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Productiveness is an usually debated query in robotics. Is robotic productiveness actually higher than the productiveness of human employees?
Generally, the reply isn’t as clear-cut as you’ll first assume.
If you consider manufacturing robots, you in all probability visualize one thing just like the super-fast delta robots doing decide and place on manufacturing facility conveyors. Or maybe you visualize the quick, highly-accurate welding robots in automotive factories.
In these examples, it may appear apparent that such fast-moving robots would enhance the productiveness of these duties.
However, robotic productiveness isn’t at all times so clear-cut. The velocity of the robotic would not essentially translate right into a extra productive course of total.
Collaborative robots (or cobots) are an ideal instance of this. Cobots normally transfer extra slowly than standard industrial robots and may even transfer extra slowly than human employees.
Does their sluggish velocity imply that cobots are extra productive? Not essentially…
The definition of robotic productiveness
Robotic productiveness means the ratio of enter to output in manufacturing {that a} robotic cell can obtain. Like manufacturing productiveness it’s a measure of effectivity. The extra a robotic cell produces in a specific time interval, the extra productive it’s.
Nevertheless, the productiveness of a person robotic cell is just one side of productiveness. In case you had been to fixate on this measure of productiveness, you’ll seemingly prioritize the velocity of the robotic. However, simply because a robotic cell works sooner doesn’t suggest that your complete course of will essentially be extra productive.
You additionally need to keep in mind how robots have an effect on the general productiveness of your course of.
Robots generally is a key software for growing the productiveness of your manufacturing operations. However, they will solely do that in case you place the robotic at a bottleneck activity. We’ve seen many examples of conditions the place robots have been used to ease strain on a bottleneck activity. This has led to a rise in productiveness in your entire operation.
Human vs robotic productiveness: a fancy query
When folks see collaborative robots in motion for the primary time, they generally say “These robots transfer very slowly.”
They examine the velocity of the robotic with the velocity of their human employees or with different varieties of automation. They discover it exhausting to image how a slower-moving robotic might assist enhance their productiveness.
Let’s take an instance of a specific activity: stacking containers onto certainly one of two picket pallets.
How a robotic performs the duty
Image a robotic performing the palletizing activity.
A conveyor feeds the robotic cell with containers. The containers arrive at irregular intervals as they’re packaged by human employees beforehand within the line.
The robotic waits patiently for a field to reach. At any time when a field arrives, the robotic reads its label. If the label is pink, the robotic instantly locations it on the left pallet. If the label is inexperienced, the robotic locations it on the suitable pallet.
The robotic operates consistently with out breaks.
How a human performs the duty
On this case, a human employee is tasked with palletizing the containers. Because the containers don’t arrive in a short time, this employee additionally has an unrelated inspection activity that they carry out on the similar time.
The containers queue up on the finish of the conveyor. When sufficient of the containers have queued up, the employee rushes over from their inspection activity and begins palletizing the containers.
They need to verify the label of every field manually. They put the field on the proper pallet relying on the colour of its label. As a result of the employee is transferring rapidly, they don’t place the containers as precisely on the pallet because the robotic would.
Generally, numerous containers pile up on the conveyor when the employee hasn’t received time to do the palletizing or is on a break.
The result’s that palletizing could be very inconsistent. The standard of the palletizing suffers and the employee is at all times speeding to attempt to meet up with the duty even after they attempt to do the duty rapidly.
Which of those two programs appears extra productive to you?
When do robots enhance productiveness in a facility?
As you’ll be able to see within the instance above, the velocity of operation is not the one side of productiveness. Consistency additionally has a big impact on how productive the duty may be.
Robots enhance productiveness when they’re used for duties that people battle with within the first place.
Within the instance, palletizing isn’t a really appropriate activity for human employees. To palletize containers effectively, you’ll want to work repeatedly at a constant price and accuracy. Robots are at all times constant however people usually are not.
Staff usually see this potential themselves. One research discovered that 77% of individuals would welcome robotic help at work if it meant that the variety of guide processes decreased. As people, we excel at cognitive duties however extremely repetitive guide duties are simply not one of the best use of our abilities.
If you apply a robotic to a bottleneck activity that’s already not a great activity for a human, that is usually the place productiveness enhancements are most clear.
Hear from corporations which have used robotic productiveness the suitable approach
You needn’t take our phrase for it that robots can enhance your productiveness.
We’ve an entire assortment of case research of varied corporations which have used robotics to spice up productiveness of their facility.
An incredible instance of this in motion is the case research of how French producer Alliora elevated its productiveness with robotic palletizing. You may examine their experiences right here.
Do you suppose robots may be extra productive than people? Inform us within the feedback under or be a part of the dialogue on LinkedIn, Twitter, Fb, or the DoF skilled robotics group.
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