Navneet Kejriwal - Head of Manufacturing Operations, India for Dell - speaks about Dell’s cobot journey
Empowering People has always been the core of everything we do here at Universal Robots. With over 46,000 cobots deployed across the world so far, thousands of people across the world have benefit from the values of Human Robot Collaboration – a key Industry 4.0 driver. In our very first Cobot Clients blog post, we share the perspective of Mr. Navneet Kejriwal, Head of Manufacturing Operations for Dell India, who spoke of his experience with collaborative robots in a webinar hosted by Manufacturing Today. Starting off with a single cobot in 2017, the Dell plant now has four cobots in various tasks across their assembly line.
The Background
As you already probably know, Dell is one of the world’s largest technological corporations in the world, owning almost 17% of the worldwide PC market share by the end of 2019. Their plant in Chennai, India manufactures laptops, desktops and servers. The factory has been operating since 2007, and most of the demand from India is handled from this location. In fact, the Chennai plant is their only factory in the country, and one of ten manufacturing plants that Dell has worldwide!
The manufacturing environment is one of electronics assembly and testing. Typically, volumes go up to approximately one million units per year, which is a pretty high volume. A variety of orders keep coming in, and Dell needs a high level of flexibility to handle the different form factors. This includes all-in-one computers, monitors and laptops. So, the manufacturing concept is built on one that can handle high-mix low-volume production.
Enter the Cobot
The first cobot made its way into the Dell India factory about 3 years ago, when Dell was moving towards digital transformation in their manufacturing environment. Dell had two pillars in their strategy –Digitalization, and Smart Automation. Digitalization focused more on information and data aspects like how to empower the workforce. There were a lot of applications developed to increase the efficiency of humans in making decisions and accessing information, comprising Dell’s digital strategy.
On the other hand, Dell’s smart automation strategy was looking at automating repetitive and complex tasks. Typically, the functions and tasks that were identified for smart automation were those which had ergonomics, repetition and opportunity for some assistance by a machine to a human operator. Electronics assembly tasks tend to be delicate, requiring the handling of sensitive parts. Automation, thus, was tricky, and Dell had to carry out complete value stream mapping to identify tasks that could be automated with a low risk of damage.
The Dell team checked the backend of their assembly process, where the computer unit is already made and tested, and is getting packed. There, they noticed a task where a human operator had to lift the unit while another person put cushions on the two edges of a box, and then placed the unit in it. Typically, there were two people doing this task, which was a very low-skilled and repetitive job, involving some heavy lifting. They realized this was a task they could make friendlier and easier for humans, and that’s when Universal Robots came into the picture, with a cobot being a very interactive machine designed with Human Robot Collaboration in mind.
Crafting the Perfect Cobot Solution
The application was not an easy one to create, especially due to the mixed model production line, involving varying sizes in form factor coming in one after another with random configurations. So, the solution is one that required thought and intelligence, and thus, Dell decided to have a human assistant who could recognize the unit that was coming through, and accordingly adapt its position and orientation. Dell also needed to incorporate a camera as a machine vision solution, as well as choose the right end effector to hold the unit correctly in production.
Rather than just purchasing a cobot and being left to figure out how to use it, the Dell engineering team was able to work collaboratively with the Universal Robots technical specialists to develop the right solution. In fact, before investing in a cobot, the Dell team first borrowed a demo unit for a Proof of Concept (POC). “All the initial hesitation and skepticism around automation on the assembly line just disappeared once we started working together,’’ said Navneet. ‘’We had a POC in a time frame which was beyond our expectations – much faster and much sooner. So, our initial experience with UR has been very positive and they created an environment which was very easy for humans to work with – male or female, anybody could take the position in the production line and help the units in getting packed. We received very positive feedback from our own employees. Initially, they may have had some concerns about automation, but when the people on the production line started seeing the robot as an assistant and that the human is still in the commanding position, their concerns went away.’’
‘’Cobots created an environment which was very easy for humans to work with – male or female, anybody could get involved in this packaging process in the production line. We received very positive feedback from our own employees. Initially, they may have had some concerns about automation, but when the people on the production line started seeing the robot as an assistant while a human is still in command, their concerns went away.’’
