I've built a pouch-loading exercise into something we hoped might help with actual hardware kits. The FR10 motion works, but a changed kit means another bag shape and more preparation.
I enjoy solving the next little tooling problem. That may be part of the problem. The packing operator spends time spreading contents and flattening seams before my clever bit starts, then calls me when a bag behaves differently. I need to decide whether we have a useful process or an interesting teaching setup with a production claim bolted onto it.
Compare the full job with manual packing from the same incoming condition, including preparation and changeover; the teaching value can be real without the production savings being real too.
Our original timing started with arranged bags. Manual packing started with the delivery box. I'll redo that before asking for another nest, because it plainly flatters the robot route.
Keep it as teaching kit if it earns its place there. But don't make packing pay for your next lesson. I've had to ask myself that one rather bluntly too.
Let the operator do the preparation in the comparison, without you quietly straightening the worst bags. Also ask which part of the work they find tiring or awkward. A stopwatch won't tell you everything worth keeping.
What happens when somebody else sets it up? We see a big difference between students following a prepared exercise and choosing the correct setup themselves. That support time belongs in whichever budget is meant to own it.
Another operator can run it but needs me for presentation changes. One kit repeats in ordinary orders. We can compare that actual workload without merging orders or preparing special bags.
And agree what result would end development before running the comparison, otherwise each near miss may become another reason to spend on a slightly different insert.
I like the single-kit comparison more than the universal dream. Still, a useful classroom failure is allowed to stay a failure in production. You don't owe the prototype a job.
Separated the budgets. Mixed-kit production proposal is stopped. One repeat kit gets a costed comparison with the operator doing setup, and the lab owns any teaching use. Thanks, Aaron, that distinction was overdue.
Did the operator prefer the trial arrangement at all, Victor? Interested whether there is a simple workstation improvement worth keeping even if the robot route loses.
They like the tray height, dislike arranging the bags. We're including the same tray height on the manual side of the comparison so it doesn't get counted as a robot benefit.