‘Cobots’ by Universal Robots to boost industrial productivity in Sri Lanka

Universal Robots India and Sri Lanka General Manager Pradeep David (left) with Techfield Managing Director Sugath Jayatileke - Pic by Ruwan Walpola

Universal Robots, specialists in the manufacturing of advanced, user-friendly and light weight collaborative robotic arms (headquartered in Odense, Denmark) perceives huge demand in the Sri Lankan market.

After the successful launch of the Sri Lanka operations in 2016, the company deployed collaborative robots (popularly known as cobots), majorly in the market sectors of FMCG and textiles in segments like apparel, rubber gloves, biscuits, etc. With the growing demand of collaborative robots in the country, the company is also looking at expanding its customer base in various other sectors. 

For the past few years, the industries in Sri Lanka have been plagued with labour shortage issues. According to the findings of a survey there were 58% vacancies in the apparel sector, 20% in food, and 33% in other manufacturing sectors. This has created the need for a business environment that fosters breakthrough innovation, rapid commercialisation, thus encouraging manufacturers to invest more in terms of automation and the latest equipment and technologies. 

Manufacturers want to increase productivity by using the resources available optimally, which is one of the reasons manufacturers are eager to adopt collaborative robots technology. They can be placed alongside humans in small-spaced areas, they are affordable, highly adaptable, almost plug-and-play, and are flexible to handle short runs, repetitive and boring jobs, ergonomically challenging tasks and they work as a ‘helping hand’ or ‘portable tool’ to increase productivity and efficiency. 

The primary goal of Universal Robots is to empower workers by enabling them with smart manufacturing solutions which involves the utilisation of collaborative robots technology and automation.

Sri Lanka General Manager Pradeep Davidsaid: “The country’s leading biscuit and garment manufacturers have deployed UR cobots and we are expecting to sell over 100 cobots in Sri Lanka in the next three years.  Our collaborative robot arms automate and streamline repetitive industrial processes. This approach enables production departments to assign their staff members more enjoyable tasks – creativejobs that provide them with new challenges that add value to the company and at the same time increases efficiency and productivity. The company hopes that this can help Sri Lanka with the problem of scarcity of labour to a large extent. 

“Handling of our cobots doesn’t require any prior qualifications and certificates. Some of our Indian customers like Bajaj Auto and Aurolabs have hired 80% of women employees, who are conveniently working with cobots, where physically challenging parts of the jobs are taken care of by cobots. We are hoping to replicate the same in Sri Lanka by creating interesting occupations categories such as machine operator, supervisors, etc., that would surely increase the willingness of women here to take up those jobs.”

Techfield Ltd., Sri Lanka Managing DirectorSugath Jayatilakesaid: “For a developing country like Sri Lanka, which is looking at a fast pace of development and at the same time would like to adopt cost effective, yet efficient technology, cobots would be the right way to go, especially for the small and medium-sized enterprises. The strong distribution network, good reach to end customers, strong technical skills of Techfield and the unique product lines of Universal Robots, together envisions see a large potential for cobots in the Sri Lankan market.”

Universal Robots was co-founded in 2005 by the company’s CTO, EsbenØstergaard, who wanted to make robot technology accessible to all by developing small, user-friendly, reasonably priced, flexible industrial robots that are safe to work with. Since the first robot was launched in 2008, the company has experienced considerable growth with the user-friendly robots now sold in more than 50 countries worldwide. The company, which is a part of Teradyne Inc., is headquartered in Odense, Denmark, and has subsidiaries and regional offices in the USA, Spain, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, China, Singapore, India, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.