As the first French manufacturer of control equipment against fire, the POK company has shown remarkable growth. Founded in 1976, POK represents a € 17 Million turnover, of which 50% is generated through exports to over ninety countries. POK is a family business whose engines are the passion for innovation and the conquest of new countries. It is in this quest for innovation that POK came across the path of RoboJob.
Stéphane Brochot, Director of Production: « Innovation is very important to our business: not only when it comes to our products, but also in the field of production. At POK, we do not have machines that are older than 15 years. This allows us to continue our innovations to further increase the technical level of our products and to ensure top quality of our products, which is highly appreciated by our customers.
Our production department has 24 Mazak CNC machines at its disposal, all equipped with the latest technology and capable of precision machining operations on various noble metals. A team of 35 qualified employees are working in regular or shift work, and they perform various operations, to manufacture parts constituting a POK product. Our workshop technicians ensure the programming and adjusting of our various machines and our operators focus on efficient production, quality control and performance.
However currently, our biggest challenge is to attract skilled operators to our business, so we have to think about solutions to reorganize their work in an effective and pleasant way.
Our philosophy is to use our employees for their talent and creativity. Accordingly, the goal of automation is to relieve the operator's tasks. That's why in 2014, we began our quest towards automation that could take over the physical and repetitive tasks of the operator.
As is often the case, this exercise started on the internet: we found the RoboJob site on Google, and I filled out the contact form. Their sales representative contacted us and already met with us a few days later. After two meetings, RoboJob invited us to Heist-op-den-Berg, where we could see their various products and solutions. The order for three systems was signed the same day.
RoboJob convinced us with two arguments, about which we are still satisfied: the compactness and system programming. In our workshop, we are very limited in terms of available surface. In fact, the automation cannot be larger than a pallet. With the Turn-Assist 180, RoboJob offers the most compact automation in the market. With their safety system in place, there is no need to build a cage around the installation. In addition, programming time and set-up are very limited, which allows us to change from one series to the next in no time.
The installation and commissioning was executed as planned: our first Turn Assist-180 was installed on a Mazak Quick Turn Nexus 250 MY lathe in November 2015. The other two were installed in February 2016, on two Mazak Quick Turn Nexus 250 M lathes, each time in 4 days, without delay, without problems and on machines that were in production.
Obviously, our operators were concerned when I have announced the purchase of our 3 robots. ‘Are they going to replace me with a robot?' But after installation, training and quick start-up, their concerns was replaced by enthusiasm and the recognition that a robot turned out to be an aid in their work. They realized that the RoboJob automation was intuitive, easy and quick to program, and that the robot takes over the most monotonous part of their job.
With our 3 Turn-Assists, we have become the first RoboJob customer in France, and we are proud. Both management and staff are very happy and satisfied with the Turn-Assist 180 and with the collaboration with RoboJob. Once again, POK demonstrates its passion for new technologies and innovation. »
