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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 17 M A R C H 7 , 2 0 2 2 WO R K P L A C E T R A N S F O R M AT I O N integrates six robots to create ballistic protection systems and expeditionary shelters for the U.S. Army. "We're using automation throughout the production line," says the company's president, Paul Melrose. e Advanced Manufacturing Center helped Compotech auto- mate its process for molding 4-foot by 7-foot ballistic protection panels. Massive Six-axis robotic arms — with a range of motion similar to the human arm — are used to sand, drill, weld and package the panels. "It really increases our overall manu- facturing efficiency," says Melrose. "e robots are great for doing repetitive tasks." e robots effortlessly lift and move as much as 500 pounds and eas- ily process stacks of armor panels by accurately position them for precision drilling, sanding and labeling operations. Another robotic cell at Compotech is used to weld steel hardware, providing repeatable parts with consistency quality. Swapping in robots to perform heavy and repetitive tasks is not some- thing employees should be alarmed by, says Melrose. "It is a strenuous job to manually stack armor panels all day," he says. "e job is very repetitive, and it is hard on your body. So we use automation to replace jobs that could have a high risk of injury that no one should be want- ing to do. e new jobs created are robot operator and engineering jobs that provide higher wages to our employees compared to manual labor jobs." Precision and higher throughput are key to the company's growth. "Some of our machines can process a months' worth of product in three days' time," he says. A million postcards Franklin Printing in Farmington last year acquired a $1.25 million, 60-foot- long by 15-foot-wide variable, high- speed press. Additional investments of $1.25 million were made in separate but integrated machines that can cut, fold, collate and staple. "If someone wanted us to print a million postcards for them, we could print them and put a million differ- ent addresses on them as they're going through the press," says the company's general manager, David Nemi. e investments in the printer and related equipment have meant that medical supply companies, pop-up clin- ics, health care firms and other busi- nesses have been able to print labels, signage and packaging quickly. at need became particularly appar- ent over the past year, when medical product manufacturers in Maine and beyond have needed fast, flexible and accurate materials. e technology allows for more pro- duction flexibility and labor efficiency. "We have one operator running the press," he says. at compares with the company's traditional sheet fed presses, which require two people to run. Variable printing at high speeds and digital accuracy mean that every square inch can be unique. On a conventional press, those million postcards would be printed on one side, then go through another machine to print addresses on the other side. Now the operations are condensed into one pass. "e automation allows us to increase capacity without increasing the workforce, which has proven over the last several months to be benefi- cial to us because we've had challenges finding workers to join our team as we've been growing," says Nemi. Automated workflow allows two people to carry out operations previ- ously occupying five or more. Automation at Possum Hollow Farm Soap allows the company of five employees to perform full wraps — the way a present is wrapped — of individual soaps. e Wells-based organic skin care company has its manufacturing plant in Sanford. e system, developed with Advanced Manufacturing Center's help and adopted in 2017, pares a day of labor to a couple of hours, says co- owner Derek Bedford. An automated air cutter cuts over 100 bars of soap in less than five min- utes, compared with hand-cutting by two people, in 20-25 minutes. Automation has been great for reducing physical stress, he says. "Automation makes things easier, faster, and it just allows your com- pany to expand and do more R&D," Bedford says. Elevating workers At Lanco, Kuniega notes that busi- nesses that have implemented "robust technology solutions have improved their throughput, quality, reduced their inventory, and mitigated hiring challenges through automation. ese are all positive results for their busi- ness and their customers." For the workplace, he cautions, a common fallacy it that automation reduces the need for workers. "Quite the contrary," he says. "In many cases, very difficult task for humans to manually accomplish are automated, thus elevating the worker to more rewarding and fulfilling task within the business. Additionally, when automation is done correctly, the cost of goods is reduced, making products more accessible to a broader set of the population." Are workers generally receptive to automation? at can be a challenge, says Belding. "Until you have that culture in your facility where you're able to embrace the technology and have the training and the technician available to get those automation pieces in place, that's the big challenge," he says. "It's definitely a new world for a lot of people." Laurie Schreiber, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at lschreiber @ mainebiz.biz F O C U S Lanco Integrated CEO Bob Kuniega, right, (with Manufacturing Project Leader Peter Brazier) says the decision to automate is about weighing the costs of manual processes against more automated ones. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F L A N C O I N T E G R AT E D P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F C O M P O T E C H Compotech's president, Paul Melrose, says a goal of automation at his plant is to get rid of jobs that no one should be wanting to do. It's definitely a new world for a lot of people. — John Belding University of Maine/Advanced Manufacturing Center

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