UR3 cobot reduces yearly operational costs by 80,000 USD

PT JVC Electronics Indonesia

In short

PT JVC Electronics Indonesia (JEIN) is part of the JVCKENWOOD Group, a global leader in electronic and entertainment products. JEIN, heavily dependent on manual processes, saw a need to automate its operations to remain competitive. The company deployed seven units of Universal Robots’ UR3 collaborative robots (cobots) to increase productivity and achieve consistent output quality.

With the adoption of cobots, JEIN has improved its production processes and workers’ safety, while reducing yearly operational costs by more than USD 80,000. Manufacturers are increasingly turning to robotic automation to improve productivity and attain consistent output quality, changing the way they operate.

The business transformation

PT JVC Electronics Indonesia (JEIN) established similar objectives. While the engineering team in Indonesia set its sights on adopting robotic automation, the company felt overwhelmed by the thought of moving out of its comfort zone - changing its manual processes which had been in place for 20 years.

PT JVC Electronics Indonesia

Industry Electronics and Technology

Country Asia

Number of Employees 1000+

Cobots used UR3

Video — UR3 robot, PT JVC Electronics Indonesia

After comparing various brands in the market, we chose the UR robots as they are easy to operate, require less maintenance on a daily basis and were competitively priced. Furthermore, technical support and service centers for the cobots are readily available in Indonesia.

Agustinus P. Simanullang, General Manager, Engineering Division at JEIN

An obvious choice

JEIN identified the adoption of robots, specifically in the form of Universal Robots’ UR3 collaborative (cobots), as their preferred means to automate. According to Agustinus P. Simanullang, General Manager, Engineering Division at JEIN, “After comparing various brands in the market, we chose the UR robots as they are easy to operate, require less maintenance on a daily basis and were competitively priced. Furthermore, technical support and service centres for the cobots are readily available in Indonesia.”

Compact and collaborative

The small, lightweight and compact nature of the UR3 cobots complemented the company’s production facility, which was limited in space. The cobots were installed without needing to make drastic changes to the workspace layout. Flexibility, another feature of the UR cobots, was also important to the team. The cobots support the use of various end effectors – grippers, soldering irons, screwdrivers – allowing the team to customise the cobots to undertake different tasks. JEIN engaged PT Surya Sarana Dinamik (SSD), a Universal Robots channel partner, to customize the UR3 cobots to perform three tasks at the facility – screwing, soldering and, pick and place.

Skilled users within a month

The engineering team, led by Mr Agustinus Simanullang, who was new to robotics, successfully install the UR cobots into the production line within several months.

“I’m very happy working with the robots as they are very easy to program and safe to use. Training with the cobots only took four days for our case. Within a month we fully understood and were familiar with its operations even without any prior robotics experience.” said Sabar, Plant Technician at JEIN.

Workplace safety improvement

JEIN manufactures over 400,000 products each month to serve global customers. Turnaround time (time taken for a product to be produced) needs to be fast, with minimal defects, to consistently meet this production target. The adoption of UR3 lessened the burden on workers to perform menial and repetitive tasks, including separating cut pieces of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and attaching a glass display on the car stereo units. The cobots also stabilised takt time - the cycle time of a specific process – while reducing the time per task by half.

Safety was also an important contributing factor for the team. The UR cobots, designed with a patented safety system, allow employees to work in close proximity without the need for safety fencing (subject to risk assessment). Moreover, the cobots relieved workers from handling high risk tasks such as soldering and separating cut PCB parts, which emit hazardous fumes and dust particles. “One of the key features of the UR3 robot is its force control for adaptive safety; it senses external forces and stops immediately when a collision is detected. Our workers are able to work in close proximity with the cobots with no safety guarding after risk assessment” said Sukijan, Plant Supervisor at JEIN.

Improved efficiency and output

“Through the adoption of cobots, we were able to improve production efficiency and our output quality is now more stable. With the move towards automation, our manpower can be redeployed to other processes. We have been able to reduce operational costs by more than USD 80,000 yearly,” said Mr Agustinus Simanullang.

Expanding cobot use

The successful adoption of Universal Robots at JEIN convinced the company and group management of the ease of automation. The JVCKENWOOD Group is now looking to adopt UR cobots at its operations in Japan, China, Malaysia and Thailand.