Seven Risks Automation in Production
Navigating the Landscape of Automation: Challenges, Misconceptions, and Strategic Insights
Learn about Automation
In the manufacturing sector, labor shortages and diminishing workforce quality pose threats to competitiveness. To enhance production capacity, elevate quality, and cut costs, automation is essential. However, it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. Coordination with contextual factors is crucial for reaping its benefits, and the high cost and potential for failure or unmet expectations must be carefully considered.
How to "enjoy" the benefits brought by automation while reducing risks, increasing flexibility for future expansion, and reducing the time and cost required for implementation will be a very critical focus.
With many years of automation experience, let’s discuss about the risk part first. Of course, the presence of risks does not mean that automation is not recommended. If you can learn more about the risks, you can reduce the chance of being tripped.
Automated classification
First, let’s briefly classify automation. Factory automation is roughly divided into four categories: production automation, logistics automation, warehousing automation and information flow automation. A brief explanation is as follows.
1. Production automation
For example, automatic loading and unloading, automatic inserting (Insert Molding), automatic assembly or packaging, stacking automation, etc. These were originally monotonous and repetitive tasks performed by operators at the manufacturing site, but they can be transformed into robots or automated equipment to perform automated tasks.
2. Warehouse automation
It refers to the automation of warehouse property management, including the hardware structure and software control of automatic warehouses, as well as the integration of WMS (warehouse management system). Traditionally, the fixed type has been used. In recent years, there has also been a new model of picking materials from shelves to people (goods move, people don't move) combined with AGV.
3. Logistics automation
Including automatic transportation of materials, workpieces, semi-finished products or finished products, etc. Mainly use AGV (autonomous guided vehicle), AMR (autonomous mobile robot) or OHT (aerial walking unmanned guided vehicle) for automatic transportation to reduce the number of people carrying heavy objects.
4. Information flow automation
To put it simply, through the Internet of Machinery and the Internet of Things, the data…
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