Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CANEFF (Development of a new palletiser/depalletiser control system for optimum efficiency)
Reporting period: 2016-05-01 to 2016-08-31
CLEVERTECH has been working on the development of an automated system, easily installed on existing and new palletiser/depalletiser machines, that redefine end-of-line efficiency thanks to its monitoring of the exact number of products contained in a finished pallet and its optimization of their arrangement in order to increase both productivity of the lines and traceability of packed/unpacked items. Our project, called CANEFF, will lead in long-term profitability for both customers and our company, as it will allow us to strengthen our business position as well as reach new clients with the retrofit of their machinery.
Our team has been performing a feasibility study during the last four months in order to analyze the key areas of our project. Technically, based on our original prototype, we have further studied and worked in the mechanical and electrical design of the individual components of CANEFF, leading to carefully revising and improving each element. We have also prepared the Execution Plan for the project.
Commercially, we have studied in detail our target markets in order to prepare our marketing strategy. We have also performed a Freedom to Operate analysis, which is required to check and validate the innovation of our product. To conclude, we have prepared financial projections in order to evaluate the return on investment of the CANEFF project.
On the technical side, based on the first CANEFF prototype, we have further studied and developed the mechanical and electrical design in order to obtain the industrial prototype composed of 3 subsystems.
A draft of the Execution Plan for the following developments of the project has been made, covering tasks such as planning, budget, risk analysis and organization.
Commercially, we have assessed in detail our target market (food and beverage packaging machinery) in order to prepare our marketing strategy.
The Freedom to Operate analysis was performed, which was essential to check and validate the innovation of our product. Based on the results obtained, we confirm that CANEFF has not come across threads for its commercialization.
For our project, we have also prepared the financial projections, in order to evaluate the return on investment of the CANEFF project in three different scenarios. Different sources of funding have been considered as well, leading to our decision to present a Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 2 (target of commercialization: 2019).
With the improvement of the pallet layout, the system will increase the stability of the pallet, increasing the work safety and decreasing the production loss that could arise from products fall.
CANEFF will be offered to our clients as a part of a complete CLEVERTECH solution (integrated and aligned to all our palletiser/depalletisers systems) and also as an “add-on kit” for retrofitting on existing machinery.