantastic recognition of how much of an impact our highly innovative APRIL™ Robotic Ingredient Handling system has on the way the food industry handles and processes ingredients.
Weighing out powders is a manual repetitive task that is highly susceptible to human error. The APRIL™ Robotics Ingredient Handling system automates this task offering unrivalled accuracy and efficiency. The advanced torque force sensors within the collaborative robot allow us to weigh out ingredients to an accuracy of +/- 1g or 1% by weight every time, a level of accuracy unachievable by humans.
At OAL, we are passionate about using the very latest in innovative technological solutions, processes and applications to help sustain and secure the UK’s largest food manufacturing industry.
Customers have guided us with distinct requirements for each sector allowing each team to work as a focused fast moving group dedicated to their specific market. The OAL tradition of trust, fairness and investment in our people bonds our teams. We strive to keep our customers ahead and future-proofed by leading multiple R&D projects currently valued at £3.5 million aimed at developing tomorrow's tried and trusted.
Shortlisted for two awards in the first round of the Made in the UK Awards
We are pleased to announce that our APRIL Robotics Cooking Cell has been shortlisted in the first round of the “Made in the UK Awards” in the categories ‘Digital Engineering/Technology’ and ‘Manufacturing Innovation’’.
We’re pleased to announce that our APRIL™ Robotics Cooking Cell has been shortlisted in the first round of the Made in the UK Awards in the categories Digital Engineering/Technology and Manufacturing Innovation.
The APRIL™ Cooking Cell developed with the University of Lincoln at their National Centre for Food Manufacturing revolutionises the way we manufacture food. By combining advanced materials handling and processing technologies, APRIL™ can consistently emulate how chefs cook in a professional kitchen bringing restaurant standard food to our supermarket shelves.
She effortlessly moves pans around the factory without pumps and pipework to combine and process ingredients; heating, mixing and pouring soups, sauces and ready meals on an industrial scale. Using a pre-programmed schedule, APRIL™ can process multiple recipes at the same time to a consistent and accurate standard, without contamination.
APRIL™ moves away from traditional linear continuous production set-ups where high volume and limited flexibility impedes quality and consistency (due to pumps, pipework and large vessels). With an 80% smaller factory footprint, intelligent scheduling and automated modular processing system, APRIL™ increases flexibility, optimises productivity and improves efficiency in a safer and more hygienic environment.
This opens up opportunities for manufacturers to research and develop new products and extend shelf-life of products contributing to reducing food wastage.
“We are excited by the new thinking involved in the APRIL™ robotic chef approach. Modular robotics cells may transform food manufacturing kitchens, by breaking up processes in a different way, in doing so providing a step change in performance.”
As a company, we are passionate about revolutionising the way we manufacture food, helping to secure the future of the UK’s largest manufacturing industry through innovative technological solutions, processes and applications.