Say hello to SAM-e, our new human-machine production unit!
We’re proud to present a new member in our #greinerperformance team: SAM-e (“Smart Automation Made easy”) closes the gap between conventional-purpose automation and the flexibility of a manual workstation. Designed as a mobile automation platform also for small lots, it brings the best of both worlds to our production environments at Greiner Assistec. SAM-e delivers adaptability and flexibility to quickly automate even complex processes.
With SAM-e, Greiner Assistec can guarantee stable processes and high quality where it was not beneficial before. The ability to increase the degree of automation stepwise and the suitability for low and high utilization are added values with SAM-e. The benefits of industrial automation become accessible for a variety of manufacturing and assembly processes. On top of that, SAM-e allows a quick adaptation of processes in order to provide flexibility to individual products and variants – simply plug and automate! Just like in rallying where quick adaptations to the conditions of the racetrack are crucial for the success of Julius Tannert.
We spoke with one of the developers responsible, Philipp Pirafelner, Global Senior Expert Technology Integration, to get to know more about SAM-e and its various applications and benefits.
Hi Philipp, together with a team you are responsible for the development of SAM-e. What is so special about this new buddy and how do the customers of Greiner Assistec benefit from SAM-e?
Philipp: With SAM-e we can easily choose the right degree of automation and make a perfect fit for each application: being able to beneficially automate all kinds of processes also for medium and small lots. One initial question was: How can we design automation in a way that can be flexibly used for different products? And SAM-e is the answer: it offers numerous standardized modules and product specific toolkits for added value manufacturing processes such as assembly or welding– all modules come from Greiner Assistec and are exchangeable. By adding a product specific toolkit, the modules are customized for a certain application. SAM-e is the head of the automation system, controlling all other modules. With SAM-e we can easily choose the right degree of automation which then perfectly fits a dedicated application. You can say that SAM-e is like the rally car’s setup change between different races or tracks – and the co-driver announcing the route can be compared with the operator programming, the UR Cobot, which is an integral part of SAM-e.
How is the SAM-e platform going to shape the future of Greiner Assistec and its customers?
Philipp: Our mobile buddies will help us to leverage the potential of automation for processes where it wasn’t economic or beneficial before. That´s the reason why we are constantly expanding our SAM-e network at our 5 locations worldwide. It is not only our in-house expertise that really sets us apart from the competition – it is also our network of expert partners and our ability to collaborate with them on highly complex projects. Together with SAM-e we can now flexibly automate additional tasks in an easy, exchangeable and efficient way – becoming more independent from production volumes in the process and making our promise of end-to-end solutions from a single source even more attractive!
