R O B O T I C S
ISLANDS OF
AUTOMATION
SIGNPOST THE FUTURE OF AUTOMATED PROCESSES
Islands of automation are offering a solution
to problems bedevilling automated processes
across a broad range of industries, such as pharmaceutical,
warehousing, engineering, logistics,
materials handling, food and beverage and
transport.
Global robotics and logistics automation technology
leader Swisslog has found that as automation
accelerates, a common concern is that if a machine
goes offline, the entire system suffers.
But this is becoming less and less of a problem
through the use of islands of automation, explains
Jamie D’Souza, Swisslog pharmaceutical consultant,
Jamie D’Souza, who has more than eight
years’ experience in the pharmaceutical logistics
industry.
Mr D’Souza’s expertise focuses particularly
around the megatrends driving digitalisation
and industry 4.0 – such as urbanisation, ageing
society, increased health focus, e-commerce,
increasingly digital lives and regulations – and how
industry can best utilise technology to optimise
supply chains and achieve tangible benefits.
Islands of automation
“The concept of islands of automation means can
have several automated processes working in
isolation, which can be linked up with Automatic
Guided Vehicles (AGVs), with end-to-end integration,”
says Mr D’Souza. The major benefits of this
approach include:
• Redundancy – if one cell goes down, there are
several others accessible, or use of a temporary
manual cell
• Flexibility for growth with additional cells, and
ability to grow in specific areas
• Full integration of robots and AGVs
Swisslog is currently working on a major logistics
automation project in Australia with a leading
bio-pharmaceutical company, where islands of
automation are being utilised to optimise flexibility
and redundancy.
This advanced solution involves Swisslog’s robotic
palletising, shrouding, wrapping and labelling
technologies, linked with platform AGVs on two
levels to manage all pallet logistics.
Crucially, there are no major single points of
failure in the system, with a manual cell used for
redundancy if any process goes down temporarily,
explains Mr D’Souza.
“This is a great example of utilising islands of
automation, advanced robotics and platform
AGVs to deliver benefits in efficiency, flexibility
and redundancy,” he says.
The future of warehouse automation
“When we think about the future of warehouse
automation, fully automated case picking is the
final mile to deliver end-to-end efficiency and
traceability,” says Mr D’Souza.
Swisslog’s ACPaQ fully automated mixed pallet
robot-based order picking system is an exam-
Swisslog’s logistics automation technologies
look at end-to-end supply
chain and how to optimise product
movement through the system, while
maintaining reliability and traceability
40 July 2018