As a manufacturer of products you may have a need of automating your operation to make the work that is done in your plant more efficient and to reduce operating costs. Do not make the mistake of taking on the entire process of building the automation yourself, especially if you do not have experience doing that. For you to get the best result of lower costs and making your operation more effective you should engage the services of an experienced automation solution provider. Before you actually take the step of hiring a provider you can spend some time with your employees finding out what is the best area for automation from their viewpoint. You will probably already have opinions about where you think automation will best serve your company. From all these ideas you should be able to derive a plan of where you feel automation will best benefit you. It might be a good idea to use some planning software that will give you some graphic representation of automation layouts. Using the thoughts you have gathered and the graphics it will be easier for you to approach a solution provider. You can use your plan to help you determine if the provider that you are talking to can deliver the type of automation that you think that you need. A very experienced provider will be able to give you some guidance using the thoughts you have presented to them. This will a basis for beginning the conversation about what you want and need in your company. The experienced solution provider will be able to explain to you where your graphic may need adjustment and why the adjustment need to be made. The foremost goal of a solution provider should be to deliver your automation solution in the most economical way possible. Your center should be the operation of your business while the solution provider designs the automation to get your manufacturing operating as efficient as possible.
Detailed Definition Can Be Key to Proper Automated Vision System Selection
When you are thinking about adding some vision capability to your automated production it is important to do some in-depth definition of what is expected of vision before you are able to select the “best” system for you. The more that you scrutinize the needs you have, the environment where the system will work, and how you expect the vision to report back to you, the better off you will be when you actually go about selecting an automated vision system. You need to look in detail a the abilities of the system and match those up with the details that you have gathered about what you require of a vision system. It is not just a matter of sticking a camera over the production line and call it a vision system. All you end up with is a TV set for an operator to watch. If you do a lot of research about the abilities of vision systems and about what you need you will find that there is a wide range of abilities in vision systems that can bring cost saving features to your production. To get these positive features you will need to define such things as the details of what you expect from the system. Do you need effective inspection? How fine does the inspection need to be? What kind of environment will the device have to work in? How much will you expect the vision system to interface with human operators? Do you have the right staff to correctly support a vision system? All of these questions need details answers to get the best selection for your manufacturing operation. If you do not spend the time and money to do the research then you will not get a very good return for the money that you spend on an automated vision system.
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Avoid Automation Layout Mistakes With Layout Design Tools
Before charging headlong into the layout of your facility to upgrade it to the latest automation for manufacturing, it is a good idea to use some software facility layout tools that can help you avoid design mistakes. You will probably contact a solution provider to help you with the effort to build automation into your manufacturing operation. Even before you make the call to get the solution provider’s automation engineers out to your site to discuss your project, you should use some software tools to do some preliminary layout design. Using a software tool like SmartDraw or Delmia can give you a lot of benefits and give you a good track as to which way your thinking should go while you are working with the engineers to design your automation. First, using the tool can give you a general idea about where equipment should be placed in relation to other parts of the automation layout. You will be able to see if the design is anywhere close to the optimization that you really need when it is completed. This initial look at layout can be refined even further in that it can indicate where there might be problems with placements that you had thought would be best. These kinds of issues may sometimes not be easily realized when a design is just conceptual, but can be more easily seen when the concept is drawn, so all the equipment relationships can be seen. It easy to make adjustment to a software layout so that you will be closer to an optimum design layout when you talk to the automation engineers about what you need.
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Process Layout Gives Best Efficiency to Small Manufacturers
The process layout on the production floor can boost the efficiency of manufacturing for a small manufacturer. This layout is very good for effective handling of small batch product creation. A job shop is a perfect example of the type of operation that can benefit most from such a layout. This shop floor design allows all the work that is to be done by one work area of devices to be done on a batch of products before that group of products moves to a next group of devices to continue being completed. If a machine shop is in the business of manufacturing metal parts, the process layout gets all the products cut out at the cutting work area before all the products move on. An even greater efficiency can be attained if the batches have an automated way to move from one work area to another. Automation can only be economical if there is an effective ROI for investment in such devices. It can be noted that the job shop where an addition of automation is being considered is probably one that is interested in the growth factor that will move the operation from a small job shop to a larger manufacturer of products. The addition of automation as material handling for the operation will help the company to achieve the move that they require. Simple, inexpensive conveyor systems can be a great benefit in this regard without a huge expense.
