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| Automation for Modern Manufacturing |
One of the most important areas in automation technology is manufacturing. With industry 4.0 technologies such as machine learning, robotics, sensors, big data, and analytics booming exponentially, manufacturing ways have changed in recent times. It is interesting to witness the way manufacturing organizations are coping up with these changes. Automation has been around for several years, especially fixed automation in the manufacturing facility. High investment has been made with readily programmed hardware that took over large volume productions.
Then came the era of programmable automation, where the machines have downtime to change configurations for manufacturing different types of products. There was no product specialization on these machine tools which are programmed and controlled by computers. Industrial robots are thus an extension of these types of programmable automation. These days robots handle different types of flexible automation such as material handling, processing operations, assembly, and inspection.
In the era of robotic engineering coupled with highly sensitive internet of things, it's easy to achieve a high level of automation. The below are the top reasons companies go for automation.
Cost reduction
Extended productivity can be achieved with semi or fully automated production facilities thus increasing production and reducing the per-unit cost of production.
Productivity
Consistency in the areas where there is a likely chance of human errors increases productivity.
Mitigating labor shortage: Labor shortage is one of the growing problems in the manufacturing sector. Automation can mitigate a shortage of manual labor.
Increase safety
Working in hazardous or unhealthy conditions can be avoided using automation in high-risk areas of manufacturing
Increased product quality
Robots are good at inspection and ensuring zero-defect when it comes to manufacturing in large quantities.
Reduced lead time
Order to delivery time has gone down dramatically and consumers expect the product to be available as soon as they are added to the shopping cart. Automation in the supply chain and shipping has produced tangible benefits to organizations and consumers.
Summary
For organizations to remain competitive, they must think about the value chain from beginning to end, through all aspects of production. Automation has many components to it and tech is a major aspect of it. Change management and catching up to modern manufacturing with modern practices is also crucial to automation’s success.
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