John Sprovieri // Chief Editor // sprovierij@bnpmedia.com

In 1965, Swedish wood carver Henning Eklund came up with an innovative design for a triangular tool to clean between teeth. With scientific support from two professors at the University of Malmö School of Dentistry in Sweden, that simple tool would become the first commercial product for a new company, TePe Oral Hygiene Products.

Today, TePe manufactures a complete portfolio of interdental brushes, toothbrushes, dental floss, implant care kits and other products that are used daily by consumers and dental professionals in 80 countries worldwide. The company employs 460 people and tallied sales of $106 million last year. TePe remains a family owned company, and manufacturing and R&D are still in Malmö.

TePe wanted a new assembly line to deliver higher speed and throughput. To keep production in Sweden, the company needed to replace manual processes with automation. However, it was also important that the automation be flexible enough to accommodate rapid changes in production requirements.

In addition, the company wanted the new system to enhance the safety of its team. By automating cumbersome manual activities, like transporting boxes to a palletizer, TePe could significantly reduce potential hazards to employees.

Ease of integration was another major requirement. TePe sought a complete automated line from a single supplier to eliminate the need for complex handshaking between equipment from different OEMs.

The company chose Omron Automation to help develop the line. TePe already used Omron’s vision systems in other machines in the Malmö factory, so the decision to use other automation components from Omron was an easy choice for optimal integration.

Omron put together a complete flexible manufacturing application that produces toothbrushes and dental sticks and operates 24/7. Industrial and mobile robots follow programmed recipes that can be easily changed, so TePe can customize packaging in seconds.

Omron’s AnyFeeder device flexibly feeds parts to a SCARA robot, which then picks and places them on a conveyor. Delta robots use integrated vision to sort dental sticks based on color and type. LD-90 mobile robots move parts and assemblies to different locations and transport packaged products up and down elevators to a conveyor at the shipping dock.

Since Omron’s mobile robots can self-navigate throughout dynamic and peopled environments without predefined pathways, many of TePe’s conveyors could be removed. The LD robots enhance flexibility by making it easy to change transport requirements on the fly.

With the new line, TePe saw a return on investment in just 14 months, along with major improvements in quality, safety and efficiency. The company has achieved a new level of factory flexibility that had previously been impossible. TePe can easily reprogram machines to add more quality controls and can process 300 toothbrush packs per minute, increasing throughput 10 times vs. the previous manual line. This allows the company to fulfill new and existing customer demands quickly and boost growth.

In particular, the mobile robots have worked wonders on the factory floor. By eliminating the need for conveyors, these robots dramatically bolstered the flexibility of TePe’s materials transport system. In addition, the mobile robots improved plant safety by taking over tasks that once required the use of manually operated forklifts. TePe’s goal is to eventually get rid of forklifts completely and just use mobile robots.

TePe is planning to use Omron’s equipment as the basis for a brand-new factory in the near future. For more information, visit https://automation.omron.com.

“A company with Ford’s scale can really influence the supply chain and business practices across our entire industry,” adds Sue Slaughter, purchasing director at Ford Motor Co. “It is so important that we not only think about how [we] can use our purchasing power to fuel our business needs, but also to advance sustainability.”

Because the automotive supply chain is extremely complex, the Guiding Principles contain expectations about business ethics, working conditions, human rights, health and safety, environmental leadership and supply chain due diligence for suppliers at all tiers. All suppliers are expected to uphold these standards and enforce them throughout their supply chain.

The Guiding Principles are based on fundamental elements of social, environmental and governance responsibility that are consistent with applicable laws and international standards created by organizations such as the United Nations.

Topics covered under the revised guidelines include the following:

        Business ethics, including counterfeit parts and data protection.

        Environmental issues, such as air quality, carbon neutrality, chemical management, circularity and water management.

        Health and safety issues, such as personal protective equipment and workspace.

        Human rights and working conditions, such as benefits, wages and working hours.

        Responsible supply chain management, such as ethical sourcing of raw materials.

The BMW Group has implemented several projects in its packaging logistics unit to help the environment and conserve resources. The goal of the initiative is to work closely with suppliers to reduce carbon emissions and adhere to the principles of a circular economy.

BMW’s European assembly plants are using more recycled material in their packaging. For newly awarded contracts, the proportion of recycled material in reusable packaging for logistics purposes will almost double this year from around 20 percent to over 35 percent.

Using alternative sustainable materials, reducing single-use packaging, introducing lightweight packaging in certain areas and reducing transport volumes will also help cut carbon emissions.

BMW is monitoring the impact of individual measures via a CO₂ calculator for packaging. The automaker’s overall aim is to reduce CO₂ emissions in the supply chain by 20 percent per vehicle compared to 2019.

“Our re:think, re:duce, re:use, re:cycle approach is being implemented consistently in packaging logistics,” says Michael Nikolaides, head of production network and logistics at BMW Group. “We’re using innovative strategies to consistently reduce the volume of resources we use, thus reducing our carbon footprint.

“We are also doing our part to get the BMW iFACTORY up and running, with a particular focus on the ‘green’ side of things…with an emphasis on flexibility and efficiency, sustainability and digitalization,” explains Nikolaides. “It provides an answer to the challenges involved in the transformation to e-mobility and [leverages] the latest technologies to create a production process that uses minimal resources.”

According to Nikolaides, BMW is using more recycled material, such as expanded polypropylene (EPP) packaging. “Our newly developed EPP packaging already contains 25 percent recycled material,” he points out. “EPP is used in special containers, as its shape can be adapted to the components being packaged, allowing them to be transported safely.

“Around 360,000 of these containers are needed each year,” claims Nikolaides. “Using 25 percent recycled material allows us to save almost 280 tons of CO₂ annually. There are plans to increase this proportion of recycled material even further, with the first pilot schemes with 100 percent recycled material currently underway. If these tests are successful, this configuration will become standard for new contracts from 2024.

“An additional 680 tons of carbon emissions savings can be made every year by using covers and so-called small load carriers with 50 percent recycled contents,” says Nikolaides. “As things stand, these measures are focused within the European markets due to the current waste management situation and available recycling infrastructure. But, we are working toward expanding to our locations in China, Mexico and the United States.”

BMW also plans to use folding large load carriers in place of traditional pallet cages made of steel. The plastic alternatives will be made from over 90 percent recycled material. They work in a similar way to the collapsible shopping crates that most people are familiar with.

When they’re empty, the carriers can be folded up, making them easier to transport. Nikolaides claims that using 15,000 of these new containers will reduce CO₂ by around 3,000 tons per year.

“When it comes to packaging, the sky’s the limit,” says Nikolaides. “We’re launching pilot projects using bio-based materials to replace oil-based substances such as polyethylene and polypropylene.

“We are also investigating whether and in what ways we can use materials from recycled household appliances in our packaging,” explains Nikolaides. “In the long term, our aim is to use alternatives to raw materials across the board.”