Manufacturers around the world have always been trying to increase their efficiency or optimize production costs. To this end, manufacturers have focused their efforts on implementing industrial automation in production based on Industry 4.0. Today systems that monitor processes, machines, and the entire production lines are among the most desirable in modern manufacturing.
To realize how big the market is, below we present the estimated size of the industrial automation in manufacturing market from 2022 to 2030.
What is Manufacturing Automation?
In the manufacturing industry, automation processes refer to the use of machinery to speed up production processes or system operations. The ultimate objective is to increase efficiency, which is frequently accomplished by lowering costs or expanding production capacity.
Automation of production is generally understood as the use of machines and production monitoring systems to minimize human work and optimize production. Associated with this are IIoT systems designed to perform an analysis of many different operations.
What are the 3 types of automation
Types of Manufacturing Automation
- Fixed Automation (Hard Automation)
- Programmable Automation
- Flexible (Soft) Automation
Fixed Automation
Automation relies on a high volume of production of individual components (parts). It is characterized by a high barrier to entry and high difficulty of automation due to costs. The machinery or manufacturing line determines the speed and order of processes.
Also known as “hard automation”. The production process remains unchanged by the way it is configured, following a fixed sequence of automated processes.
Hard automation gives high production efficiency, however, it is expensive in the initial stage due to the cost of required equipment. It is not very flexible when it comes to making changes to the product.
Programmable Automation
Automation is associated with batch production, such as an example of the production of different food variants. Allows production equipment and automation to adapt to changing needs. Used in low and medium production.
Programmable automation allows you to make batches, from tens to potentially thousands of pieces of product at a time. If a product needs to be changed, simply reprogram it.
Flexible (Soft) Automation
The third type of automation in industry is flexible automation, also known as “soft automation”. The assumption of flexible automatics is the possibility of producing various types of products without wasting time on programming machines.
Such an automation system can efficiently produce different products in different combinations without having to break them down into batches.
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Examples of Manufacturing Automation
Fixed (Hard) Automation
Examples of fixed automation can be found in the automotive sector. It can also be helpful to numerous businesses that use automation to produce food goods of a particular type and variant. This enables them to make the product quickly and package it in large quantities.
Programmable Automation
It is characterized by modification of the control program in automated equipment. It is best suited for the batch production process when the product volume is medium.
Flexible (Soft) Automation
Examples of flexible automation can be found in real-time or on-demand production. It allows manufacturers to produce multiple products with different ranges in a combined process of combining rather than separating.
Benefits of automation in manufacturing
There are many benefits of implementing automation in manufacturing. Among of them, we can highlight:
- Lowering operating costs
- Optimal utilization of floor space
- Increasing system versatility
- Reducing labor cost
- Reducing in factory lead times
- Faster ROI
- More consistent part production and quality
How to start implementing automation
To implement automation, first need to connect all the machines and start collecting data from them. Only by doing this will you be able to make the right decision about future automation.
See how you can start collecting data in the cloud in a few weeks and have an online view of your production and machine performance.
