Background and Possibility of Business TakeoverBackground and Possibilities Related to Taking Over a Business
Combining the collaborative robot business promoted by our company with the strengths (now former) Squse holds in the food manufacturing field has made a wide range of system integrations possible for food factories overall.
Background of business takeover Specific circumstances in the food product manufacturing field became obstacles for the collaborative robot business
Since we started our robot business in 2017, IDEC Factory Solutions has been promoting proposals for solutions using collaborative robots in the food product manufacturing field as well.
However, in the food product manufacturing field, unique know-how is required due to peculiarities,* and there are many cases where although we have talked about introducing systems, it was not done.
* Special circumstances unique to food factories ・ Food factories produce various products in a small space. ・ It is difficult to thoroughly teach occupational safety skills because they actively hire workers from overseas. ・ Factory environments where production is busy and goods are moving frequently ・ Risk assessments of cases of relying on collaborative robots are limited ・ Flexible choices are needed not only to protect people but also to protect equipment (Purposely installing a safety fence, not using collaborative robots, etc.)
Possibilities that come with business takeover Eliminating human resources and know-how shortages by taking over Squse
Above all, the biggest issue for us was the lack of human resources who could see the food products field from a bird's-eye view. At that time, talk of taking over business from Squse Inc. emerged.
Squse Inc.’s main business was consulting on improvements in the food products manufacturing field, and it had abundant achievements in consulting on improvements and systems delivery in the food products field that could help fix our shortage of human resources, which was our problem.
Thus, in May 2021, we officially added their business into IDEC Factory Solutions.
About Squse at the time we overtook them
● Had a wide range of achievements in the food product field
Lidding robot ・ ・ ・ 47 cells Transport equipment ・ ・ ・ 37 units Automatic transport: 50 units
● Examples of improvement consulting by Squse(Focused on proposals with the ideology of seeing the forest instead of the trees)
1A bird's-eye view of the production line
Mechanism that can be multi-skilled
Collection of defective (NG) products in each process
State management of each process
Consulting and proposal for
2A bird's-eye view of the processes
3A bird's-eye view of the factory
Implemented definitions of requirements for smart factories from simple diagnoses
Automation consulting or equipment development
Proposals that do not focus on utilizing robots
Proposal to view the above from a bird’s-eye view and optimize it