ENERGY AND bIOMATERIALs
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PRODUCTIvITY AND LOGIsTICs
flexibility and quality and a mini-mum health and safety burden and climate impact. This also applies to the trade and service sectors.
Moreover, the ability to bridge the gap to the manufacturing industry can play a decisive role for the fu-ture development of this industry.
development trends
– challenges and opportunities Danish companies have realised that productivity is directly linked to competitiveness and thus of strategic importance. Price com-petition is no longer a local or national matter. Efforts are now concentrated on developing new methods that enhance company and staff competences – not on increasing the pace. figures from The manufacturing industry plays
a key role in the Danish economy.
Manufacturing accounts for more than half of Denmark’s export of goods, for which reason Danish society needs activities in this area to be maintained. Globalisation poses a challenge to Danish com-panies, but also presents a range of opportunities if the industry is at the cutting edge of development.
Maintaining competitive production in Denmark is essential to society.
The level of costs is generally low-er in othlow-er countries. This increas-es the necincreas-essity of manufacturing Danish goods and products in an efficient and intelligent manner.
Danish production systems must have a high degree of productivity,
the Confederation of Danish In-dustry reveal that companies have recorded relatively moderate pro-ductivity growth in the most recent financial year, and that gives rise to concern.
significant and continual efforts to research new productivity systems and methods, new manufacturing technology and intelligent goods transport will enable Denmark to meet the requirements for future production systems on an ongoing basis. Areas such as organisation, management, risk assessment, logistics and their integration into production systems are among the wide range of options to be put into use.
Cases > Productivity and logistics
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same robot to handle a variety of work processes. The Danish research community spans a wide field of research specialties, and the challenge is to have all these technologies work in coordinated interaction.
Only minimal research in manage-ment tools for handling strategic risks has been conducted, the con-sequence being that Danish com-panies are very poorly equipped to respond to unforeseen situations.
Hence, new knowledge in this area would allow companies to respond more rapidly and expediently in future.
In the context of logistics, research concentrates on technology and The long-term growth in the
lo-gistics and goods transport trade as well as increased mobility is a fundamental sign of health for eco-nomic growth. The main challenge for many years to come will be to ensure supply chains that operate more sustainably and make energy consumption, the environment, traf-fic flow and safety central values.
developments in technology and research
Eighty-five per cent of all industrial handling is manual, and the Danish business structure is characterised by many small companies and small series. This being the case, Danish research in robot technol-ogy and automation focuses on flexible robot cells that allow the
business developments. Integra-tion, intelligence in supply chains, safety and mobility are research themes for optimising and stream-lining solutions and systems and for finding answers to how soci-ety can perform the task with a minimum of resources and without heavy restrictions that impede growth. Intelligence is another key research theme that sup-ports integration, safety, efficiency improvement in and optimisation of production and supply chains in a way that enables full automa-tion and the use of informaautoma-tion and communication technology at all stages.
Cases > Productivity and logistics
Cases > Productivity and logistics
swITZERLAND
basic knowledge about robot tech-nology develops in R&D projects that are often completed in coop-eration with leading foreign knowl-edge centres and companies with competences that can be adapted to Danish conditions.
The Danish Technological Institute focuses on robot solutions for the manufacturing industry, health and welfare, green robots and intelligent buildings. The goal is solutions and principles useful in realising robot technology poten-tials across industries and sectors – a platform for the widespread Danish use of robots to lift produc-tivity and quality.
Flexible robotic hand to take over strenuous tasks
The cooperation with German sCHUNK forms part of the Danish Technological Institute’s endeav-ours to develop a unique robotic hand which should be almost as flexible as a real human hand.
The robotic hand has been named the Hybrid Gripper, because it can be used for many unvarying tasks causing physical deterioration – thus strengthening Danish com-panies’ competitive edge against countries with lower payroll costs.
Consequently, the Hybrid Gripper would have to have the proper hygiene to obtain approval for food handling.
The activities are taking place in a project involving many differ-ent areas of developmdiffer-ent. for instance, new mechanical systems, units and management technolo-gies need to be developed. The project receives support from the Danish National Advanced Technol-ogy foundation.
Cleaning robots to keep PV cells in top shape
Pv cells need to be clean to make optimum use of sunrays and gen-erate the maximum carbon-neutral power possible. In 2009, project cooperation took off between project originator Marco Reichel of Manu systems AG, the Da-nish Technological Institute, the Regensburg University of Applied sciences of Germany and swiss bern University of Applied sciences on cleaning robots to keep future large-scale Pv cell plants free from dust and dirt. The robot not only improves cleaning efficiency but also benefits the environment; it uses very little water to clean.
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