Automating, Scaling, And Immediate ROI With Zero Capital Budget? This Food Manufacturer Figured It Out!

Mi Rancho started back in 1939 as a small grocery store in Oakland, California. At first, they were founded as a grocery store providing authentic tortillas, chips, and salsas.

Today, they run a 150,000 sq ft facility in Elk Grove, providing millions of tons of food annually.

And they’re growing… fast. Over 40% year-over-year, stretching their capabilities to handle every part of the manufacturing, especially the hard-to-staff, boring manual tasks.

To keep up, they needed to scale production without overloading their team. Manual stacking of boxes across three shifts was slowing them down and causing injuries.

But… Allocating capital to automate palletizing wasn’t an option, considering a long list of other capital-intensive growth projects. They needed another way. And they found it.

Formic’s Robots-as-a-Service model allowed them to install 6 Doosan collaborative robots for end-of-line palletizing, improving their productivity while tackling the labor issue with no upfront investment!

Double-Digit Growth, Double-Digit Pains

With immense growth each year, Mi Rancho's ability to manually palletize boxes at the end of the lines was becoming increasingly limited. 

Considering the vast quantities of boxes they had to stack daily, Mi Rancho was worried about labor safety. It wasn’t just a challenge to staff these positions, but to prevent injuries.

What Do You Do When Capital Can’t Be Directed To Automation?

While many businesses recognize the need to automate, not all can immediately acquire robotics.

If you are at this point, do not give up or ignore automation. There are ways you can still experience all of the benefits of automation, just like Mi Rancho did.

They couldn’t divert CapEx for robotics because there were many other company projects requiring funds waiting in line.

Formic Robotics offered an ideal solution: automation without upfront costs.

Formic provided multiple collaborative robotic palletizers under their innovative Robots-as-a-Service model. Mi Rancho only pays a low hourly rate for the cobots when they work with zero upfront investment, full maintenance and upgrades included.

Not only was Mi Rancho satisfied with Formic’s cobot systems, but they also had Formic install an industrial palletizer for heavier case weights and faster speeds, under the same Robots-as-a-Service program.

Why Cobots?

While Mi Rancho also deployed an industrial robot palletizer, their six Doosan cobots installed by Formic have advantages in certain areas.

Cobots don’t require a safety cage. Since they collaborate with humans without safety risks of injury, it’s easier to ensure a safe working environment. Likewise, cobot systems are more flexible for faster re-programming. 

Collaborative palletizers eliminated or greatly reduced employee fatigue, injury, downtime, and employee turnover. Since staff aren’t hauling boxes anymore, they are far less likely to look for a job elsewhere. Once palletizing becomes a process initiated at the push of a button, the whole business becomes more streamlined, productive, and efficient.

The Results: Immediate Profits Without Investment

Mi Rancho instantly boosted productivity, improved safety, and cut labor costs without investing a single dollar upfront. All they pay are the robotic labor hours, while the profits from cobot activity instantly outweigh the costs.

Mi Rancho saw improvements across their operations:

• Completely eliminated manual stacking injuries.

• Increased productivity and eliminated downtime from manual handling.

• Immediate financial ROI with no upfront costs.

• Significantly reduced employee fatigue and turnover.

Formic’s RaaS model can be a solution for many businesses who know that cobots are the next step in their manufacturing but can’t justify the upfront investment. Who knows, maybe Mi Rancho decides to purchase their next set of cobot equipment. But the very ability to make an economic choice that suits them the best is available, they can allocate their resources for the best results. 

And like most operations struggling with labor shortage… Once they genuinely experienced the cobot benefits, they started thinking: What other repetitive jobs can we use cobots for?

“After seeing the results of the units that were installed, we certainly see the potential. This is just palletizing, but we also want to explore the possibility of grabbing the packages and putting the package in the box. That's something that will be coming down the line. We'd like to get this done and then move on to explore those possibilities in the future,” said Santana.

Learn more about Mi Rancho's success and Formic using the links below:

• Mi Rancho Makes Production Leap with Automated Stacking of Millions of Tortillas per Year | Formic

• Automation Made Easy | Formic

Enjoy your week!

The Cobot Spotlight Team