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Process Layout Expedites Work for Small Manufacturers
The process layout for work areas in a small manufacturer is a great way for material movements to be optimized when production is done on small batches of products. Each work area of the plant floor is assigned for functions such as brazing, boring, milling, cutting, and the other functions. When a small batch of products is started in the manufacturing process, all the work that is required for that batch of products is done before any of the products move to the next phase of production. For instance, a batch of metal parts would first all be cut to specification before all the parts would be passed to the next work brazing work area. It is important to keep the inventory in-process to a minimum between work areas so that there is not an excessive use of the plant floor area that becomes storage and impedes processing. Scheduling of work in each of the work areas must be optimized to minimize the amount of inventory that is collected between work areas. There must be an efficient coordination of jobs that are going through the shop at any one time to avoid overload at any one work area and keep production moving at an effective pace. Movement of products from one work area to another must be kept at an efficient pace. Material handling can either keep production synchronized between each work area or it can become the reason that the company is not making money to poor material movement. If material movement is done right then the devices that are working on a given product will be kept busy and any downtime will be avoided. When automation is added to the production it is even more critical to deliver products efficiently from one work area to another.
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Small Robotics Make It Easy For Small Manufacturers to Compete
Small robotics have all the bells and whistles that the big robots do. That is what is making it easy for smaller manufacturers to compete with any other company that makes the same products that they do. The SCARA, Caresian, nad Gantry robotics can make production much more efficient for table-top operators. In addition to the full abilities these devices are easier to install and manage. In many cases there are not extensive training courses that are required to operate these machines. You do not need an automation engineer to purchase, set up, and run these devices and be productive doing it. Your manufacturing operation can eliminate all the manual stuff you have to do now that in fact turns out to be very inaccurate in some cases and causes a lot of re-work or expensive raw material scrap. You will make your employees more confident in their work, and they will be able to produce a lot more in the same amount of work time. Making small robotic automation a fact is much easier than you think. It is matter of you spending time determining the production tasks that you want the robotic to do for you. (You should pick out the one that will give you the greatest improvement for the overall production process.) Then you need to make an attempt at finding a device that will do this task most effectively. You may have to elicit the help of an expert to make the correct selection, but this expense will be more than paid for when your production is improved by automation. Once you have seen the improvement you gain, it will probably encourage you to pursue more automation to improve other tasks that are required in your manufacturing. If you are a small manufacturer you will be well on your way to becoming the strongest competition in your market place.
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Pick and Place Automation Can Be Fine Tuned
Pick and place automation is a very speedy way to move objects during your manufacturing process. The way to get the ultimate product and part movement in your production line is to use a single controller to coordinate device movements. Doing this will make it much easier for you to make the coordination to happen. In some cases multiple controllers have been used to talk to several automation devices that are involved in the pick and place automation operation. When this scenario is used there is a very fine line between coordination and disruption during production. Just as a practical assumption it makes sense to have the programming that controls pick and place automation to come from one source of instruction. There is no need to have to try to get the movements of multiple devices synchronized to work in the same space and not run over each other. Technology has pushed the capabilities of controllers to the point where a single controller can send instruction to more than one device, effectively coordinating their movements, and not have them run into each other. More important than this the controller is able to keep the instruction going to the devices at such a pace that they keep in tune with the production line and do not cause slowdowns. Combine these abilities with the lower cost of controllers and you have a package that can make a great positive contribution to your manufacturing operations. The controller for this pick and place automation solution can control up to 16 kinematics at a time, so it is very expandable if you choose to add functionality later. The footprint of a set of pick and place devices with their controller has become small enough to be used in almost any manufacturing process without causing a space issue.
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Keep Your Small Manufaturing Operation Competitive with Manufacturing Automation
You are a small manufacturer, but that is only the size of your business, it has nothing to do with the capability of your operation. If you apply the resources that are now available to your company, it will be possible for your manufacturing to compete on a level with any other manufacturer. That includes the ones that have very large budgets, and offices all over the world. As you already know technology has caused the world to shrink, but it has also made cost effective resources available to all businesses. Manufacturing automation has become more effective in producing products in a timely fashion, and automation devices have come down in price so that any business can have the production abilities that were once only available to the well-funded operations. As a small manufacturer your operation can compete as effectively as the big guys. It is up to you to identify the market place that you can sell your goods for a profit. That may be locally or it may be globally. You have to decide what is best for your business. Once you have determined that you will need to set up manufacturing automation to help you get goods into the selected market. As a small manufacturer you can remain competitive in any market that you target with the right combination of automation devices, an efficient distribution network, and the demand for you products in that market. You should be able to manufacture products at some cost level that is less that is than that of large competitors because of the economy of scale. Your business can operate in a more cost effective manner than a larger business can. Lower cost manufacturing automation can help you to get that lower cost production. You should be able to compete with any manufacturer in any market place.
