Company History

Jasper Seating Company Inc., part of the Jasper Group, traces its origins to 1876, when the company acquired one of the first U.S. patents in Indiana’s fledgling furniture industry with the introduction of its roll-top desk.

Today, Jasper Seating Company Inc. (JSI), a manufacturer of wood furniture and accessories, serves hundreds of education, corporate, dining and government customers with high quality furniture products–ranging from tables and casework to seating and office desks. JSI’s sister brand, Klem, serves the hospitality industry through some of the world’s most recognized hotel and resort chains. Under the parent company Jasper Group, JSI and Klem operate three manufacturing facilities in Southern Indiana, and together comprise the oldest continuous manufacturer of office furniture in the United States. One unique demonstration of the company’s commitment to product quality and durability, is the first chair produced by JSI all the way back in 1929—the “400”—which still remains in production today.

With nearly 1,000 employees, three manufacturing plants and 2.3 million square feet of offices, lumber yards and mill rooms, Jasper Group posts $200M in annual sales and is projected to reach $250M in 2025. Solid wood products are produced at the Jasper location, and veneer wood and laminate case goods are built at other plants located in Dubois and Orange counties. The focus throughout Jasper Group is on innovative excellence and sustainable processes that “uplift individuals, communities and the world at large.”

The state of Indiana has a long history of leadership in furniture manufacturing, and Jasper Group is a big part of this legacy. In 2023, more than 23,000 Hoosiers were directly employed in furniture manufacturing and related products, with Orange and Dubois counties boasting nearly 11,000 of these jobs alone. This makes Southern Indiana one of the most manufacturing-intensive regions with a unique specialization in furniture production. Jasper Group’s business values have focused on investing and growing jobs for its local community–and this culture continues even though its transition into smart manufacturing.

The Project

Jasper Group’s consideration of autonomous mobile robots for material handling in a plant of more than one-million square feet was supported by a local technology integrator, Robotic Solutions, LLC.

Delivering raw materials from the shipping and receiving location to its production operations in the expansive Orleans plant was a manual-intensive process. Multiple shuttles ran daily throughout the plant that were managed by employees who drove golf carts to deliver raw materials and other parts to JSI production lines. “You can imagine how time-consuming that job was,” said Jeff Harris, Jasper Group’s vice president of Operations. “We were transferring parts and raw materials from one end in our 1.4 million square foot building to production lines on the other side. It felt like the materials were never there when you needed them, and so, it was an ideal process to optimize with technology. We wanted to better organize the material handling processes and not waste anyone’s time going back and forth in the plant.”

President of Robotic Solutions, Rick Braun, had previously brought an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) demo unit to the factory floor for a test run, and some two dozen Jasper Group employees observed the demonstration. “There was a lot of attention, a lot of excitement,” Rick said. From there, Robotic Solutions collaborated with Jasper Group on an MRG application to automate the material handling process. Once the project was approved, Robotic Solutions delivered three MiR Mobile Robot 600 units to the Orleans plant, including the hardware and integrated software. Their head engineer and product manager spent a few weeks with Jasper’s production staff to train and upskill them on how to both operate and maintain the AMRs. Following the training, Jasper’s employees took control and began to schedule automated routes for the AMRs. “A lot of the work is on their end,” Rick said. “The AMRs must fit their needs. We give some guidelines and estimates based on the distances from Point A to Point B. I think three is a good start, but they might find out after another year that they need to add another AMR.”

Jim Alberts, Jasper’s senior director of Continuous Improvement, and Jeff did significant pre-planning, too. “We tried to flush out everything we thought would be an issue,” Jim said. One of Jasper’s lead continuous improvement engineers, Andy Rostron, carried out the bulk of the internal set-up work, creating and simplifying dashboards to track the AMRs. The autonomous mobile robots now run nonstop from the start of the day through the end of the shift, without any downtime. The robots can carry up to 1,250 lbs on each continuous cycle from receiving and shipping to production and back to receiving with empty carts. They can detect obstructions and stop or re-route around the obstruction, increasing safety and efficiency within the plant. Those benefits alone can increase lead times and on-time performance.

The project implementation goal, according to Rick, was to have the technology implemented within a few weeks and then hand the keys to the Orleans manufacturing staff. “But having said that, we don’t just walk away,” he said. “We stay with them for any troubleshooting and integration issues.” The project has been a great success, Jeff said. “We went from three people working eight hours a day to accomplish material handling, all of which is now augmented by the AMRs. Those workers were redeployed to other areas or departments within the plant.” In fact, Jeff said, they started with just two of the MiRs in use, but the system was functioning so well that they were ready to introduce the third just a few months later. It will be deployed in the upstairs upholstery production line.

Special Thanks to Conexus for the work they put into this Case Study – Here is the original post: https://www.conexusindiana.com/case-study/jasper-group-robotic-solutions-llc/

For more info about Robotics Solutions please visit: www.roboticsolutions.net