How OmniVance™ application cells are helping companies to bring production home

Disruption to supply chains caused by adverse economic and geopolitical factors are resulting in European and US companies looking for ways to bring production closer to home. In this first of two articles, we explain how OmniVance pre-configured robotic application cells can help reduce the time, cost and disruption associated with setting up new production and distribution lines.

From supply chain disruption and global uncertainty to widespread labor shortages and the rising cost of energy, while these global megatrends continue to prevail, manufacturers are looking for new ways to build resilience and flexibility to overcome these challenges.

Re- or nearshoring production is one way that businesses are looking to build resilience. In 2022, ABB Robotics conducted a survey of 1,610 businesses in the US and Europe, which found that 74 percent of European and 70 percent of U.S. businesses are planning to bring production closer to home.

With companies facing a variety of challenges, not least rising skills and labor shortages, automation is the answer for companies looking to relocate production closer to home, with 75 percent of European and 62 percent of U.S. businesses planning to invest in automation in the next three years.

Bringing production home

In the US, companies in sectors including electronics, automotive and metals production are updating existing facilities as well as developing new ones to re-shore their production. An example is Ford, which is expanding and re-equipping its existing production lines at its Kentucky truck plant in Louisville to improve productivity and increase capacity¹. Others, including major semiconductor producers are building new facilities, contributing to a 116% increase in construction of new industrial facilities in the US between 2021 and 2022².

ABB is also investing $280 million in its European Robotics hub in Sweden to help support companies across sectors including automotive, electronics, logistics, healthcare, e-commerce, and pharmaceuticals that are looking to re-shore to find ways to deploy robotics and AI.

Packaged robotic automation solutions are a key part of this. As a way of bringing together all equipment needed for an application into a single, fully integrated system, they can help to get production up and running quickly by reducing the time and effort associated with installation, commissioning, and testing.

OmniVance: Ready to deploy

By enabling optimum use of space and providing the flexibility to cope with change, packaged modular robotic automation solutions provide an ideal way of getting re-shored operations up and running quickly and easily.

This is where ABB’s OmniVance pre-packaged solutions can bring major advantages. Pre-configured, the OmniVance range offers a choice of flexible, fully equipped solutions for a range of industrial applications. Combining robot, gripper, controller, software, and other components into a choice of pre-integrated application-specific packages, OmniVance cells greatly reduce the time and complexity of integration, speeding up installation times and minimizing the time and potential scope for error involved in sourcing equipment from multiple suppliers. With all components of the cell being serviceable by ABB, even those from third parties, there is also the added reassurance of support in the event of a problem.

A fully integrated cell means that all components can work at full capacity and speed, enhancing productivity by handling tasks with minimal human intervention.

For manufacturing companies, these benefits are delivered by application-specific options for machining, welding, machine tending and quality inspection, with a plastic clipping cell option for automotive production.

The advantages of modularity and standardization are also available to the distribution and logistics industry. An OmniVance solution for automated storage and retrieval applications offers a highly adaptable multi-functional solution for fast and efficient handling of tasks such as sequencing, buffering, storage, and order consolidation.

Furthermore, every OmniVance cell can be simulated on ABB’s RobotStudio® planning and programming software, enabling users to plan, test and refine the performance of their cell in a virtual environment before the actual physical set up is made. Possible issues such as collisions, or potential improvements can be highlighted in the simulation, enabling them to be resolved without impacting on the real production process.

Scalability made easy

One major advantage of the OmniVance approach is scalability. With a standardized design, a company can quickly re-configure a cell to make different products or even refurbish cells to run different functions to meet changing market needs.

Modules can be changed or added as needed, while the software provided with each OmniVance solution, which can also be used in conjunction with RobotStudio®, enables fast and easy teaching of new objects and tasks, cutting the time needed to get new processes up and running.

The scalability enabled by OmniVance has benefited Polish automotive parts supplier Katcon, which uses 27 OmniVance™ FlexArc cells for welding operations involved in the production of catalytic converters. With global demand for its products increasing, the company needed to find ways to rapidly expand its production capacity and decided to opt for the FlexArc automated welding solution. With everything needed for welding applications, including welding robots, positioners, and associated equipment, plus motion control software to guide the robots, the FlexArc cells allow Katcon to quickly ramp its production up or down to meet customer demands.

Apart from the improved productivity achieved by the cells, another benefit has been the ability for Katcon to easily replicate its welding cell setup at any of its global sites, reducing the time, cost and disruption associated with modifying its production lines.

The inherent scalability of the OmniVance concept also means that cells can be used by companies of any size, from mass producers such as automotive OEMs through to SMEs. Swedish SME Grantek, for example, has introduced an OmniVance™ FlexLoader™ cell to enable faster packaging and delivery of advanced special parts for industrial applications. The investment in robotic automation has enabled Grantek to transform both its productivity and competitiveness, enabling it to increase output if required.

In our next article…

These examples highlight the benefits that pre-packaged standardized robotic automation solutions such as OmniVance can offer. In our next article, we will look in more detail at some of the specific ways in which our range of OmniVance cells are helping companies across multiple industries to address their challenges and transform their productivity, flexibility, and resilience.