Since its adoption in the manufacturing sector, robotics has proved to be highly useful for production firms, as this technology not only eliminates the manual manufacturing processes from the factories but also opens the doors to newer opportunities. Implementation of robotics has many major advantages. Using robotics, industries are able to drive processes faster — the processes, when done manually take much longer. Robotics empowers faster delivery of finished products and goods. Along with efficiency, quality also gets enhanced with the use of robotics. Production processes can be made increasingly accurate and error-free with robotics. Robotics make it possible to maintain the standard of products and deliver consistent quality in a compliant manner.
Robots are no longer limited to the shop floor, or the logistics departments of a factory as manufacturers have now begun to include them in the quality and technical planning areas as well. To cater to such requirements and growth in demands, the innovators in the field of robotics are developing machines that are capable of performing a complicated and wide range of tasks. At the convergence of various modern-day technologies, the robotics industry has found many solutions for a variety of sectors. The kind of variability that one can see in the capabilities of robotics today have come about with the integration in the development of separate channels of technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning. On the same lines, industrial robots have now been designed to undertake hazardous and repetitive processes such as welding, drilling, chemical mixing, packaging, and automated palletizing. By employing robots to carry out such tasks, manufacturers ensure high-quality finishing of the products with precision.
As a consequence of passing on hazardous and tedious tasks to robots, manufacturers are also able to improve safety standards at production facilities. Worker safety is a critical aspect, and satisfying regulatory compliance is simple when machines are employed to do all the potentially risky tasks. However, apart from these robots that can operate exclusively to carry out any function, collaborative robots or the cobots have entered the manufacturing market space to work alongside humans. This combination of machines and human labor enables factories’ workforce to devote its time to critical and crucial tasks that require rational reasoning, while robots execute other jobs requiring fewer skills. Thus, industrial productivity is significantly enhanced by incorporating the right combination of robotic technologies.
Additionally, robotics also empower industries to reduce operational costs by cutting down on manual labor costs. Although the initial investment towards developing capabilities for robotics might seem a lot, in the long term, most facilities are able to earn much better returns. There are numerous other robotic services that manufacturers opt for, in order to speed up the production processes and boost profits. In this edition of Manufacturing Technology Insights, a distinguished panel comprising of CEOs, CIOs, VCs, and analysts along with the editorial panel of Manufacturing Technology Insights explores such promising industrial robotics services providers of 2018.
