Advances in industrial technology have had a significant impact on the nature of manufacturing, engineering and production. To maintain their competitive edge in their niche or sector, an increasing number of companies are turning to automation solutions to set themselves apart.
Today’s factories, warehouses and production facilities are complex, fast-moving environments where productivity and efficiency are essential. Tight margins, short lead times, changing consumer demands and production pressures mean operators must place an increasing focus on continuous process improvement to achieve the best results.
Industrial automation empowers companies to overcome these challenges and more. While the scale and specifics of automation will vary from business to business, it’s clear that industrial automation brings significant benefits when properly designed and integrated. Here’s how.
Benefits of industrial automation
Industrial automation solutions, when done correctly, offer manufacturers a way to boost productivity, cut costs, streamline their processes and keep their staff safe.
While it’s not a new thing, it’s come more to the fore over the past decade, thanks to the advent of cloud computing, wireless technology and the Internet of Things. With even more exciting innovations and technologies on the horizon, investing in industrial automation now can give manufacturers the competitive edge they need to stay ahead of the curve.
Aside from the obvious benefits we’ve covered before – such as cost, safety, productivity and efficiency – here are some of the other advantages it brings:
Increase output
One of the main benefits of industrial automation is the way it can help improve and streamline production processes. The result of this is increased output and more consistent product quality. It can also help reduce input costs by reducing waste and transporting materials around a production facility more efficiently.
For instance, automating material handling equipment can improve workflows by ensuring goods get moved to the correct places quicker. This helps keep costs to a minimum, while reducing error rates. This can directly impact the output volume and the quality of the output.
Minimise production bottlenecks
Many things can affect productivity levels, from poor equipment layout to workers without the skills and training required to do the job properly.
While industrial automation cannot completely eliminate these issues, it can supplement your efforts to improve productivity and keep your production processes running as they should.
Automating manual processes reduces or removes the need for human interaction, which means they can just be left to run remotely. Automated systems also collect and store a vast amount of real-time production data, which provides invaluable insight into a host of mission-critical KPIs, from performance and production quality to waste, emissions and downtime.
Shift to proactive maintenance
Repairs and downtime are two of the biggest causes of lost productivity. An unexpected breakdown of one piece of equipment can have a ripple effect that impacts all other operations.
Reactive maintenance – waiting for something to go wrong, then fixing it – is the only way to resolve these costly breakdowns. However, industrial automation allows manufacturers to be much more proactive in their approach to ongoing maintenance.
As mentioned above, automated processes use an array of sensors, monitors and other interconnected devices to gather vast amounts of data. This can be analysed to spot potential issues – such as unusual behaviours or variances in quality or speed – and address them before they become significant problems.
In many cases, servicing, repairing or replacing a worn part is usually quicker and cheaper than replacing a broken one, particularly if a failed component causes more damage to other parts of the machine. This pre-emptive approach helps reduce production downtime by keeping maintenance scheduled rather than ad-hoc, based on the expected service life of the equipment itself and the components within it. It can also help keep equipment running as it should for longer.
Offer greater flexibility
One of the main ways manufacturers can maintain their competitive edge is by meeting their customer needs quickly. That either means introducing new products or upgrading and enhancing existing ones, as demand changes.
A significant benefit of industrial automation is how it allows manufacturers to create bespoke orders at pace and scale. In manual production processes, a whole production line, equipment and personnel may need to be changed completely to service a new product or order.
With an automated system, the instructions are simply fed into a computer, allowing the machines do all the hard work with minimal disruption due to changeover. This enables manufacturers to offer greater choice and flexibility to their customers and be more responsive to market demand.
How can industrial automation benefit your business?
Industrial automation can deliver a fundamental shift to your manufacturing processes and futureproof your operations as production continues to shift towards Industry 4.0. If you’re looking for a fully automated system or want to implement a new automated section into an existing production process, we can help you achieve the improvements you’re looking for.
Our automation services include complete systems, electrical controls, robotics and conveyor controls. Whatever you do, if you want to do it better, we’d love to hear from you.