As the owner and operator of a job shop you have become an expert in the allocation of limited resources to get each job done as effectively and as economically as you can. You have to bid each job knowing that you will have to optimize the use of all the tools and resources that you have or can get to do the project and make a profit at the same time. It would be a great boon to your business if you could automate some or all the processes that your shop has to perform and keep your quality and production at a high level. Job shop owners do not have to break the bank to automate their business and get excellent results. Job shop automation can yield much improved production rates, reduced cost of production, and much higher employee productivity. It is a matter of looking at the current shop manufacturing processes and doing some planning to get very rewarding results in job automation.
You will need to do an in-depth analysis of the tasks that your job shop does now on a daily basis. Are any of these tasks a candidate for job shop automation? Do the employees of your shop do certain tasks over and over again routinely? If so you probably have tasks that are good candidates for job shop automation. The above scenario would be true if you have a limited number of repeat customers who order parts or products on a regular cycle. A job shop that has been in business for a while has all the expertise of job shop manufacturing that is required to be successful when making parts for its customers. Usually the customers that a shop would serve are in one industry and have a long standing relationship with the shop. This relationship has been built and become strong because of the ability of the shop to meet the needs of the customers at the time that the customers require quality parts. Scrutinizing the cycle of ordering from these customers will give you some well-defined answers about what job shop automation can do for your business. If your business does not do a significant amount of orders for repeat products you may still be able to automate some tasks like packaging or inspections. You will need to do effective planning to do so. You should employ the skills of an experienced solution provider to give you suggestions about what areas of your business could effectively be automated.
Knowing that you have a constant demand for products that you have an expert skill in making will allow you to have a dependable source of income for getting your return on investment for the automation that you want to put to work in your shop. Having the automation in place and running will then allow you to expand very quickly the customer base that you have. The automation will be able to meet an increase in demand for products that are similar to what you already produce. The long-standing reputation that you have developed with your current customers should be expanded with the addition of automation to your business. You will need to maintain the high level of quality and the speed of completion of projects that you had before automation came on-board. The productivity of each of your employees will go up with the addition of automation to your shop. You will be very pleased with the amount of production that a small number of well-trained employees can create with excellent automated help.
You may discover that business expansion could come to you in two major ways, an increase in the demand for current products from current and new customers, and new demands for similar products from new customers. It will be very satisfying to you to know that the increases can be handled with ease because of the capabilities that automation has brought to your business.
Our consulting engineers can answer any questions that you might have about the automation of your job shop or they can supply you with a no-obligation quote for automation. If you have questions about automation or you would like to request a quote for automation, please click the “Request a Quote” button below and fill out the form to submit your question or request.
