Rubix Helps Companies Automate

Where should the parts go? Does anything have to be done with them? The software precisely shows the location of each part and whether the stock is still up to date. Users automatically receive invoices or other admin. Because the Factory of the Future cannot go without the logistics of the future.

More and more work is done automatically so that in time the factories can be supplied and maintained 24 hours a day. On the Brainport Industries Campus (BIC), Rubix ensures that manufacturing companies have nothing to spare. “We relieve factories, not only by supplying parts and maintaining machines but also by looking at production methods together with customers,” says Meino Noordenbos, who manages Rubix in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Rubix has customers in 23 countries around the world and achieved a turnover of 2.2 billion euros in 2017, 270 million of which came from the Netherlands and Belgium. The company has been growing along with technical issues of customers for many years. Noordenbos: “It started with the development and supply of spare parts for production, then you start doing more and more: the maintenance of machines, stock control systems, the development of safety training and even the supply of compressed air systems. You’re taking on more and more tasks, so customers don’t have to worry about it anymore. What also prevents customers from producing products for another industry is that you have to comply with stricter requirements and the technical challenges are also increasing. From the traditional MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operating supplies) organisation, we are increasingly developing and thinking along with customers. Increasingly, we are on the development side of the production processes. In this, we work together with customers from all disciplines. From Coca-Cola to BMW. Around 15,000 brands worldwide.”

Together with a large pharmaceutical company, Rubix developed a system to check pills before they leave the factory. But the company also makes systems to check welds. This can be done in a factory, but also outside: “At high altitudes in a wind turbine, for example, we use robots. But you can also solve this with drones, so we must keep up with the latest developments.”

At Brainport Industries Campus, Rubix will work together with various companies to help companies with automation. “We have mechatronic, electronic and software knowledge in house. We also have experience with many different industries, which means that sometimes we already have techniques available that customers are not yet ready for. We want to test such systems at the BIC,” Noordenbos says. First, this will be a system where all data related to logistics will be processed automatically. Noordenbos: “We are losing more and more hands in logistics, and we also want to go to factories that can produce 24 hours a day. I foresee that robotic transport and handling systems – without human intervention – will become a reality.”