Initial Situation
Eugster/Frismag AG, a leading manufacturer in the field of coffee machines, previously assembled coffee grinders manually with a team of 10–12 employees. At the same time, the variety of product variants increased, and production had to become more flexible and efficient.
Problem
Manual assembly reached its limits:
- Staff shortage due to the ongoing skilled labor shortage
- High training and coordination effort
- Limited scalability with increasing production volumes
- Long changeover times when switching products
- Risk of increasing error and scrap rates
Goals and Requirements
- Reduction of personnel requirements in assembly
- Full automation of complex assembly processes
- Quick changeover to different product variants (batch size 1)
- Cycle time under 8 seconds
- Integrated quality assurance
- Maximum system availability through predictive maintenance
Solution
Together with Roth Technik, a fully automated assembly line was developed.
Core components of the solution:
- 14 FANUC LR Mate 200iD/7L robots for assembly processes
- FANUC M-20iD/25 robot for unloading and module transfer
- Automated processes: joining, screwing, greasing, clipping, laser marking, final inspection
- FANUC ZDT (Zero Down Time) for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance
Result
- Reduction in personnel requirements from 10–12 people to a single monitoring specialist
- Cycle time <8 seconds
- Product changes within seconds – suitable for batch size 1
- Minimization of downtime through ZDT
- Increased system availability and extended robot lifespan
- Significant reduction in unit costs while improving process reliability
