How This Packaging Specialist Solved Labor Challenges With Zero Investment

Compact Industries is a family-owned co-packing business in Chicago. They’ve been packaging coffee, tea, and dry food products since 1963.

And like many U.S. manufacturers today, they hit a wall. The dreadful palletizing wall.

Low labor retention. High turnover. Inflated costs.

And a lot of boxes to stack at the end of the line.

They serve Fortune 500 clients. So stopping production isn’t an option.

The team knew they needed automation. But they were cautious because a previous automation attempt didn’t go well. However, once they were introduced to Formic’s low-risk robot-as-a-service model, things took a powerful, positive turn.

10-Hour Box Handling Shifts

Compact Industry workers were placing boxes on pallets for 10-hour shifts. That’s tough. Physically and mentally. Likewise, it runs a significant risk of strain and injury.

The demanding job conditions meant few interested workers and constant turnover. It was difficult to find people who’d palletize consistently.

And every time someone quit, they had to retrain a new person.

So, they’ve been trying to automate for a few years until they met Formic.

RaaS: The No-Risk Cobot Solution

Unlike traditional robotics, collaborative robots work alongside human operators and are far faster to reprogram. In fact, Compact Industries' cobot solution allows them to swap palletizing product programs within just 5 minutes!

Besides safety and ease of programming… Compact Industries was looking for a minimal-risk solution. Something where they wouldn’t have to invest or risk the solution being a fluke for their situation.

“What attracted me to Formic was the low risk,” said Rich Moldovan, Compact’s Engineering Manager. “With big decisions like this, you're putting your reputation on the line, but I felt very confident with Formic. The whole process was so seamless, and this quality of service didn’t happen when we tried to automate on our own.”

Formic’s robots-as-a-service model allowed Compact Industries to pay only for the work hours the cobot performed, no upfront investment. They didn’t need to buy the cobot itself.

After analyzing Compact Industries’ needs, Formic partnered with SourceLink Solutions to design and deploy a fully integrated mobile palletizing system using a Yaskawa collaborative robot.

From Delivery To Deployment In One Day

When the Formic palletizer arrived, it was up and running in just a few hours.

No engineering delays. No long ramp-up.

The robot now lifts boxes up to 35 lbs at 6 cycles per minute or about 720 boxes per hour.

Changeovers? Just 5 minutes. Adding new products? About an hour.

It’s fast, flexible, and simple.

“What’s great about robots is they don’t quit or get injured,” said Moldovan.

Within One Month… Additional Power Is Deployed

Compact Industries improved productivity and completely removed one of the most injury-prone jobs from their line.

With the Yaskawa cobot palletizing system, they were able to:

• Automate palletizing for $0 upfront cost

• Cut OpEx by 20% on day one

• Achieve an output of 720 cases/hour

• Redeploy staff to more valuable roles

• Increase safety, morale, and retention

• Order a second system within a month

To top it off… The hourly rate they pay for the Formic’s system is lower than the back-breaking hourly rate of manual labor for palletizing. And it includes the maintenance and 24/7 monitoring from Formic.

The methods of cobot deployment can vary a lot. No two success stories are the same, as different businesses have different goals and present needs. That’s why you shouldn’t give up easily when considering robotics. Most repetitive, menial, low-effort jobs can be automated with cobots without robot specialists or significant staff training.

Learn more about the Compact Industries’ success with the links below:

• Compact Industries Accelerates Productivity | Formic

• Formic Empowers Family-run Factory with its First Robot | Formic

Enjoy your week!

The Cobot Spotlight Team