Top 6 Reasons to Automate Your Business!

An operator of a modern foundry factory told me: “Some jobs are now automated so they seem much easier to do, before they had to be done by hand, now it is the robot that does the job.”

Automation means that what humans used to do, today is done by machines, robots and computers.

There was a lot of confrontation that automation was going to eliminate a lot of jobs and humans would be left with nothing to do, or worse without work.

But the reality is that in the capitalist societies new jobs are always invented, depending on the demand of society and its evolution, that fear that the machines replace the workers exists since the industrial revolution and has always been a false alarm.

 Whenever there are substantial activities left to perform, we will see an increase in demand that will compensate for jobs lost.

It is important to highlight, in companies with massive automation, for the most part, the number of employees has not substantially decreased but the type of professional profile is changed.

It means that instead of having personnel to work in the productive function of the machines, there are now specialized technicians who control the production process.

In the manufacturing countries of South America, Brazil and Mexico in the first places, the arrival of the high-tech industry has revolutionized university education.

If in the 90’s, most of the highly specialized engineers and technicians arrived from abroad, now, after only 25 years, the local staff has the necessary university technical education comparable to foreign engineers.

Local companies born in the last 10 years, now are in competition with foreign companies and among themselves, improving services and optimizing costs to remain competitive in the market.

In over twenty years of experience, I haven’t known any company that has automated its production processes and subsequently returned to manual processes.

WHY AUTOMATE YOUR BUSINESS?

1. Cost reduction. Although machines and software can result in high costs in the first instance, the return on investment is fast and safe. It has been shown that the investment is usually amortized quickly. Once the investment made in automation has been recovered, production costs are drastically reduced.
2. Flexibility. Modern automation systems are highly flexible, a machine designed for a “A” type task, with a small investment you can perform a “B” type task. For example, if I install a robot that handling screws, by turning it into a robot that handling nuts, the overall investment is very low. This allows to increase the life cycle of the system and reuse without buying a new complete system as it used to be necessary in the 90s of the last century.
3. Efficiency The human being is subject to tiredness and other emotional situations which cause a physiological and natural decrease in their performance. An automated system can carry out that same job constantly and efficiently. Imagine that, an automatic system controlled by trained operators and with correct maintenance, can achieve 93% efficiency, up to 95% in the first years of operation.
4. Less incidents. With industrial automation, workplace accidents are reduced, as this is one of the biggest concerns of companies. One of the highest costs of the companies are civil insurance and medical expenses. Machines can handle the most dangerous and heavy tasks and this reduces work incidents.
5. Occupational diseases. In contaminated work environments, for example painting plants, repetitive actions and other jobs that over time may affect the employees are other examples of using machines instead of people it’s a winning idea.
6. Quality at lower price. For most of the products we use every day, automatic production allows us to achieve good quality at reduced costs. Imagine that it is possible to obtain from the modern automatic lines the incredible objective of “zero non-conforming parts” shipped to the customer. This becomes a delivery of 100% guaranteed products, substantial decrease in rework campaigns and consequently a further reduction in costs. Only with a strict and rigorous quality control system can the modern company obtain the prestigious international quality certifications, which open the doors to the worldwide market.

Conclusions.

All these points help us to understand how important and necessary it is to automate the production processes of our business.

Industrial automation is increasing acceptance because it is applicable to all businesses, from food & beverage to aerospace.

The improvement in the product is evident and the value of the company increases step by step that is modernized.

Automation is no longer an option, automation is the solution.