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RFID Keeps Sharp Eye on Inventory for Manufacturing Automation
RFID or radio frequency identification has improved inventory management for manufacturing automation. In years gone by RFID has been used for the security checks made for vehicles entering and exiting plants. The device would work with a “reader” to determine when a vehicle had arrived in a plant. The tare weight of that vehicle was attained on arrival. The vehicle would be loaded with products in the plant, then it would be passed over a scale to find out how much product had been loaded on it. The difference between the tare weight and the loaded weight would give the amount of product that should be invoiced to the customer. Now RFID in automation is used watch inventory in warehouses. The memory of an RFID tag can hold a lot of information about an item. The tag is easily located by a “reader”, so the location of the item in the warehouse is easily determined. The combination of a RFID tag and a reader can keep up with how much inventory is available to be used in production. This combination is also very good about helping to know when more product needs to be ordered before the stock level runs too low. A lot of information can be stored on an RFID tag. Such info as the age of the item it is attached to in inventory, where the item came from, who shipped it, what is its age, and various other information. A reader does not have to be in “line of sight” to be able to have a conversation with an RFID tag. The reader just has to ask for the tag to wake up and it can “talk” to the tag.
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Pick and Place Automation Is Even More Capable
Pick and place automation has always been a very capable help in completing manufacturing of products. The earlier versions of this type of device scenario had a single pick and place robotic attached to a single controller. In a lot of cases a single pick and place device was not enough to complete what was required in a manufacturing situation. There was a need for more than one of these devices to get all the work done. So several pick and place automation devices had to be placed in a series to get the job done. This meant that the activities of each device had to be coordinated with the action of the other devices to prevent collisions during operations. Also each of the devices had to be synchronized so that what was completed by one machine was in sync with the tasks that were to be done by subsequent machines on the production line. These two problem areas could sometimes create continuing maintenance of the entire operation to keep production running smoothly. Technology has come to the rescue of such a scenario as this, in that now there are pick and place devices, three or more of them to be exact, that are bundled together with a single controller. This eliminates a lot problems and simplifies the process of installing multiple pick and place devices. In installation there are less cables that need to be strung, which takes up less space in the production area. As far as synchronizing and coordinating, there is far less effort in that area, since the devices are all driven by a single controller. The controller takes care of this. These bundle of devices has the ability to be expanded by adding more units to the controller. It is pretty certain that as time goes by technology will increase the numbers that can be included in the bundle, cut down the space that these devices occupy, and increase their ability to get the job done quickly.
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Automation Functions Add Support and Benefits to Manufacturing
Automation does not happen on its own. It does not operate on its own, even through it may shoulder a lot of the responsibility for making your plan run smoothly. Such a complicated group of tasks called automation requires that there be a group of tasks and devices that support it in order for it to be effective in accomplishing its work. There are some automation functions that happen before automation is in place, like, the selection process that occurs to determine what kind of automation will benefit the manufacturing operation the most. Another early function would be the task of identifying the right automation provider to help setup the right automation for your business. As automation functions are being added to your business some devices are put into place to act as support to the automation devices right from the start. These are such devices as lighting, shelving, and other environmental helpers. Once automation is running in your plant it is difficult to determine what devices are in a support mode and what devices are considered part of the automation itself. Devices like part feeders and conveyor belts do a lot of supporting, but they are primary to keeping the automation process working as it should, so they can be considered more than just support. If you look at the devices that are part of any automation function you will see that most of the devices are supported by other automation devices that precede them in the production line. Also any given device will act as a support for subsequent devices in the production flow of work.
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Assembly Automation Contributes to Manufacturing Efficiency
Assembly automation can contribute the most to any manufacturing operation. Improvements to manufacturing by assembly automation are usually done under the very specific requirements that are set up by companies for stringent high production rates, quality product creation, and low maintenance of equipment. More and more businesses are using assembly automation as part of their on-going movement to production improvement and reduction in costs of production. Assembly automation can readily reduce the risks that are involved with product manufacture. The automated handling of products and parts cuts down on the amount of breakage that occurs in the manual handling of these objects. There is an overall reduction in cost because of the reduction in the need for rework of products that have been damaged or improperly assembled. Changeover times for work cells in an assembly work cell are often less due to the ease of set up for these types of equipment. Usually this kind of device is designed to be involved in the production of a family of products, so there is an ease of changeover to the next family member for production sake. Manufacturing efficiency most always goes up when the assembly work cell is placed in the production mix, and it has been optimized to work with its product6ion counterparts. Having the assembly process remove the tasks from human operators is another healthy contributor to an increase in production rates. Ease of changeover for the assembly cell comes from an easy loading of programs into the memory of the controller that tells the assembly cell what to do. After there is a library of programs that have been tuned for the products that are made in this production line, a lot of the changeover amounts to the uploading of the appropriate program to the controller when a production job is about to start. Your business should consider this production scenario if there are areas of your production that need to be made more effective.
