2009-08-20 - With the help of ABB robots, bottled water provider, Oasis Water Company, has automated a once-hazardous operation and increased its production capacity so much so that the firm is currently the second biggest 5-gallon water producer in the world.
With an estimated 60% market share in the UAE’s 5-gallon bottled water market, on-time delivery for homes and offices around the country is crucial for the Oasis Water Company - the UAE’s largest FMCG company in the beverage and dairy products segment, currently celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
Built in 1997, Oasis Water’s Dubai-based factory first included a 5-gallon production line featuring rack loaders with a production capacity of approximately 1800 bottles per hour. The firm soon realized that if it was going to keep up with demand it needed to expand the facility and shift to a fully automated production line.
In 2004, the firm began building an expansion to the existing factory, which saw the size of the facility increase by a whopping 216%. As part of the expansion, the company fully automated their 5-gallon production line with the help of two state-of-the-art robots from ABB: the IRB 6600 and the IRB 7600, which can handle payloads of 250kgs and 500 kgs, respectively.
Making a huge difference
The IRB 6600 loads empty water bottles and places them on the conveyor belt, whilst the IRB 7600 lifts 16 water-filled bottles along with a metal stack holder– weighing a total of 450kgs – and loads them accurately into massive steel racks.
With the company’s previous
mechanical rack loader set-up, it was able to achieve cycle times of 29-30 seconds, however thanks to ABB’s robots the firm has been able to cut cycle times and increase productivity by an impressive 36%.
Plant manager, Paul Dunlea, says ABB robots have helped boost production“Now our cycle times are just 4-5 seconds, which has helped increase our production capacity from just 1800 bottles an hour to a whopping 5000 bottles an hour,” revealed Paul Dunlea, plant manager for the firm’s Dubai facility.
Dunlea added, "Thanks to ABB robots the factory is now producing 60,000 5-gallon bottles a day, making our facility the second largest 5-gallon water production line in the world. This is a huge achievement that wouldn’t be possible without the robots.”
Putting safety first
In addition to helping Oasis Water gain a competitive edge in terms of production, the ABB robots have also helped create a safer working environment for plant employees.
“Prior to the arrival of the robots the loading and uploading was carried out with the help of rack loaders and plant employees,” stated Dunlea. “As you can imagine, this was a very monotonous and physically tiring task. However, with the arrival of the robots, the workers find it less stressful and are now free to focus on other tasks such as quality control and more.”
Quick service around the corner
Dunlea is also very happy that ABB now has a local Robotics service team in place, as it is the key to his company's market success. “Having a local service team is imperative in the five-gallon water business. If one of the robots breaks down and we cannot deliver to a customer in time due to delayed maintenance, they might shift to another brand. Therefore, a local service team for us is a huge benefit and so far we’re very satisfied with the quality and speed of service from the local team.”
Along with 5-gallon bottled water, Oasis Water also produces PET water bottles, juice and dairy products, and is the only Middle East water company to produce its own sparkling water under the brand name of 'Blu'. With two facilities employing more than 1000 people, the firm bottles more than 1,000,000 liters of water a day - a task that would be next to impossible without a little help from ABB’s dynamic robot duo.