Like many manufacturers in the industry, Cox had enormous difficulties in finding and retaining qualified and committed employees. The company opted for an automation solution to close this gap and increase the factory's productivity.

Founded in 1984 as B&D Plastics, Cox currently operates several blow molding machines. These are in operation 24 hours a day in the 73,000 square meter production facility. Unlike other market players, Cox Container can adapt production to individual customer requirements at any time: The company permanently switches between high-volume/low-mix and low-volume/high-mix models. For this reason, it is essential for the blow mold manufacturer to be able to work extremely flexibly - both in terms of employees and machine deployment.

Like most manufacturers around the world, Cox struggled to recruit and retain skilled workers - in particular, there were often bottlenecks in a work cell where two employees had to pack bottles: The pace of work was too fast for one employee, but still too slow to justify a second employee in the same cell.

Sawyer's work relieves three full-time employees. © Rethink

Today, the collaborative robot Sawyer supports the individual employee in packing the bottles so that the other employees can work elsewhere in the factory and thus create added value. Sawyer's deployment relieves three full-time employees, who can then devote themselves to more demanding tasks.

"We put a lot of emphasis on getting the right people, so it was difficult to find qualified staff," says Gary Fox, Plant Manager at Cox. "With Sawyer, we have reduced staffing requirements in this specific work cell by 50 percent, allowing us to redeploy three employees to other areas of the business. This not only allows them to do more valuable and meaningful work. It also means the employees stay with us longer."

In the production plant, Sawyer picks up bottles from a conveyor belt and places them in a specially designed container. The collaborative robot is trained to move to another picking area as soon as the container is half full. There, Sawyer selects a carton divider, places it in the bin and then fills it with a second layer of bottles. Once completed, the operator gives Sawyer a new container to pack and finishes the final packaging of the product.

"Collaborative robots like Sawyer are easy to implement and help manufacturers stem the skills shortage. At the same time, they allow employees to engage in responsible tasks - resulting in low employee turnover," says Jim Lawton, COO at Rethink Robotics. "For smaller companies like Cox Container, an affordable automation solution like Sawyer is the key to innovation and adaptability in an increasingly competitive market."

"At Cox Container, Sawyer was up and running within a day, and the company expects an ROI within the next six to eight months," says Gary Fox. "We pushed Sawyer into our production hall, trained it on the application and the next day it was packing bottles."

Next year, Cox plans to deploy more collaborative robots on three other production lines. "Sawyer is a great addition to our team and its use has had an immediate positive impact on our business," says Gary Fox. "Now I have lots of ideas for using Sawyer in other areas of the plant."

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