Page 16 - Industrial Technology EXTRA 15th March 2021

challenges today is to provide
consumers with safe, sustainably
sourced and healthy food. Product
quality and safety are subject to
increasingly strict rules and
regulations. Contamination and
errors must be avoided.
This goes hand-in-hand with
increasingly informed consumers
who demand supplier and supply chain
transparency. Products must always be seamlessly
Let’s look at a practical example: Omron’s traceable. The more often employees come into
support of leading Dutch fruit and vegetable contact with a product during the manufacturing,
wholesaler Combilo. A new packaging line with packaging or labelling process, the more likely it is
state-of-the-art robotic solutions has increased the that recalls or returns will occur. Human workers
productivity of this company by 30 percent. The can contaminate goods or make mistakes when
new packaging line was designed by system applying labels or packaging. Damaged packaging
integrator EasyPack Technologies and includes or non-compliant labels are among the most
parallel robots and an Omron vision system. common reasons for product returns and complaints
One of the products marketed by Combilo is the in the food industry, and are therefore high on the
popular “pepper trio”, a three-pack consisting of a list of potential improvements. Recalls jeopardising
red, a yellow and a green pepper. Packing this trio brand image and the loss of customers due to poor
was previously a slow and labour-intensive process, packaging or labels is a challenge that companies
which is now more efficient thanks to the use of must face up to in order to be stronger in the future.
robots and an image processing system. At the
same time, the error rate has also been reduced. Modern inspection solutions
Zero touch approaches and the technologies In order to avoid contamination and soiling, it
were used to protect employees from potentially therefore makes sense to move, sort or transport
dangerous, repetitive and physically demanding goods and raw materials mechanically and no
tasks. At the same time, they minimised costs and
provided the time to train employees so they can
focus on value-added tasks.

Increase quality, increase sales
In addition to the employee and security-
focused benefits, zero touch approaches
help to make companies more
competitive and
future-proof, reducing
recalls and protecting their
brand. One of the biggest

March 2021 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA • p16