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Want To Expand Without Sending Manufacturing Elsewhere? Hawa Used Cobot To Do It!
This sliding door manufacturer wanted to grow. But they didn’t want to move production. Their answer? A dual-arm cobot from ABB that handles both small-parts assembly and quality control, with no need for fencing or extra equipment.
Catherine Bernier
June 04, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
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Hawa Sliding Solutions builds precision hardware for sliding doors and walls.
They run two production sites in Switzerland and wanted to keep it that way, even while growing. But with labor getting tighter and demand going up, they needed a way to boost output without overloading the team.
Some of their production processes are repetitive, making them challenging to staff, especially if you want to scale.
However, these are perfect jobs for collaborative robots. Since cobots are exceptional at doing the same thing over and over and are flexible for different products, they can make a significant difference in applications Hawa needed.
So they automated a boring, simple, repetitive assembly process. And things changed. For the better.
The cobot they picked? ABB’s dual-arm YuMi. Why that one? Let’s find out!
Image of the ABB’s robot handling door stopper parts in Hawa’s Switzerland facility. Image source.
Cobot Brand | Supplier | Application |
|---|---|---|
ABB | ABB | Part assembly, quality control |
The Key Problems | How the Cobot Was Implemented | The Results |
Wanted to grow but keep all production in Switzerland. Needed to improve productivity and reduce manual assembly load. | ABB YuMi grabs and assembles two small parts to form a stopper element, then uses integrated cameras to inspect the part before sorting it. | Boosted output, maintained local production, reduced manual work, and improved product consistency. |
The Assembly Issue: Slow, Menial, And Complex
Since Hawa produces sliding doors, the stoppers for sliding fixtures are a critical part that must be done right. However, assembling these stoppers… Is just plain boring.
It’s probably safe to assume you’d have more fun sliding the doors all day than assembling the stoppers.
In addition, these are small and delicate parts. So, automating their assembly required precise handling and dexterity.
To make matters worse, the assembly process requires screwing. So the automated solution had to manouver, screw in place, and complete a quality check if they were to replace a human operator.
Sending The Production Elsewhere?
Hawa faced a difficult choice, as most manufacturers do when trying to scale. You can either overcome the local labor and technological challenges cost-effectively or move manufacturing elsewhere.
However, Hawa managed to retain its production in Switzerland, thanks to the smart cobot selection.
"We wanted to retain both of our production sites in Switzerland and continue to grow. For this reason, together with Alain Känel, sales engineer of robotics from ABB, we evaluated the areas of production where automation made sense - with the goal of increasing production output and releasing resources for growth."
Why ABB YuMi Collaborative Robot?
Being collaborative, it ticks two boxes right off the bat: ease of programming and human safety. No days on end of programming or safety cages that interfere with human-led processes.
Image of the Dual-Arm YuMi collaborative robot from ABB. Image source.
However, ABB’s cobot also offers something rather unique, which Hawa needed. The YuMi cobot has two arms and end effectors.
YuMi picks up both parts, aligns them, and screws them together. Then, it checks the finished component with a built-in camera.
Good part? Slides to the right for processing.
Bad part? Slides left to the rework bin.
Plus, it’s light and mobile. Hawa can move it around the shop and set it up wherever needed. And thanks to lead-through programming, you don’t need a robotics expert to get it working.
“We had otherwise not integrated any other robots, not even conventional single-armed industrial robots. Naturally, we needed several iterative steps as well as “learning by doing” in order to enable the YuMi to handle the components prepared in the accidental orientation. But overall, it did not require a great deal of effort.”
Hawa’s Results
Not only did they retain their manufacturing in Switzerland, but they also improved their production while handling the labor challenge simultaneously.
The introduction of the ABB YuMi automated:
The repetitive stopper elements assembly.
Screwdriving the parts.
The in-process quality control.
Sorting of the parts in passed/failed bins.
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Of course, like in many other stories we shared in Cobot Spotlight, Hawa started thinking: “What’s next?”
Once you experience such results, you realize that cobots are the next thing (and have been for quite a while now). And then, you start looking for more appropriate applications in your production.
Learn more about Hawa’s success and the ABB’s YuMi robot with the links below:
Do you have a success story to share? Send us an email! We want to hear about it!
Enjoy your week!
The Cobot Spotlight Team