Success story
Addressing Labor Shortageswith ABB Cobots
Lankapaja Corporation, a Finnish manufacturer specializing in sheet metal and wire products, found itself facing significant operational challenges. A crucial part of their production involves welding tubes to form components for furniture and other end products. However, the increasing shortage of skilled welders capable of meeting the company's high standards was limiting production efficiency. This shortage posed a serious threat to their ability to fulfill growing customer orders and maintain their competitive edge in a rapidly expanding market.
At their Swedish plant, the difficulty in finding experienced welders meant that the company struggled to keep up with production demands, which was impacting their ability to seize new business opportunities.
Faced with these challenges, Lankapaja had to find a solution that would not only address the immediate labor shortages but also enable them to increase output without compromising quality. To meet customer demands and continue delivering high-quality products, automation emerged as a crucial strategy.
Before automation, the companyfaced two major issues:
#1 Labor shortages:
The company struggled to find enough skilled welders to meet growing production needs. This shortage led to delays and hindered the company’s ability to fulfill customer orders on time, directly impacting productivity.
#2 Increasing customer demand:
As demand surged, the company needed to scale up its output while maintaining consistent quality. However, limited access to skilled labor and rising labor costs made it difficult to meet this growing demand without sacrificing their high production standards.
Lankapaja Corporation had already integrated six large ABB industrial robots for arc welding, but to address the new challenges of labor shortages and increased customer demand, they turned to cobots for their MIG welding stations. The company required cobots that could deliver high-quality welds, particularly for furniture applications where aesthetics are crucial, and that were user-friendly for their operators.
ABB Value Provider JE RobotTeknik, which specializes in robotic welding solutions, developed a custom approach to meet these needs. The solution involved deploying two GoFa™ cobots equipped with ABB’s Cobot Arc Welding Package. This package includes essential tools such as the Easy Teach Device, which simplifies the teaching of welding paths. The use of ABB's RobotStudio® software allowed Lankapaja to perform offline programming and simulations to ensure the cobots would follow precise paths, avoiding any potential collisions with components.
The GoFa™ cobots are designed to work in tight spaces, requiring minimal room and operating alongside human workers without the need for safety barriers. ABB’s Wizard Easy Programming software further enhanced the ease of use, allowing operators to create complex welding programs in just minutes without needing prior coding experience. The lead-through programming feature enabled operators to manually move the robot to the desired positions, making the setup process intuitive and efficient.
Additionally, the cobots are equipped with advanced sensors and motion control technology, ensuring smooth, precise movements and optimal torch control. These capabilities allow the cobots to handle intricate joint configurations, weld in confined spaces, and manage difficult angles. As a result, Lankapaja was able to achieve flawless welds, meeting the high standards required for their furniture components. This solution not only addressed their production needs but also improved flexibility and precision, allowing the company to stay competitive in a demanding market.
The integration of GoFa™ cobots brought several significant improvements to Lankapaja's operations:
Reduced welding defects:
The cobots’ ability to perform precise, repeatable welds significantly reduced the occurrence of welding defects, ensuring consistent quality across all products.
60% faster programming:
The introduction of Wizard Easy Programming cut programming times by more than half, allowing operators to quickly set up new tasks. This efficiency enabled workers to focus on higher-value activities, such as quality checks or other manual tasks.
Increased production capacity:
With the cobots handling repetitive welding tasks, the company saw a notable increase in production capacity. This allowed Lankapaja to keep up with growing customer demand without needing to expand its workforce.
Shorter lead times:
By automating tasks that would have taken longer manually, the company was able to reduce lead times, allowing it to take on more contracts and significantly boost customer satisfaction.
For Lankapaja, the ease of programming and flexibility offered by the cobots proved to be the ideal solution for addressing their capacity issues. Workers without prior experience in robotics, coding, or welding were quickly able to produce high-quality welds faster than experienced welders, providing an efficient solution to the company’s labor challenges.
Andreas Lundberg, Managing Director of Lankapaja says: “The ABB cobots have been a great success for us and the extra capacity they provide has allowed us to achieve growth in the furniture and shop interior design markets, as well as others. We are already creating more space so that we can use six robots run by three operators in the near future, allowing further expansion of our production capacity.”
Watch this video to see how ABB’s GoFa™ cobots helped overcome labor shortages and boost efficiency in welding processes.
