Innovantia® brings the benefits of Industry 4.0 to the ONCE production centre with 24 Yaskawa MOTOMAN robots

The Spanish National Organisation for the Blind (ONCE), as a social lottery operator of recognised prestige subject to strict public control, is one of the most dynamic and respected non-profit organisations both nationally and internationally. Since its establishment in 1938, it has been dedicated to promoting the visibility and defending the rights of people with blindness and disabilities, making its social responsibility tangible in the management of lotteries as a source of funding, always respecting principles of quality, security, transparency and trust with respect to consumers and society in general. These principles are applied in all processes of design, production, communication and marketing of lottery products, and guarantee and support their integrity in terms of accountability, security and authenticity. In line with these principles, ONCE embarked on a project to robotise its Logistics and Production Centre, implementing a new, more environmentally friendly and sustainable robotic management system to distribute to the 36,000 points of sale throughout Spain, ensuring individual processing and complete traceability from printing to delivery.

This centre coordinates, from Madrid, the distribution of all the lottery products and consumables received by ONCE points of sale throughout Spain, increasingly modernising the technical and human resources to achieve safe and responsible products, not only for people, but also for the environment. This high level of production is possible thanks to the advanced technology of the facilities, which are divided into three main areas: the printing area for traditional coupons (between 16 and 25 million coupons a week); the collection, custody and storage area for instant lotteries, with more than 450 million tickets; and the area for consumables, such as point-of-sale terminal rolls, and others. The three come together in the final process in a large Preparation Unit, a huge warehouse equipped with robots and the latest technology. These more than 44 robots, with their more than 400 automated systems, are in charge of putting together the final package, adding the products that will reach all the points of sale in individual suitcases for each salesperson. All the robots are located in a 1,500-metre warehouse, making it the space with the most robots per square metre in the Community of Madrid.