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Protect Your Pharmacy With Automation Equipment
You should take the initiative and protect your pharmacy with a system of automation equipment. You probably have already heard about some of the major errors that have occurred in pharmacies where prescriptions are filled manually. Those are the pharmacies that do not have automation to do all the grunt work of pulling drugs and counting them to fill each prescription. If you have a high volume pharmacy that puts out prescriptions by the hundreds everyday, then you are more prone to have mistakes creep into more and more of the prescriptions that are filled by your staff. Just think about it practically, it is early evening and you are about to close your pharmacy for the day. You have filled several hundred prescriptions during this day and verified about the amount to sell to customers. You know as well as anybody that the longer the day gets the tougher it is to concentrate on each filling with the same intensity that you did at the beginning of the day. You may have interruptions that cause you to turn away from the current filling that you are doing. Your eyes get tired. It only takes one major miscue in filling a prescription to have your entire pharmacy be in jeopardy of legal action. Can you imagine what a legal action would do to your business and personal life. If a customer sues you because you did not fill their prescription correctly. Well I think just this single scenario is a good reason for you to look seriously at automation equipment for your pharmacy. Maybe you have already had a close scrap in which someone said they were going to sue or are in the process of suing you now. That is even more reason to get a protection barrier up around your pharmacy, provided you have one left after you work your way through the court system. This is real food for thought!
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You Don’t Have to Build an Automated Production System All At Once
Some manufacturers feel that in order to have an effective automated production system they must totally plan and implement the entire system at once. This is just not true. It might be the best step for you to move toward manufacturing automation by taking smaller bites at first rather than trying to eat the whole enchilada in one bite! That is an awful large amount to chew and swallow! It is a far better practice, in some cases, to get your feet wet with automation on a smaller scale before you try to tackle automating the entire plant. Setting up a series of independent work cells is a good way to start. Each cell can accomplish a given production task. The movement of materials between the work cells, if you decide to set up more than one, can be done manually. Doing this will give your employees some exposure to automation and how it can benefit the work that they do. This scenario will also give you a chance to evaluate some automation functions without sinking a large amount of cash into the task. You will begin to learn how to manage automation. You should be inspired to think of other ways that automation can add productivity to your manufacturing operation. Having some of your production done by automation will reduce the amount of manual work that is required to create products. Your investment in automation can grow as your learning and your need for automation grows. In a perfect world your company would have a growing demand for the products that you make, so that you could increase your productivity with automation. The is an unlikely case, so you will have to determine the rate of production growth that you need by increasing your automation abilities. At some point you will be able to connect the work cells in your operations together with automated processes to transfer work-in-process from one cell to the other. You may also have to upgrade some of the cells in your production line to other devices. This may be as a result of what you have learned in your initial automation implementation.
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Programmable Automation Controller Does More Than Programmable Logic Controller
The programmable automation controller and the programmable logic controller both work in the same area, that is automation. They both are similar in that they are both programmable, but I guess that is where the similarity starts to diverge. The PLC has been around for a very long time. It abilities were cutting-edge when it first came along. This device is able to send commands to other devices so that they can perform automated functions and complete task with very little intervention from humans. Pretty good stuff! But you know how it is, as time goes by all these PLC’s get improved upon by technology. Humans are never satisfied with just completing a task, they have to have things done faster, and a PLC must be able to talk to mor5e than one or two devices, it needs to speak fluently with a lot of devices. And, oh, by the way it needs to do this very, very quickly. Technology had the pressure put on it to come up with a controller that would perform multiple tasks at the speed that humans demanded. Enter the PAC. I guess the key to the capability of a PAC is its middle name which is automation. The PAC is that device that can control all the goings-on in an automated production line, while the older PLC was limited to a smaller amount of responsibility. Production lines are now dependent on the PAC for the responsiveness, accuracy, and repetition that are required of production lines now. The PAC will handle error situations and manage processing in manufacturing with missing a beat. Though still in use in many operations, the PLC has been limited by the wide spread use of PAC’s in manufacturing. I expect that PLC’s will not go away completely, but their existence has been curtailed somewhat by this newer PAC.