Industrial-Automation

What Is Industrial Automation?

Industrial automation is increasingly becoming utilized in manufacturing plants all over the world, because it provides plenty of benefits. The industrial automation process is actually using computers and robots to handle a variety of processes and machinery in manufacturing plants and other industrial facilities. The ultimate goal is to completely replace the presence of human beings in manufacturing plants and make the operations easier and more efficient.

The initial purpose of industrial automation was to increase the productivity by working 24 hours a day and reduce labour costs. But that is not the case today. The industrial automation process has become known for increasing the quality and flexibility in any manufacturing process utilized. For example, in the automobile industry, when performed manually, the installation of pistons into the engine represents an error rate of 1-1.5%, but when performed using automated equipment, the error rate is only 0.00001%.

Industrial-Automation

With the help of an industrial automation process, health care costs, paid leave and holidays with human workers will be reduced and some even eliminated. Moreover, the automated machinery does not require additional worker benefits, such as pension coverage, monthly bonuses, promotion paycheck increases, etc. Despite the high purchase cost of the automated process, companies that use industrial automation can save a lot of money in the long run. Since automated machines are made to last, maintenance periods and costs associated with them are relatively low. And in case an automated system fails, only computers and maintenance engineers are able to repair it.

Most companies involved in manufacturing are hiring hundreds of human workers who work in three different shifts for all 24 hours. However, during maintenance and holiday periods, the plant needs to be closed. If industrial automation is utilized, the company can run just as efficiently as it does on regular week days. In other words, a manufacturing plant with industrial automation process utilized can run for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This surely leads to a great development and improvement of the company’s productivity.

With the error rate reduced, which can be quite high when human beings are working, an industrial automation process produces more quality products. Robots and automated machinery cannot get tired of working, which results in quality manufacturing at all times. Also, when there is a new task included in the manufacturing line, human workers need training to learn how to do it. On the other hand, robots can be easily programmed to perform any task. This makes any company involved in the manufacturing more flexible.