ABB Helps Automate the Global Furniture Industry
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ABB Helps Automate the Global Furniture Industry |
The flat-pack furniture industry is entering a new era of robotized flexible manufacturing and ABB is helping world leaders like IKEA create new fully automated production lines and reap a rapid return on investment. IKEA, consistently ranked the world’s top home furnishings brand, is leading the way in automated furniture manufacturing, much as it did with the concept of flat pack or ready-to-assemble furniture which it launched in the 1960s. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “To provide functional, well-designed furniture at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them..” The company is enjoying strong and sustained growth, selling Scandinavian-style home furnishings and housewares in more than 270 stores in 36 countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America, and opening dozens of new stores each year. To cut transportation costs, it uses flat packaging for many products which customers assemble themselves at home. The company also designs its own furniture, which is made by about 1,300 suppliers in more than 50 countries. To meet this boom in growth, IKEA – via its wholly owned subsidiary Swedwood International - is planning to double its manufacturing capacity within the next five years and has signed a frame agreement with ABB for robotics solutions that will enable it to produce flat-pack furniture speedily, flexibly and efficiently at low cost. ABB has already supplied Swedwood International’s existing 35 factories with robotics solutions and a variety of power and automation products and systems, from complete factory electrification solutions to distributed control systems and factory automation platforms.
ABB robotics solutions are perfect for speedy, flexible and efficient production of flatpack furniture. ABB robotics solutions are perfect for speedy, flexible and efficient production of flatpack furniture. The new frame agreement covers a broad sweep of robotics products for painting, packing and palletizing applications, as well as IRC5 controllers, PickMaster software and advanced vision-guided technologies. Another flat-pack furniture manufacturer that has reaped the benefits of ABB robotics solutions is Sweden-based, Svedplan. The company recently automated half its manual picking line by installing eight ABB robots in three palletizing and packing stations. The result was an increase in productivity of 45 percent and a return on investment of between two to three years Courtesy of ABB |
