---
title: Upgrade your ABB robot cell to a flexible robot | OpiFlex
description: Many ABB robot cells run one product well. An upgrade with the Dynamic Program Generator lets operators add new parts in 1–3 minutes, offline.
image: https://blog.opiflex.se/hubfs/Images/Blog%20Images/Slide4.png
---

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# From traditional robot cell to flexible robot: upgrade your ABB cell

[robot programming](https://blog.opiflex.se/opiflex-blog/tag/robot-programming) [Dynamic Program Generator](https://blog.opiflex.se/opiflex-blog/tag/dynamic-program-generator) [Fast programming for robots](https://blog.opiflex.se/opiflex-blog/tag/fast-programming-for-robots) [Production Economics](https://blog.opiflex.se/opiflex-blog/tag/production-economics)

Updated at: 14 October 2026

Many of the robot cells I see run one product very well. The question I keep getting is what to do with them when the mix grows.

A traditional cell was built for stable production: one product, long series, a fixed layout. For that job it works well, and many cells have run reliably for years. What has changed is the production around them. More variants, shorter series, and orders that look different from one month to the next.

![Traditional automation was built for stable production: rigid, slow to adapt and costly changeovers](https://blog.opiflex.se/hs-fs/hubfs/Images/Blog%20Images/Slide4.png?width=1280&height=720&name=Slide4.png)

## What a new part costs today

In a cell programmed the traditional way, a new part means a new robot program written by a specialist. That typically takes 10–60 hours. The programming is done online, so the machine is locked while it happens. In our example calculation, adding one new product costs about €17,200 on one shift, and most of that is the machine standing still.

So the cell runs the long series, and the short orders are handled another way. In another of our example calculations, with 230 products a year, a fixed robot ended up running 20 % of the volume.

## What changes with an upgrade

An existing ABB robot cell can be upgraded with the OpiFlex Dynamic Program Generator. The robot stays where it is, and so does the machine. What changes is how the robot gets its programs.

The cell, I/O, error handling and logic are set up once. After that, the operator answers a few simple questions and chooses the product flow, and the system generates the robot code. A program for a new part takes 1–3 minutes. It is created offline, so the machine keeps producing while the next part is prepared, and no robot programming experience is needed. [Here is an operator creating a program for a completely new product in 1 minute 17 seconds.](https://youtu.be/FU7ioQDc7WY)

In the same example calculation, adding a new product costs about €4.50 instead of €17,200. At that cost, short series become worth running in the cell.

The programs are fully deterministic. They do the same thing every time, which matters when you run large robots at full speed.

## Fenceless, depending on the cell

Fenceless safety may also be possible, depending on the cell and the robot. Where it is, operators get full manual access to the machine, for example for single parts, prototypes or when they want to check quality.

## How long it takes

That depends on the cell. We give you a timeline once we have seen it.

## Start with the cell you have

Before an upgrade, we go through the cell, the products and the flow together, and calculate what it would give with your own figures in our production economics model, validated by Chalmers University of Technology.

If you have an ABB cell that runs one product well and could run more, I would like to hear how it is used today. Send us a few pictures of the cell and some typical parts, and we can come better prepared. [Get in touch here](https://www.opiflex.se/en/contact/).

Johan Frisk

[Read more from Johan Frisk](https://blog.opiflex.se/opiflex-blog/author/johan-frisk)

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