A Safer, Smarter Approach to Palletize at Griffith Meals Colombia

When each shift ends with sore backs and drained shoulders, it’s not simply fatigue — it’s a sign that one thing wants to alter.

At Griffith Meals Colombia, operators had been lifting, twisting, and stacking hundreds of bins each day on two high-volume doypack traces. Ergonomic assessments confirmed what employees already felt: the repetitive palletizing work carried a excessive threat of musculoskeletal accidents.

However as an alternative of selecting between security and productiveness, Griffith Meals discovered a option to obtain each.

From 10,000 repetitive motions to zero

Every day, operators on Line 1 made 5,775 repetitive actions, and people on Line 2 made 5,005 — all now eradicated with the set up of a Robotiq PE10 Lean Palletizer.

“As we speak these actions went to zero because of the robotic. Folks end much less drained “
– Santiago Ospina
Plant Supervisor at Griffith Meals Colombia

With help from IGPS, Robotiq’s integration associate, Griffith Meals deployed Colombia’s first Robotiq Lean Palletizing cell — designed to spice up security, keep human-centered operations, and help high-volume manufacturing.

Constructed for flexibility, engineered for reliability 

Griffith Meals’ operation is something however easy. The plant handles 32 SKUs throughout a number of field codecs and pallet patterns—feeding right into a single palletizing cell. The PE10 manages all of it with precision: working at 10 cycles per minute, dealing with masses as much as 12.5 kg (28 lb), stacking as much as a peak of over 2,750 mm (108 in), and managing a number of SKUs from two manufacturing traces. 

The integrator used a digital twin mannequin throughout design and engaged in complete Manufacturing unit Acceptance Testing (FAT) to make sure the system would run easily from day one.

Since its set up in August 2024, the system has achieved zero intrinsic gear failures.

“Each time we’ve had stoppages, they’ve been on account of exterior elements, not the robotic.”
– Santiago Ospina

Human-centered automation in motion

For Griffith Meals, automation is about defending people—not changing them. The brand new palletizing cell eliminated the heaviest, most repetitive duties, enabling workers to be redeployed into higher-value roles whereas working with improved well-being and productiveness.

Security options had been inbuilt from the beginning: proximity sensors sluggish the cobot’s movement when an operator enters the chance zone; collision contact could be mushy and non-injurious. 
ProFood World

Useful resource-allocation additionally improved:

“We went from needing six individuals on the road to solely 4… Our goal was to liberate personnel for deployment in higher-need areas.”

The distinction was not simply in head-count however in work-life stability. One shift was eradicated; workers gained extra relaxation and household time. 

The undertaking aligned with Griffith Meals’ inside Lean framework (GPS – Griffith Manufacturing System), and the put in system was acknowledged internally underneath the “Orange Bell” program, incomes second place globally inside the firm. 

The takeaway

When an organization with a people-first tradition embraces automation, it units a strong instance for the trade. At Griffith Meals Colombia, human-centred automation isn’t a buzzword—it’s how they’ve eradicated 10,000 repetitive motions per day, improved ergonomics, and achieved constant uptime with no gear failures.

As a result of when know-how works for individuals, productiveness follows naturally.

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