The health coach of your employees, the SHERPA robot, follows you everywhere!
Welcome to your “new collaborator”, the Robot: Sherpa, Collaborative Robot for handling and preparing orders carried out by NORCAN based in Haguenau (Bas-Rhin), the French company is one of the top 5 manufacturers in Europe of modular mechanical assembly solutions based on aluminium profiles.
Sherpa was created to eliminate unnecessary and physically traumatic manual handling, such as pushing or pulling a cart. This frees the hands of the order preparing operators. Sherpa reduces the distances travelled by operators on foot. It improves working conditions in the internal logistics sectors. Its top speed is 6km/h, it can carry a load of 200kg and perform a traction of 500kg, which means how much it can increase productivity, and reduce TMS which “ipso facto” will reduce absenteeism. “Since we have been working in this market with major groups such as Amazon, Zalando, C-Discount, we have been delivering thousands of carts. We wanted to reduce the hard work of the people who had to push all these carts,” says Stéphane Fauth, President of Norcan.
Its fuel? Rackable batteries with integrated recharging dock. For increased safety, Sherpa is equipped with proximity sensors and an embedded avoidance system (Effidence developed by a start-up based in Clermont-Ferrand.) and tested.
“Follow-me”, recognizes the user and follows him thanks to an ingenious electronic device, requiring no operator equipment. An advanced technology because the “follower” model does not exist in the industry at the operational level: Sherpa is still unique in this segment, autonomous, able to locate itself and reach a predefined point while avoiding obstacles. The Sherpa®, in “Follow-me” version is plug and play, it can be used directly without changing the infrastructure or the usual working mode. If we add to this the autonomous function that allows the Sherpa® to reach a grouping, packaging or storage area in complete autonomy, it automatically returns to a defined location. You can therefore continue your tasks without having to make unnecessary trips, it is the Sherpa® that does them for you. In “Follow-me” function, the operator-preparator is completely free to move.
Today, Norcan generates 25% of its turnover from exports. The company, which employs 130 people, has four foreign subsidiaries: one sales representative in Germany and three industrial companies in Spain, Poland and Morocco. And six partners in England, Nederland, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic States and Tunisia who buy the equipment and offer their customers the same tailor-made solutions. In the very near future, Norcan’s president plans to locate also its equipment in Asia and the United States.