A call for Helga the robot!

Robots have helped cut absenteeism at Vista in Venlo, just one of the benefits of automated material movements. The online print giant changed the game for business card production through automation and minimising touch points. The introduction of further automation is logical. It found F3 Design, a Dutch company responsible for the Nipper AGV when looking for a unit that could work in the tight spaces that Vista has in its warehouse.

For Cimpress the investment is part of a lean management strategy where pallet movements are considered a waste of time and labour resource. A key benefit as been a reduction in illness and less disruption when staff are participating in training for example.

The Nipper works with Vista’s SAP ERP management system, but through an intermediate layer that uses APIs to connect the two. The implementation took eight weeks from the start of the project to implementation. It included an introduction to shop floor staff that would be working with the device, and included providing a name: Helga to make the robot more human and part of the team.

Now the Nipper lives up to its name shuttling to bring pallets of paper to presses, the speed of turnaround in the business means there is very little work in progress because everything moves from delivery to finishing and delivery.