Robots in Manufacturing: Challenge or Opportunity?

Over the past decade, the use of robots in manufacturing has been growing. According to a recent survey report released by the American Advanced Automation Association, robot sales in North America hit a new high in 2022, and the number of robot orders increased by 11% compared with the previous year.

Robots can complete repetitive or dangerous tasks, such as material handling or assembly, faster than humans and with optimal accuracy, thereby increasing safety on the production floor. performance and productivity.

For this reason, many people worry that robots will replace humans and cause chaos in the labor market. However, the impact of robots on human employment is not very clear. In fact, some studies have concluded that robots do not completely replace human workers, but merely supplement their labor. Here are the benefits of robot applications in manufacturing.

Robots improve productivity

Robots can work at a stable speed day and night. They are often faster and more precise than humans at repetitive tasks, and they produce higher quality products in less time.

Due to the high accuracy of robots, they significantly reduce the need for rework and greatly reduce the amount of scrap in the production workshop

According to a survey report released by Nestlé in 2021, Brazil After the chocolate manufacturing factory introduced pallet loading robots, productivity increased by 53%

According to Forbes magazine, Amazon’s productivity increased by 300% after adopting warehouse robots

Efficient Robots not only mean completing tasks faster and more efficiently, but also being able to perform multiple tasks. This is exactly what modern robots are good at. For example, the UR16 collaborative robot is a product of Universal Robots. Tasks such as machine maintenance, material handling, disassembly, screw and nut driving, and packaging can be completed, and it is also able to quickly switch between different tasks in one continuous operation. Ford Motor Company purchased this robot specifically for its factory in Romania to optimize the factory's assembly line

Robots improve factory safety

Productivity and safety are closely related. In the United States alone, 65 million workdays were lost due to occupational injuries in 2020. But given that robots can take over dangerous tasks on the manufacturing floor, they can also increase productivity by keeping human workers safe and active.

According to a study conducted in 2022, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Toronto, and the Freie Universität Berlin found that industrial robots were able to reduce workplace injuries by 1.2 per 100 workers over a year

Robots in Applications in welding operations may present risks of electric shock, burns, eye damage and manganese poisoning. U.S. construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar relies on collaborative welding robots to get the job done, claiming that welding robots make their overall manufacturing process more efficient and safer. According to a report released by the U.S. National Safety Council in 2020, Overexertion is the second leading non-fatal occupational injury. Overexertion occurs when workers exceed their physical limits. In manufacturing, repetitive tasks and heavy lifting are often the cause of overwork. Robots can perform 24-hour uninterrupted work

Many robots are used for heavy lifting, especially in the automotive industry. There are also robots that move items, such as Amazon’s Sparrow. Overall, the use of robots has reduced total walking distance in Amazon warehouses by 75% to 80%, reducing worker muscle fatigue.

In addition, robots can work in contaminated environments and handle hazardous materials that can seriously affect the health of human workers, but in some industries are an important part of the job.

If equipped with enough sensors, robots can also monitor the environment, identify potential hazards, and alert human workers. For example, if a robot working on a machine detects a dangerous increase in temperature, it might send an alert to a maintenance team or shut down the machine to avoid an accident.

Robotic technology improves production efficiency

Efficiency is to maximize the use of the same resources. Robots can improve the efficiency of manufacturing plants in several ways:

• Robots can speed up and optimize manufacturing processes, helping manufacturers save energy costs. If integrated with IoT devices and sensors, they can monitor and improve real-time energy consumption. They can also operate in harsh lighting conditions and extreme temperatures, reducing the need for climate control systems in manufacturing plants.
• Robots can improve maintenance efficiency. When integrated with CMMS software, robots can receive repair orders and automatically perform scheduled maintenance tasks, minimizing machine downtime. They can perform a variety of maintenance tasks, such as cleaning, lubricating or replacing parts of the machine. They can also be equipped with sensors that detect equipment malfunctions or malfunctions before they occur.
• Robots can help reduce waste in manufacturing plants - fewer defective items are thrown away during each production run, which means robots can enable a more efficient production process. Ultimately, because of the robot's precision, manufacturers can produce higher quality products with minimal rework, scrap and recalls.

Conclusion

Robots are becoming increasingly popular in manufacturing because the benefits they bring outweigh the threats.

Robots are unlikely to replace human workers as en masse as one might think; on the contrary, they offer opportunities to escape repetitive or dangerous tasks, allowing workers to focus on more creative and fulfilling tasks. - These tasks require critical thinking, decision-making and problem-solving skills

Human workers can always be reassigned or reassigned their tasks, as human intervention is still required in several areas of manufacturing. And robots can work alongside humans, like collaborative robots.

At the same time, robots can create new job opportunities, such as high-paying professional positions such as robot design, programming, maintenance and supervision.

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