Sumitomo is Saving Christmas!

With the help of our expert engineers and manufacturing staff, we were able to help Santa prepare for the holiday season. Last year, he showed up in our chimney at our Chesapeake headquarters and let us know how inefficient his processes are. From his elves handmaking toys (sometimes thousands of the same exact one) to struggling with loading them in his sleigh one-by-one.?

Like any?production facility, Santa's Workshop has various cells and departments that work together to get Santa ready for his big night. The main sections of his operation?include a Child Quality Team that sorts the letters and inspects the child's behavior, a Gift Manufacturing cell that builds each toy, and a Gift Departure Team that focuses on wrapping each gift and loading it on the?sleigh.??

Here is?the plan we worked out for Old Saint Nick:

Goal 1: Simplify the letter sorting process.?

Santa admitted that his Child Quality Team sometimes loses a few hundred letters?each year.?We know?in any operation?losing those request letters can put you on the naughty list...?but thankfully, at Sumitomo?that’s?about as rare as Santa missing Christmas.??Santa currently?operates?around?a?4-sigma?level,?but?is trying to get?his operation to?a world-class 6 sigma level, or 3.4 DPMO (defects per million).

We worked with?a company named?International?Conveyor?Experts?(ICE), who specialize in sorting conveyors, and spec'd out this application using our?Cyclo?6000 gearmotors?and?Invertek?VFD’s?to move each letter?at just the right speed,?making?them easier to keep track of.?

Goal 2: Increase Major Gift Manufacturing Productivity

The Elves do pride themselves?on their handcrafted items, but some things could be mass?produced quickly with a bit of automation. Top gift requests to Santa every year include dolls, action figures, and toy cars. Even with hundreds of elves in the Gift Manufacturing cell, it can take a single elf up to 1 hour to create a single doll by hand. Mrs. Clause met with Pol. R. Bear Robotics and Automation Corp. about Industrial Robots and a conveyor system. Our engineers drafted CAD drawings that included?our Fine?Cyclo?on?the robotic application and Bevel?BuddyBox-H for the conveyors.??

During a test run, the application was able to manufacture three dolls in an hour! Mrs. Clause went back to Pol. R. Bear Robotics and requested several more industrial robots installed to handle their other top gift requests this season.?

Goal 3: Automate Gift Transport Within the Workshop.??

The current setup had the elves from the Gift Manufacturing cell physically walk each item to the?Gift Wrapping?cell. Since the elves are tiny, they could not carry as many things as you or I. The members of the?Gift Wrapping?cell also had to move each finished gift to the storage area a few steps behind the workshop, where they stayed until Christmas Eve.?

Our answer to this problem? Automated Guided Vehicles?from Pol. R. Bear Robotics?using our?Smartris?package drive solution!?Smartris?is a compact, integrated, and intelligent solution for Santa's gift transportation issues. The AGV alleviates the burden of dragging each gift from one cell or area to another and allows the Elves to work continuously on other projects.

Read the full article about all our goals for Santa's Workshop and see how we saved Christmas here: Sumitomo is Saving Christmas! (sumitomodrive.com)

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