Electric.ie July/ August 2020

ELECTRIC.IE • The Magazine & Website for the Irish Electrical Industry • 57 member wires each of the remaining enclosures in the same order. The sequence is then replicated, so the work is much faster. However, if a connector with five cables is connected, then it may be more sensible for staff to wire the five cables in each enclosure first, before proceeding to the next one. This clever adaptability of the Wire Terminal machine fits seamlessly into the workshop’s sophisticated workflow. iPads Replace Order Slips As previously alluded to, Ripploh has no work orders in the form of paper order slips. Instead, every staff member has an iPad, which gives them both the orders and any other necessary information. The enclosures, selected components, and the magazines with the wires assembled using Wire Terminal machine, all have QR codes. Employees scan the QR codes with their iPads and then process the order. “This way, the connection to the ERP system and to engineering is always up-to-date,” Mr. Ripploh explains: “For example, the employee can only start wiring once the plans that have been released are available on the server.” The cable routes for the wiring are clearly displayed on-screen, which makes the process faster and more efficient, while also greatly reducing the likelihood of errors. Staff can easily amend the circuit diagram on the iPad, if (despite careful planning) changes repeatedly crop up. This is similar to conventional red-lining, where changes are marked on the print-out of the circuit diagram. The difference is that digitalization makes it possible for the changes to be incorporated into the engineering process. This guarantees that the finished enclosure and the subsequently updated circuit diagram match each other perfectly. Does the future belong to the robot? Mr Ripploh has already achieved a great deal through extensive automation and digitalization. “Today, we can handle significantly more orders than we did a few years ago – and with the same number of staff,” he says. This is important because finding qualified and skilled employees is increasingly difficult. What’s more, because digital transformation has meant activities in the workshop are tightly controlled, even staff members who have only received on-the-job training can take on some of the tasks. According to Mr Ripploh, automation in control and switchgear engineering is far from complete: “the next step will probably be automated wiring.” The Wire Terminal catalogues and stores the pre-assembled wires in its order magazines in a logical order so handing the next stage over to a robot to carry out the wiring is quite conceivable. “We are already working on it and are convinced that we will be able to wire it with the support of a robot in around another two years,” Mr. Ripploh says. For Sale information please contact Wayne Moody at moody.w@rittal.ie JimMurray at murray.j@rittal.ie Paul McGarry at McGarry.p@rittal.ie Alan Hanton at hanton.a@rittal.ie Rittal doTERRA chooses Cork for first manufacturing facility outside of the United States d oTERRA, the world leader in essential oils and wellness products, is set to create up to 100 new jobs in the northern suburbs of Cork City over the next three years with the opening of the company’s first manufacturing facility outside of the United States. The Irish operation, which will serve as doTERRA’s European Manufacturing Headquarters, will manufacture and distribute doTERRA products to the European marketplace, as well as provide increased capacity to ‒ The state-of-the-art facility located at Blarney Business Park. serve other international markets, including the Middle East and Africa. The privately held company was founded in 2008 and employs over 3,500 people in the U.S. and multiple offices around the world. e 95,000 sq. . state-of-the- art facility in Blarney consists of cleanrooms, bottling rooms, o ce space, a lab, cold storage and warehousing and is expected to be completed by the end of July. ere are currently 10 employees based in Cork City, and the company will look to add a number of operations roles and warehouse sta in August as the facility ramps up to start production in September. e company will grow its sta in quality control, supply chain management, nance, legal and HR as production increases. doTERRA’s arrival in Ireland is the result of a capital investment made by the company of more than €10m. Construction of the facility began in October 2019, and to date, the project has supported more than 60 construction jobs.