Shiseido trials humanoid robots in assembly lines ‘in industry first’

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Mar 23, 2017

Japanese personal care company Shiseido has introduced a number of industrial humanoid robots at its Kakegawa factory which will assist human workers in the assembly line.

According to the company, this it’s the first time a cosmetics company uses assembly line humanoid robots, a technology that has been also introduced by aerospace company Airbus.

The innovation will see one human worker and two humanoid robots work together to assemble parts of different shapes and materials, delivering finished products. The robots will perform procedures that are hard to be automated with conventional machines and existing industrial robots, while the human worker will have responsibility for quality control.

“Through ‘collaboration of humans and robots’, Shiseido safeguards its future by providing against changes in the social environment such as declining workforce, and aims to establish a new form of manufacturing that responds to the market changes more swiftly and flexibly,” said the company.

The new manufacturing system was introduced in partnership GLORY Ltd., a leader in robot system development.
Shiseido will continue developing this initiative to achieve a more effective manufacturing process and reduce the workload of onsite workers. Additionally, the business has applied to a project led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry called “FY2016 Demonstration Project for the Introduction of Robots”.