When ABB YuMi collaborative robot enters the automotive aluminum parts factory

ABB YuMi collaboration helps SUS Corporation of Japan achieve production reshoring and address labor shortages

The dual-arm YuMi effectively shortens assembly time, increases production efficiency by 20%, and enhances production flexibility

SUS uses ABB's RobotStudio offline software to efficiently develop automation solutions

ABB's YuMi collaborative robots help SUS of Japan, a major supplier of aluminum frames and die-cast aluminum parts for the automotive and other manufacturing industries, to reshore production and address labor shortage challenges.

Production reshoring is seen as an effective way to deal with the lack of resilience and uncertainty in the supply chain, but it may also make production more complicated. To address these issues, we provide a range of flexible automation solutions. We are pleased to see that SUS is benefiting from it, achieving significant time savings, improved production efficiency and the ability to quickly adapt to supply chain changes. This further proves that automation technology is widely used and is not limited to large vehicle manufacturers .

In recent years, the global supply chain has been frequently affected by fluctuations. In order to better control delivery time and enhance production flexibility , SUS decided to return to local production in Shizuoka, Japan. However, due to the large number of repetitive and monotonous manual operations involved in the production process itself, coupled with the increasingly serious labor shortage, the company has difficulty retaining enough workers to meet production needs.

To solve this problem, SUS introduced a series of YuMi dual-arm collaborative robots . YuMi not only shortened assembly time and increased production efficiency by 20% , but also provided much-needed flexibility to cope with demand fluctuations. The investment cost is expected to be recovered within two years.

Through ABB's RobotStudio offline programming simulation software , the solution used by SUS can be designed in a virtual environment and the operation process can be optimized before being deployed in the real world. Through simulation, the motion mode of the YuMi dual-arm collaborative robot with a single arm and seven axes was also verified, which can accurately complete the complex twisting movements required in the assembly process. In addition, RobotStudio can accurately calculate the achievable output, helping SUS make wise investment decisions. Currently, SUS is studying the possibility of adding more robot cells to other production processes and exploring the possibility of automating other production processes.

Akihiro Taki, die casting team manager at SUS Shizuoka Plant, said,

Robots have taken over monotonous, tedious tasks, allowing workers to be reallocated to more valuable tasks. In addition, the new system can be run overnight with fewer workers, reducing the number of specialized assembly machines required from 11 to five .

In a recent automotive manufacturing outlook survey, ABB found that nearly a third (31%) of respondents ranked labor shortages as one of their top three challenges, while as many as 35% ranked labor as their top concern when it came to rising costs.

Reviewing Editor: Huang Fei