Compact Industries and GreenSeed Contract Packaging are two mid-sized Illinois food and beverage packaging companies making the most of Formic's pay-by-the-hour robot model. Formic owns, programs, installs and maintains technology from leading robotics vendors such as FANUC, Universal Robots, and Yaskawa Motoman. Customers do not pay until the system is deployed and fully operational on a customer’s floor. Once activated, Formic covers all the engineering, repair and maintenance costs, with no hourly fees during downtime.
“Robotics is extremely fragmented, which means there’s no clear supply chain for hardware, and machine builders are often reinventing the wheel. In building a fleet of rental robots, Formic is also building this massive library of automation solutions that can do everyday tasks so we don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. We’re also resolving the supply chain issue and lowering costs by creating a platform where we purchase hardware in bulk,” said Misa Ilkhechi, Formic’s Co-founder and VP of Solutions and Partnerships.
Compact Industries pays $US15 an hour for the collaborative palletizer, compared to the labour rate of $US21. The company ordered a second system within one month of deploying the first system.
“What attracted me to Formic was the low risk. With big decisions like this, you're putting your reputation on the line, but I felt very confident with Formic. The whole process was so seamless, and this quality of service didn’t happen when we tried to automate it on our own. We have some associates who are placing boxes on pallets for an entire 10-hour shift, and we don’t want them straining or getting injured. Our employees are a key part of our success. And what’s great about robots is they don’t quit or get injured,” said Rich Moldovan, Compact’s Engineering Manager.
GreenSeed has saved approximately 35 percent a year in labour-related operation expenses and minimised the company’s reliance on staffing agencies since employing the Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) solution.
"With Formic’s automation systems, we have reduced the need for hourly labour, adding automation as a fixed cost instead of a variable cost. At the same time, we still rely on our workers. We’re excited to promote internal staff into management positions and aim to hire fifteen new team members in the next quarter,” said David Gray, GreemSeed CEO.
“The technology is going to help us be more competitive and serve as an educational platform for our people. We’re not looking to let anyone go. We’re looking to move them into better roles,” said Hector Leon, GreenSeed Director of Operations.
“Along with making cutting-edge automation accessible, Formic always puts our customer's best interests first, which means we are technology agnostic. There are other companies offering RaaS services, but they have a single tool, and they try to solve every problem with that tool. At Formic, the best solution wins, no matter who makes it,” said Misa Ilkhechi.
Co-founders Saman Farid and Misa Ilkhechi