~ Navneet Kejriwal - Head of Manufacturing Operations, India for Dell
Another complex solution at the Chennai plant was that of a bulk carton box on the production flow that had to be put on a conveyor in the assembly line. It was rather complicated as the units were lying in a multilayer carton box, which could be for different models and compactors of different sizes. By integrating a cobot with a camera, the cobot system could intelligently identify the size of the unit, and even which layer it was in – the top or bottom layer. Based on this information, the motion was programmed and automatically selected.
The Reliability of Universal Robots
The first cobot at Dell has been running for approximately three years, and is placed in a high flow manufacturing line with 3 – 4 units per minute. This means that this single cobot has gone through over a million production cycles till date – all with zero downtime. Of course, there have been some spare parts that are prone to heavy wear and tear, but the Dell team has become self-sufficient in basic maintenance. Dell also has a maintenance agreement with UR for any escalated support.
‘’Our first cobot, installed 3 years ago, is on a high flow production line with 3-4 units every minute. This means this single cobot has gone through over 1 million production cycles till date with 0 downtime! Reliability is one of the biggest positives with UR cobots.’’
~ Navneet Kejriwal - Head of Manufacturing Operations, India for Dell
Dell’s Chennai plant received many accolades from other Dell teams across the world for the accomplishments achieved with cobots, which were the first of their kind for Dell. Navneet explained, ‘’Our colleagues and peers at other factories got excited when they saw this deployment. Some of the use cases were replicated in other plants, while some collaborated with UR for new applications as well. It’s been very positive for us to engage with the UR team.’’ Navneet was also thrilled about being able to use cobot technology in solutions that help Dell achieve their goals in improving productivity, quality consistency, and ergonomics to make it easy for humans in the workplace.
‘’Our Chennai plant is one of the 10 plants that we have worldwide. Our accomplishments here were the first of their kind for Dell, and our colleagues in other factories were excited to deploy similar applications and even collaborate with UR for newer ones.’’
~ Navneet Kejriwal - Head of Manufacturing Operations, India for Dell
Partial Automation
Dell’s primary reason for choosing a UR cobot was its collaborative design, which enabled it to safely work as an assistant to humans. They found partial automation is a very important and interesting way to automize production, where there is no need to automate everything. Instead, one can choose a part of the work to automate with a cobot and let a human handle the other part of the process, thereby using the cobot as an assistant so the human worker can have the best experience. This contrasts with traditional robots, which are heavy, typically require a lot of space, and are inflexible as they are designed with one specific application in mind.
Social Distancing and Other Benefits
The main benefits the Dell team witnessed include increased productivity and better ergonomics, as the cobot has made the job easier for humans since they no longer must lift a computer from the conveyer line.
In the case of the packaging task the cobot is currently stationed on, the application initially involved two humans working very closely together. Now, the cobot works with a single person instead. This has proved to be an extra benefit experienced by Dell in the current COVID-19 pandemic situation, when the company has been rearranging the placement of people in the production line to allow more distance between every two individuals. However, since this application was already automated with Human Robot Collaboration, no further changes needed to be made and the task can go on as before without any fear of virus transmission.
Further Potential in Electronics
Navneet sees huge potential in using cobots in the electronics industry, especially in surface mounting technology (SMT) lines, where bare boards must be mounted and flipped. He also sees much potential in component or service areas, as well as final product system assembly (where cobots are used in Dell). Assembly tasks, packing, palletizing, pick and place, making connections and installing components are some of the many tasks where he feels cobots will result in major benefits. Electronics is based on light assembly – the components are small. These robots can work on devices with a small form factor, and the low footprint means the cobot can work even with space constraints in the production facility since it can be flexibly mounted on the floor or hung from the ceiling.
''I think it’s been a great journey. We are excited and are looking ahead to see where else we can apply these cobots – especially in more challenging areas involving delicate components. Cobots have a lot of benefits, enabling us to either select applications from existing use cases in the industry, or even develop creative, new applications.''
~ Navneet Kejriwal - Head of Manufacturing Operations, India for Dell