Entrepreneurs come up with wild ideas every now and again. A plan that makes you sit back, take stock and think: “How cool would that be… if it were only possible”. Those are the dreams that make our hearts beat faster. Especially if you ask our colleagues at the Vetico Innovation Center.
The Vetico Innovation Center designs turnkey solutions – such as product lines – for which the market currently offers no alternatives. Business development manager James Geldof: “Basically, our colleagues at the Vetico Innovation Center have to solve jigsaw puzzles without looking at the picture on the box. Their stand-out quality? The ability and willingness to think outside the box.”
Innovation Center
As the exploratory, eternally curious arm of our company, the Vetico Innovation Center is an important part of Vetico headquarters (distinct from the operations arm, which mainly does production). The Innovation Center is home to a community of bright minds, including engineers, software and hardware developers, mechatronics specialists, mechanical engineers and data specialists. Innovation is in the very air they breathe, and they think of little else than software, AI and robotics all day long. Their motto says it all:
“We build the optimal production or assembly solution for our customers,
based on the optimal mix of people & technology at the best spot in the supply chain”
Pioneering
It should be noted that our colleagues at the Innovation Center do more than ‘just’ come up with an endless stream of innovations. They also provide tech support to their colleagues at our production sites, for instance, and keep working on ways to improve our existing production lines.
On top of that, they’re also given free rein to work on so-called moonshot innovation products. “Without a specific brief, they explore novel technologies and push the boundaries of what can be done,” James explains. “That way, we get a head start when a customer comes knocking with an outlandish demand. It’s true-blue pioneering.”
Origami, POP and Flip
In an earlier blog, we talked about three new projects for which we purchased 17 robots: Origami, POP and Flip. Our colleagues from the Vetico Innovation Center played a leading role in this purchase, designing the roadmap and drawing up a list of prerequisites for success.
Without them, we wouldn’t have our characteristic follow-through, and the same can be said for all our Vetico colleagues, who help us on all matters that are not part of our core business. It may sound self-evident, but it bears repeating: the more knowledge you have in-house, the smaller the need to outsource. On top of that, it means we get to benefit from short lines of communication, lower costs and surprisingly rapid lead times.
Holy grail
It should be pointed out that robotics is not necessarily the holy grail, and we’d be the first to admit that – sometimes – there’s no beating traditional mechanical automation. Still, robotics offers a great opportunity to strengthen our business. In the following blog entries, we’ll take a deep dive into the Origami, POP and Flip projects, and the role the Viper robots and their new integrated controllers will play.
Delightfully stubborn
Good to know: our Innovation Center colleagues can come across as a bit stubborn, but rest assured, all they want to do is help. After all, our end goal is to find the best possible solution for you. It can take a bit of advanced puzzling at times, but that’s what we most love to do. So don’t hesitate to tell us your dreams – you never know what we could do together.
Want to know more about our Innovation Center?
Simply contact James Geldof, Business Developer via james.geldof@vetipak.nl or 088 83 84 715.
Blog series about the Omron Viper robots:
> Blog: Seventeen Omron Viper robots, destination: Oss
> Blog: Origami: a challenging project full of X-factors
