Great Automation Potential Among Small and Medium-sized Companies

Source: www.associationsnow.com

Concurrently with a decreased price on industry robots, among others, it has become very attractive to invest in automation. Larger companies in the industry have automated relatively big parts of their production and as a result have enhanced their productivity. The decreased price of industry robots also provides small and medium-sized companies with a huge automation potential, giving them the opportunity to achieve greater value and improved competitive positions.

Increased automation can raise companies’ productivity in numerous ways. Automation allows companies to produce several products containing fewer mistakes, doing so both cheaper and faster than if produced manually. In addition, fewer hands are needed in the short run to maintain the same production, which can reduce the company’s salary quota.

The most automated industries today are the food, drink and tobacco industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the chemical industry, whereas the machinery industry, the manufacturing of technical equipment and the transportation industry are the least automated, and thus the ones with most potential for growth in this area.

The developments in automation and advanced production technologies are making it more plausible for manufacturers to pull back on outsourcing production and allowing them to keep more of their production in Europe. Cheaper and more intelligent robots, new sensor technology, 3D-printing, material technologies and digitalization have changed the process of how production development and stock control are managed.

Source: www.themanufacturer.com

Industry robots have become smaller and more flexible and are now able to be used in many more processes. More robots mean that companies are able to produce more products, faster and cheaper than before, improving their competitive position.

Due to the high cost of automation solutions, it was primarily larger companies who were initially able to research and find these new technologies, implementing them to improve their own processes and products. Now, with industry robots becoming more affordable, small and medium-sized companies are also able to join in, increase their automation processes and see improvements in their productivity as well. In countries like the USA, Germany, Great Britain and The Netherlands there is a discussion taking place about how to secure future production in the best possible way. As a result of an increasing digitalization in production, a new industrial revolution is emerging, exemplified in the German “Industrie 4.0” strategy.

The powerful growth of automation processes, in particular the increased number of installed robots, can in some cases be influenced by less attractive outsourcing. Outsourcing to countries with lower salaries and production-related expenses, compared to Denmark for example, can decrease a company’s costs. On the other hand, outsourcing can result in other expenses and risks such as inconsistent or poorer quality, delays in production or a lacking outline of the total production.

In Denmark, organizations like Dansk Metal and Ingeniørforeningen (IDA) suggest that automation does not necessarily result in a decrease in human jobs for companies. In fact, Dansk Metal estimates that increased automation will actually create close to 25,000 new jobs in Denmark by 2020, and the innovation cluster organization, RoboCluster, predicts a similar positive effect.