Rexam Material Handling Case Study

Key Technologies

• Bastian Robotics Palletizing Cell, Including a Fanuc R2000 6-axis Palletizing Robot integrated with 2 White System Carousels
• Allen Bradley RSLogix supplied by Bastian Controls
• Blue Arc Engineering Overhead Corner Pusher
• ASAP Automation’s Exacta Warehouse Control System (WCS) and Event Director
• ID Technologies Print and Apply Machine
• 33 Datalogic Scanners
• Savant Automation Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs)
• Pearson Packaging Equipment and Little David Top Case Taper

Business Challenges

• Transport of finished goods (plastic bottle caps) from production to the warehouse in a centralized palletizing area
• Automatically fill and palletize smaller cartons and transport large totes
• Implement automatic labeling and inventory tracking
• Reduce “Mix Ware,” or the shipping of incorrect product
• Meet the system rate goal of 7.1 cartons per minute (cpm)
• Reduce the number of operators needed (24 operators over 4 shifts)

Results

• The team successfully delivered the first known robotic palletizing carousel AS/RS utilizing a standard robot and carousels
• Savant AGVs were converted into a mid-level AGV with 4 independent, intelligent conveyor decks
• The design was able to meet the system rate goal of 7.1 cpm’s, as well as reduce the number of operators needed per shift

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Case Study Video- Script

Rexam is the world's second largest consumer packaging company. It is a leading global beverage can-maker and one of the global leaders in rigid plastic packaging. Our vision is to be the leading global consumer packaging company. Rexam is a leading global manufacturer of beverage cans, producing 55 billion cans each year in over 50 plants. Anheuser-Busch, Arizona Iced Tea, Baltika, Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, InBev, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and Red Bull.

The rendering shown on this slide represents the system delivered to Constantine. The high level objects of this system were to transport closures which are small plastic bottle caps from the system to the warehouse in a centralized palletizing area. The system required automatically filling and palletizing smaller cartons and strictly palletizing of smaller totes. The customer wanted automatic labeling and filling and ultimately wanted the amount of error to be reduced.

The production rate of this system includes 7.1 cartons per minute. Rexam felt the labor savings of automatic palletization and labeling would equate to 6 operators per shift or 24 operators over the whole shift. Rexam's corporate standard is 1.5 year payback which equated to a 1.5 million dollar target for this project. Rexam's overall objective was to move to its overall goal of a lights out manufacturing facility.

The system begins with all available work orders being released from SAP into Exacta. When ready for manufacturing, a supervisor then selects the manual order from the list and activates it at a machine cell. Exacta communicates this command to Bastian Controls. This communication includes the characteristics of the order at the cell, including the type of pallet it requires and whether or not that order requires any offline presses. Bastian Controls drives the product transportation requirements for the AGC's.

The facility layout included two major locations: The production area, which consisted of 28 identical machine cells inline over 500 feet, and the warehouse area, which was separated from production by a concrete wall.

The production room consists of 28 filling stations. The scope of these stations are to receive empty cartons on the in-feed conveyor, then transfer cartons over to the filling location, and when completed, transfer of the full cartons out on the full carton out-feed conveyor.

Although these 28 filling stations may appear simple in nature, they are actually quite complex. With over 8 photo eyes in each cell in close proximity, each eye plays an important role in AGC pick-up and delivery. 3 full cartons signifies for AGC pick-up and replenishment and 6 full cartons makes a second AGC call. When the full carton count reaches 7, this count stops production, and with a rate of every three minutes per line, it does not take an extreme event to shut production down. When filling totes, AGC replenishment is driven by cap count, typically between 60-90th minute, which is equal to about 45 minutes of production. We do have controls in place for advanced AGC pick-up so there is not wait during this transfer.

The warehouse starts with AGC waiting in the charge zone at one of five opportunity chargers. These carts are waiting for either one of four like calls from stations in close proximity or less than four calls spread out over longer duration, commonly 3-4 minutes. After receiving its assignment, the AGC immediately departs to pick up an empty carton. This can be a small carton or a large tote. Small cartons get bags automatically inserted by a Pierson Bag-Inserter. For large totes, the bag is manually inserted into the carton. After picking up their empty cartons, the AGC's depart for production to complete their replenishment. It is very common, over the 500 foot production line, to have four or five AGC's working in tandem across the whole line. After completing replenishment, the AGC's drop production on the full carton outfeed conveyor. On the left you'll notice that totes are dropped onto the full-tote drop line, and automatically print and applied by ASAP Automation. Full cartons are dropped on the full carton drop conveyor and scanned.

Full cartons are conveyed through a series of special equipment, including an I.D. Technology's ink spray machine which was used to spray the date on the side of the carton. Prior to the ink spray machine was a Little David top-case taper.

Blue Arc Engineering designed and fabricated an overhead corner pusher, and White Brook designed and fabricated a box shaker, used to settle the caps. After the caps were settled, it entered a Pierson Packaging un-cuffer and bag folder. After cartons are sealed, they're delivered to the palletizing cell.

The palletizing cell was integrated by Bastian Robotics. The cell includes a Phanic R2000 6-process palletizing robot, two white systems carousels. The cell had to support one identical carton type, always handled in groups of three cartons. These cartons weigh 34 pounds each. There are three different pallet types that need to be supported by the cell, and there is a scanning requirement before every movement. The robot builds the pallet directly on the Land-tech stretch-wrapper in-feed conveyor, and a successful stretch wrap, ASAP provided the controls for a print-and-apply unit.

The white carousels were used to buffer pallets until a full quantity had been reached. Thirty cartons signified a pallet and the carousels could hold over 900. As previously mentioned, the robot handles all product in groups of three, and scans product before every movement.

Although there were many challenges within a project of this magnitude, there were many successes. The HALO team delivered the first known palletizing ASRS by utilizing a standard Phanic robot and white carousels. We also utilized a Standard Savant Smart Carts and converted them to a mid-level AGV with four independent decks. This team also integrated over 400,000 dollars worth of packaging equipment very successfully.