Seeking Technologies To Automate Kitting and Packaging Process

Teckwah Value Chain supports global clients to source, manufacture, assemble, kit and pack their final products. The turnkey kitting and packing step in particular is a labour-intensive and manual process.

The company currently faces the following issues:

• Turnkey processes consist of multiple manual steps to cater to different customer needs which involve a wide variety of combinations of items for packing
• Each customer’s requirements vary due to different/unique product packaging designs, and there are over 100 combinations of items for packaging
• Customers also have varying order patterns due to urgency and periodic surges (i.e. product launches)

The company is seeking technologies/solutions that can address the following objectives:

• Identify work step process of manual activities for process improvement to achieve labour productivity and output quality consistency
• Modularity of the proposed solution to cater for different product configuration

The proposed solution should be modular, flexible and easily configurable on-site, to cater to the high mix in product configurations. The kitting line sees a daily production output of at least 15,000 units. The targeted improvement with automation is to increase production volume to at least 20,000 units daily.

 The key stages of the packing process requiring automation are as follows:

• Forming the box/packaging: This is to form the box/packaging structure from its original flattened form
• Inserting items: Items can include paper leaflets, CDs and hardware products
• Pasting labels: Labels are currently in roll and sheet form, with varying label sizes and stringent positioning of labels required
• Closing the box/packaging

There are no restrictions to the types of technology deployed, including picking robots, leaflet dispensers etc. However, the proposed solution should address the following requirements:

Proposed solutions should be able to handle fragile items or paper leaflets.

Minimum Required Technology Readiness Level (TRL)

Level 7

1. Increase labour productivity due to optimised use of manpower, with indirect/direct cost savings achieved
2. Enhance customer satisfaction due to improvement in accuracy of order completion
3. Upgrade the skills of production workforce due to introduction of automation, and job redesign thereafter

Minimum 6 months (to study the multiple workflows and design of the automation).

Further Details

Further details of the challenge statement may be found at the Briefings Page, in the form of video recordings of the virtual briefing sessions, Q&A transcripts and presentation slides if available.

Instructions on Submitting Proposals

Download the proposal submission form in Microsoft Word format at the 'Attachment' section of the Challenge Statement Listing Page and fill in the details of your project proposal. You can then proceed to the proposal submission page by logging in and clicking the 'Submit Proposal' button on the right side of this page, where you will have to fill in the form fields and attach the filled Microsoft Word project submission form before submitting. Do also upload supporting documents/files that may support your proposal.