37 COMMUNICATION ISSUE If the second most important priority is reducing expensive rework, spell that out quantifiably as well, including disposal costs as well as the high cost of being late with deliveries. Understanding your needs now and in the projected future can help define the right robot for your floor. Do not let the wishes get in the way of the most important needs. That’s why a priority list is needed. ROBOTS ARE SCALABLE A jobbing production facility often has needs for everything from one-off prototypes to high production and everything in between. While robots are often thought of for high production, they are also for small low-to medium-volume manufacturing environments. Quick change tools, mobile bases, AMRs, and advancements in programming, including artificial intelligence allow for robots to be setup to handle new tasks, quickly and in different areas of a manufacturing facility. LABOR REDUCTION Robots do more than just save manual labor which can come and go. Training operators to work with robots creates a better employee—one that will grow with you. In turn this also can free up that labor to better be utilized in your facility for other jobs and tasks often freeing them up for additional higher-level operations and becoming more valuable team members. INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY While repeatable operations are the obvious choices for using robots to increase productivity, with the many automation options available almost any process can be automated to deliver bottom line savings. Current 3D vision technologies ensure better accuracy, allowing robots to work at higher speeds (as fast as every 0.8 seconds) while verifying part orientation and inspection. If a part is outof-spec, the system will remove the nonconforming part during the process. Therefore, if you are sorting or distributing parts, this inspection technology ensures quality in a high-speed environment. REDUCING PART COSTS From small pick-and-place robots to heavy part handling, robots are flexible, which is truly required for most operations. Because they can be programmed quickly means they can be up and running for small production runs—making them an economical choice. A production facility involved in producing everything from prototypes to small production batches will be able to justify the cost of robots (that continues to decrease in price) and see part costs also decrease. Robot flexibility and variety have finally reached the threshold for smaller producers too. FUTURE GROWTH Expanding capabilities is often one of the most overlooked benefits of adding robots to your production floor. Robots are versatile, flexible, and scalable. They are also easily Continued on next page
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