Following a successful internship placement in 2022 Jaltek have again engaged with WMG to take on another intern to help on a specific project.

Jaltek and WMG initially engaged via the Digital Innovation for Manufacturing Programme** when WMG helped Jaltek with their move into a brand-new state of the art facility, which was set to boost the companies turnover by several million pounds.

Jaltek worked with intern Nayan Wani, whom helped with the companies expansion including, the factory layout for the new premises and implementing production line changes. Following his 12 weeks with Jaltek, Nayan accepted a full time position.

Jaltek has grown significantly over the last couple of years and were looking to adopt digital technology, particularly in robotics and automation to facilitate and support this growth.

Jaltek’s Steve Blythe, researched the benefits of using collaborative robots (cobots) and identified that automation could; provide productivity enhancement, offer extended working hours, and free up employees so that they are available to carry out more interesting, higher value tasks.

Jaltek already use automation for the surface mount placement process, and are investigating automated stores systems, however Steve identified that cobots could also be implemented for post surface mount assembly activity and labelling.

When looking to implement the use of cobots, Jaltek collaborated with WMG, to help direct the project and provide an invaluable opportunity and experience for an intern.

Kesava Viknesh was appointed intern. With WMG supervision, Kesava initially undertook an automation feasibility study for selected processes in the business, quantifying the benefits of automation for each one. He then conducted a comparison study of different automation solutions, resulting in a list of the top three opportunities. After creating and presenting the business case to the board of directors, Kesava then went on to create a simulation of the automated labelling process to de-risk the investment. Jaltek ran a pilot trial using WMG’s UR5e cobot to assemble products before investing in their first cobot.

Commenting on the success of the project, Steve said: “We are continually looking to improve productivity through training, improved processes, and automation. We saw good practice using cobots in other businesses and reached out to WMG to support our trial plans. We are very happy with the results of the second internship, and as such haveoffered Keseva a full time position as an Automation Engineer. We are at the beginning of this journey and are excited to see where it leads us.”

Jack Davis, Technology Transfer Engineer at WMG who supervised Kesava said: “This internship project enabled Jaltek to trial the use of cobots on one of their key processes before taking the plunge to invest themselves, reducing risk and ensuring that they got the exact technological solution for their requirements. Kesava did a fantastic job, so much so that he has now secured a position with Jaltek.”