Universal Robots Partners Nissan Motor Company to Enhance Manufacturing Productivity through Collaborative Robots

Universal Robots Partners Nissan Motor Company to Enhance Manufacturing Productivity through Collaborative Robots

Nissan Motor Company has simplified processes, reduced relief worker costs and stabilised production output through deployment of Universal Robots’ UR10 cobots

Singapore, 6
April 2017 – Universal
Robots, the leading collaborative robotics company, has announced that Nissan
Motor Company has successfully deployed Universal Robots’ UR10 robot arms at
its Yokohama factory; joining other global automotive manufacturers including
BMW and Volkswagen who are using Universal Robots’ collaborative robots
(cobots) to automate their processes. Through the deployment of Universal
Robots’ cobots, Nissan has enhanced its production processes, resulting in a
higher level of output and stability as well as time and cost efficiencies.
Nissan’s aging workforce also enjoy a reduced workload, and were redeployed to
less strenuous tasks.

Shermine Gotfredsen,
General Manager, SEA and Oceania, said, “We are excited to be working with
Nissan in their automation journey. The global automotive industry plays a key
role in driving the adoption of collaborative robots (cobots) to produce better
manufacturing output, and this is critical for industry players to stay
competitive. Universal Robots is at the forefront of this trend; our cobots
effectively support process automation, resulting in improved safety standards
and less strain on human employees. This can be applied not only in the
automotive industry, but also in the manufacturing of electronics and electrical,
pharma and chemistry, and food and agriculture.”

Cobots are an offshoot
of traditional industrial robots. They are lightweight and mobile in terms of
deployment, and are flexible enough to be modified for different applications.
The automotive industry uses cobots in a wide variety of processes including
handling, assembling, packaging, palletizing, labelling, painting, quality
control and machine tending. The market value for collaborative industrial
robots in the automotive industry was US$23.56 million in 2015 and is projected
to reach US$469.82 million by 2021, at a CAGR of 64.67% between 2015 and 2021.

Rise of Collaborative
Industrial Robots in Southeast Asia’s Automotive Industry

The automotive
industry in SEA is poised for great growth with large markets experiencing
important sales growth. As a key manufacturing hub producing for Asia and the
world, SEA’s automotive sector has grown at 11% CAGR between 2010 and 2015[1].
The upcoming implementation of Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Free-Trade Area is expected to lower import and export taxes in the region,
further driving demand for cost-effective regionally manufactured vehicles.

UR10 Robot Arms at
Nissan Motor Company

Nissan Motor Company
needed to streamline its production process at its large-scale Yokohama plant.
The company also needed to manage labour costs with an aging workforce and the
associated loss of vital skills.

Mr Nakamura, Expert
Headman for the plant’s Engine Section, said: “We needed a robot large enough
to carry hefty intake manifold components, weighing up to 6kgs. On comparison
with other companies’ robots, we selected the UR10 due to its cost advantages
for a single robot, as well as its weight capacity. In the process of
installing the intake manifolds, only the UR10 robot arm had the payload of
10kg among the other products we considered.”

Universal Robots’
cobots are collaborative industrial robot arms that can automate processes and
tasks that weigh up to 10 kg, and require precision and reliability. With a
reach radius of up to 1300mm, the cobots are designed to be more effective at
tasks across a larger area, and can save time on production lines where
distance can be a factor. Universal Robots’ cobots are easy to program and set
up. They are designed to work alongside humans, as a tool, to help simplify and
speed up tasks that might be complicated, or require greater physical strength.

After deliberating on
the range of safety and features required, Nissan decided on using the UR10
robot arms which were easily installed, programmed and operational within a
week. The deployment of UR10 robot arms at Nissan reduced production time and
quality as well as allowed employees to be relieved of monotonous tasks,
allowing them to obtain valuable line experience elsewhere.

Subsection Chief of
Engine Section Mr Onishi said: “We are able to quickly respond to potential
production time overruns as we can easily move the UR10 to work on any process
in the plant where the issue has been identified. We plan to further the use of
cobots by integrating the strong on-site and engineering capabilities, which
will increase our level of cobots deployment going forward.”

For more details on
how Nissan Motor Company is using UR10 robots please click here.

[1] Riding Southeast Asia’s automotive highway – PWC, https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/growth-markets-centre/publications/assets/Riding_Southeast_Asia_automotive_highway.pdf