Nespresso, a globally-known Swiss coffee brand, recently invested in an automation system that can handle complex orders and be flexible enough to meet fluctuating demand.
Nespresso wanted to increase order preparation accuracy and quality for direct-to-consumer orders. So it turned to ABB, a provider of industrial robots, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and machine automation.
Nespresso fulfills its e-commerce orders in Benelux through its logistics service provider ID Logistics (IDL) at a distribution center in Tilburg, Netherlands. IDL’s facility handles many thousands of coffee orders every year and since 2021 had been using a manual pick-and-pack process.
With customer demand for its coffee products continuing to grow, Nespresso wanted to automate its order handling system, including processing complex orders involving multiple coffee blends.
ABB designed and supplied an automated system incorporating robots, software material management and SCADA systems, for depalletization, picking and packing orders.
“With Nespresso seeing continued growth in demand for its products, the company was keen to see how an automated order handling could help,” explains Dominic Maas, site manager at IDL. “The system needed to be able to handle more and larger volumes of coffee orders daily, while still delivering high quality levels.”
How the system works
ABB’s system for Nespresso includes autonomous depalletization, picking, and packing. It includes two main stages where robots depalletize boxes of coffee sleeves from their original packaging, before other robots pick and place the sleeves into customer orders.
During the first stage, ABB’s IRB660 robot depalletizes these boxes of coffee sleeves. There are 40 pallet locations and SKUs that the robot can access to select the coffee boxes required.
The IRB660 receives an order from the material flow control (MFC) system and places the correct boxes on to the conveyor, where they are fed to the box cutter. Boxes are opened to reveal the coffee sleeves and then relayed to the picking channel via conveyor.
Carts for the customer orders are on a separate automation line, which goes through four pick and place stations depending on the coffee required for the order. Four ABB FlexPicker IRB 360 robots carry out picking and placing. These robots can handle up to 150 picks per minute.
Each picking cell has 10 channels available that provide the robot with 10 different coffee variations, and each robot can pick up to five sleeves at a time. The robot selects the correct coffee sleeves and adds them to the order.
Finally, the cart is fed into the packing station, where the system tells the operator which box size is needed to fulfill the order. The operator manually places the box against the machine, with the batch of coffee sleeves automatically pushed into the box. The operator adds any extra customer accessories, for example chocolates, before closing the box and applying the label to complete the order.
ABB has also supplied the software, which acts as the material management system (MMS). The software sits under Nespresso’s warehouse management system (WMS) and controls the material flow during production as well as the associated flow of information with full transparency. There is a full ABB SCADA system, too, for operator interfacing and to provide KPI visualization.
Nespresso’s results with ABB
Nespresso has improved order preparation accuracy to 99.9%. The improvement in quality means customer complaints and rejections are now limited to just 0.06% of the orders.
“We chose the ABB system as it had the most innovative and convincing design to meet the project requirements,” explained Maas. “One thing that stands out is the pick and place mechanism while the conveyor is running. The ABB’s FlexPicker can pick one sleeve or multiple sleeves from the box and place them in the moving cart.”
The flexibility of the system means it can run according to changing customer demands. The automatic system can deliver a high throughput of 625 orders/hour, enabling IDL and Nespresso to improve productivity by 200%.
“We have been delighted with the system, which is increasing our agility and our ability to fulfill customer orders more efficiently with less errors,” said Sorin Geambasu, global warehouse efficiency manager, Nespresso.
There are further benefits as Nespresso does not need to re-invest in boxes and pallets. The new automated system uses the same boxes and pallets as the original manual operation.
ABB provides continued support
ABB has also provided first-line training for IDL’s staff, so they are aware of how to carry out small fixes safely. Additionally, ABB supplies a high level of support to its customers after installation and delivery.
The support department is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for remote support and on-site interventions if necessary.
ABB also provided an intuitive user interface for the system. Screens on the interface show a map of the robot systems with all sections. The system alerts operators if there is an error and provides advice on suggested actions to solve the problem. As a result, IDL and Nespresso can benefit from improved performance tracking as reliability and throughput can all be tracked and quantified.
“I’m incredibly happy with the support ABB gives us,” said Maas. “ABB’s experts are always available when we need help, or if we want a modification. Support is just a phone call away, and if we need them on-site, they’re here within a few hours.”