According to Techopedia “Automation is the creation and application of technologies to produce and deliver goods and services with minimal human intervention. The implementation of automation technologies, techniques, and processes improves the efficiency, reliability, and/or speed of many tasks that were previously performed by humans”. Industrial Process Automation can be surprisingly simple if you have the right devices, and the rewards can be substantial. Understanding the benefits and drawbacks of operations automation can help you build support for the project.
Why is industrial process automation important? The key advantages of automating activities are the decrease in operating costs, the increase in output, the improvement of inaccessibility, and the improvement in quality.
Benefits Of Industrial Process Automation
1. Reducing Operational Costs
2. Increasing Productivity
3. Increasing Reliability
4. Optimizing Performance
Reducing Operational Costs;
Every business is under global pressure to increase its profitability at a very minimum running cost. 5However, reducing the capabilities of available staff can have a negative impact on the entire company if a better substitute is not provided. Industrial process automation is a better and smarter way to keep operating costs down and keep them from going up. This is achieved by replacing human operator’s benefits and paid time off with Control and Supervisory Machines
Furthermore, other employee benefits such as bonuses, pension coverage, and so on are not required with industrial automation. For one thing, even though it’s an expensive up-front investment, it saves workers’ monthly salaries, translating into significant savings for the business as industrial automation machinery have lower maintenance cost.
Increasing productivity:
As your manufacturing organization grows, demand for products increases which gives rise to the question of how do you increase productivity in your organization?
Having industrial Automated operations can resolve these issues in several ways.
A manufacturing organization, for example, would need a conveyor system to aid the movement of goods from one place to another thereby reducing costs and human interactions in the plant which reduces the risk of accidents thereby increasing productivity in your organization.
Having an effective industrial process automation in your organization helps you increase productivity.
Optimizing performance:
There are quite a number of reasons why industrial automation is important. Automation reduces the amount of error that a human being would otherwise cause. Robots, unlike humans, do not suffer from fatigue, resulting in products of the same quality regardless of when they were made.
On the other hand, robots can be programmed to perform any task, unlike humans, who need to be trained to add a new task to the assembly line. In this way, the manufacturing process is more adaptable.
Increasing Reliability:
Automation is a clear plus for productivity. But the real gem that shines with automation is its reliability.
Let’s face it: off-shift operations include some of the most repetitive and error-prone jobs in a manufacturing company, but when people substituted, most batch processing errors go away.
Automated operations make sure that jobs don’t get missed or run out of order, that jobs that need to be done first are done correctly, and that any special processing is done.
Also, when you ensure proper maintenance solutions are put in place, you eliminate the possibility of downtime by this industrial automation.
Automation Challenges:
The benefits of automated industrial operations are higher productivity, reliability, availability, increased performance, and reduced operating costs. The benefits of automated systems can be a strong reason to help your end-users get better service, but it’s not an easy thing to do. There are many challenges associated with an automated process:
High Initial Cost:
When switching from manual production incurs high capital. Also, its high capital intensive to teach employees how to use this new, high-tech equipment.
However, cost savings is not the only motivation for automating industrial process design. But also on increasing end-user service. As the quality of this service improves as a result of automated industrial processes, so do the expenses.
Reducing Human Interaction
As automation becomes a reality, several personnel difficulties have surfaced. Industrial process automation is seen by many system operators as a direct threat to their livelihood. One of the simplest ways to fail at automation is to lack a strategy for dealing with employee concerns and controlling employee engagement. If an operations manager’s job is in peril, he or she can always find a method to avoid testing, evaluating, and implementing new automated procedures.
Furthermore, operation supervisors regard a reduction in the workforce as a direct threat to their job and standing.
No corporation wants to be known for terminating employees or for having a low-morale and fearful environment. However, some businesses are evolving at such a rapid pace that attrition is no longer an option.
The solution is to change the operating personnel’s role. Assign new roles to your operations staff, such as operations analyst or technician. As old positions become obsolete, new technology creates new roles with higher responsibilities. Companies must recognize this and make the best use of the talent they already have.
Would you like to improve your organization’s industrial processes? CaTS can help you improve productivity in your workplace by automating certain industrial processes. Click here to learn more
