Industrial Automation Benefits for Superior Business Outcomes

In the last 2 decades, technology has transformed the nature of manufacturing. From the days when manufacturing and fabrication were all done by hand, computers and technology have penetrated the industry, enabling companies to mass produce products at outstanding speeds and with great repeatability and quality. Today, automation has become a determining factor in whether or not a company will stay competitive in the manufacturing industry.

Benefitting from Industrial Automation

The industrial automation space is fuelled by new control technologies, technologies that are optimized for high accuracy and quality across industrial processes. By embedding industrial equipment with sensors, industrial automation enables devices to control manufacturing and production processes and make them more efficient. In contrast to manual systems, industrial automation provides superior benefits in terms of accuracy, power and speed of the process performance. Industrial automation replaces manual processes and reduces human intervention to a large extent for increased efficiency. Let’s look at some of the top benefits:  

1  Improved Workforce Productivity: We live in an environment that’s challenged by severe competition. Industrial Automation boosts the rate of production and helps enterprises achieve greater results. Since it is impossible for humans to work long hours with extreme accuracy, automated systems can help control work hours by carrying out complex and dangerous tasks and letting humans spend more time on supervising the operations.  

2      Superior Product Quality: Very often, manual operations in the manufacturing process can result in a compromise on the quality of the product specification. Through Industrial Automation, manufacturers can perform operations with greater compatibility and consistency and meet the required quality standards. Automation ensures the product is manufactured with the same specifications and process every time, with fewer repairs and maintenance activities.

3   Reduced Production Costs: Industrial Automation help the industry save substantial costs; by replacing human tasks with automated systems, manufacturers can reduce the unit cost of production. Automation equipment that are seamlessly unified for 24×7 operation not only increase productivity, but also, lead to an excellent return on investment by saving on employee salaries and other labor costs. Automated systems also reduce scarcity of workforce by introducing automated processes in the workplace.

4  Enhanced Plant Operations: With industrial automation, manufacturers canenable remote maintenance and monitoring; machine builders and system integrators can see where the biggest challenges are in their systems and refine them to create better products. Reprogrammable robots can make production more flexible, thanks to their ability to connect to the cloud. Robots can be easily reconfigured and reprogrammed to perform a multitude of different tasks depending on the application and helping enhance plant operations in industries where processes change quickly to meet demand.

5.     Quick Mobile Access: As industrial automation takes over the shop floor, plant managers will be able to track machine performance and process data from anywhere in the plant, and possibly even from their homes. Mobile access is especially important for enterprises that have with machines in remote locations. IIoT by making it easier to connect multiple systems, communicate with the cloud, and present information in a way that is can be easily understood and acted on.

6     Improved Health and Safety: Industrial Automation enables wearable tech to integrate real time data and information without hassle. Using wearables, equipment operators can have real time access to critical data. In an increasingly automated environment, wearable tech can help improve collaboration between humans and robots or automated systems, helping improve health and safety through the use of helmets and watches that contain sensors linked to supervisors and control centres. Such devices could also alert employees of any potential hazards, without distraction from the job at hand.

         Reduced Waste: Industrial automation decreases footprint of a work area by automating parts of the production line. Factory managers can efficiently utilize the floor space for other operations and make the process flow more efficient. The use of robots ensures only the exact amount of raw material is used, decreasing costs on waste.

Conclusion

Industrial Automation is improving worker safety and productivity, and moving workers from performing site operations to participating effectively in supervisory roles. Industrial automation systems with high computing power can capture, process and analyze humongous amounts of data from the factory floor that can further be used to improve productivity, and avoid downtime through predictive maintenance.