Reducing workloads with reliable deboning technology and stabilizing production to meet market demands for pork

In recent years, securing employees for meat processing work has become increasingly difficult, and many owners view this situation as a problem. The number of processing plants that cannot meet staffing needs with employees from their own countries and are forced to rely on workers from neighboring countries to ensure continued production is also increasing. Furthermore, turnover among workers is very high, and maintaining a workforce capable of efficiently carrying out deboning work is difficult.

With meat being soft and each piece a different shape, automating the deboning process has proved to be a challenge, and to date, the work has been carried out by hand. Furthermore, removing bones from meat efficiently with high yield requires expert technique, and cannot be quickly and easily carried out by just anyone.

As the economy grows, these issues have become a constant problem for the meat processing industry, and with each passing year, their prominence is increasing. Over many long years, Mayekawa has been working to solve these challenges together with the meat processing industry.

By undertaking development together with clients
value above and beyond their expectations can be delivered

In order to meet partner expectations, a prototype of the HAMDAS-R was made and then field-tested at the client's facility.

By field testing, direct client feedback could be obtained, and actual on-site performance monitored, allowing HAMDAS-R to be continually improved and refined. There are also positive effects from a different aspect. By talking openly with each other in setting up the system, an atmosphere of joint development is created. This, in turn, leads to the formulation of forward-looking proposals that are one step ahead of client needs and the creation of value that goes above and beyond expectations. In this manner, we created the first model together with the client while identifying issues and ascertaining the required functions.

After installation and with full cooperation from the facility, improvements were made while carrying out test cuts.
Additionally, the quality of the meat will vary depending on various factors such as the breed of the pig, breeding conditions, the temperature the meat was stored at, and the processes applied prior to deboning; as such, adjustments were repeatedly made to fine-tune the robot so that it was in line with the pork ham handled by the processing plants.

Not long thereafter, a new mission was born.

Namely, improving the yield rates in daily production. In response to the new need for "improved yield," Mayekawa sought to combine its six-axis robot with X-ray imaging, an idea that companies specializing in robots or X-ray technology would never come up with. By combining the robot with X-raying capability, the exact location of the bone in the meat could be accurately ascertained, and the bone could be removed without waste. The result of these efforts is the current HAMDAS-RX model.

The realization of this idea was a direct result of questioning, thinking and working together alongside the client. For example, once specific details such as "using a robot to cut meat three-dimensionally along the shape of a bone" are determined, development itself can be started. However, development must start with almost no knowledge and experience related to the specific tasks at hand, such as how to cut the meat, how to move the robot arm, how to take X-ray images, and how to process them.

There are aspects where help from specialists is needed. However, rather than, for example, asking the robot manufacturer to do everything, such as programming the robot arm's movement, by doing things together, each concerned party can work proactively on development. This process may take some time; however, by employing such a process, an ideal system truly needed by the client can be developed.