ROBOTICS
IS IT TIME FOR A ROBOT PAYROLL? Mark Gray believes that, to shore up operations and boost productivity, manufacturers should to be looking at robots.
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t has been an incredibly busy 12 months for all businesses supplying supermarkets. For the food industry, in particular, which was already dealing with labour shortages, Brexit and Covid-19 travel restrictions have combined to make staffing more challenging. Throughout a period of unprecedented demand, social distancing requirements and a duty of care to staff on the production line have also made maintaining output levels more difficult. For many SMEs aiming to keep costs low, these kinds of technologies can seem out of reach. However, there is a way for manufacturers to begin scaling up automated processes, while keeping risk low. Historically, the requirement for up-front capital investment has seen many SMEs dismiss or postpone decisions around automation. But difficulties recruiting staff and the ability to lease solutions that can immediately benefit the business really has changed the game. Maybe the time has come to pay for automation on a monthly basis in just the same way that employees are recompensed. In other words, it’s time to introduce a robot payroll.
Overcoming barriers Introducing a robot payroll encourages manufacturers to make better longterm decisions about how to profitably improve productivity. Scaling up with the increased use of automation establishes a base from which a company can be more competitive, whereas simply bringing in more agency workers only addresses the immediate problem. Comparing the costs of each option on a like-for-like basis helps to focus minds and benefits everyone as it makes the business more resilient. Control Engineering Europe
Leasing a cobot means there will be less capital outlay involved, and as soon as it has been programmed it can begin paying back the cost of investment, 24-hours a day. This also offers the flexibility to trial smallscale deployments in different areas of production to see where they can benefit the most from automating. But leasing isn’t just a vehicle for A/B testing and optimising production methods. Used strategically, it can provide a more attainable way of automating operations and, crucially, with much less risk. By the end of the first year, the first cobot could have paid back the cost of investment, at which point you can invest in a second unit. From there, you can repeat the process, scaling up the number of cobots exponentially year-on-year. Lack of robotics expertise is often cited as another reason to avoid automating. But collaborative robots are much easier to program than their industrial counterparts, and it typically only takes around 30 minutes to input a new task. Ease of set up goes further than this as no expert programmer is required, after a short course staff
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should be able to program new tasks. There is an array of widely held misconceptions associated with automation and robotics. But perhaps one of the hardest connotations to avoid is the idea that introducing automation will leave many in the industry without a job – this simply isn’t true. Cobots are designed to only take on the most dirty, dull and dangerous tasks and do not have the capabilities to replace their human counterparts. In practice, this means cobots can do the most repetitive and strenuous tasks in production, freeing up human employees to take on more value-driving work. While automation is not a silver bullet for organisations looking to increase profitability the technology can be a powerful tool to boost productivity and efficiency. Manufacturers need to prioritise starting their journeys toward more automated operations, or risk being left behind as robotics becomes a fundamental part of manufacturing. plus-circle Mark Gray is UK country manager at Universal Robots. March 2021
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