Industrial Automation Magazine India

There is a need to automate the inspection and quality process

Published on : Sunday 05-03-2023

Monish Shete, CEO, Elscint India Pvt Ltd.

Which are the three new technologies which would be interesting for factories to acquire and adopt? Why would it be attractive?
Robots and Cobots are a technology which should be acquired by most factories in India. It not only reduces manpower but also provides repeatability and accuracy to an operation. Most companies are worried about the cost implications of these technologies. However, one has to take a holistic view of the same. Companies trying to work on the RoI of such capital intensive technologies should not just look at the reduction in manpower but the fact that they improve not only the reliability of the components being manufactured but also their quality. There is always some human error which creeps in during repeated and monotonous operations. These new technologies are there to avoid these types of errors.
 
Another technology is IIoT which too needs to be adopted. IIoT not only increases efficiency tremendously by increasing productivity and uptime, but also reduces the time to market and errors which often creep into during regular work. With wide usage of 5G, IIoT would be widely adopted.
 
Are there any factories where this IIoT movement will take longer to reach? What can be the reasons for this? What needs to be done to accelerate their journey?
Except for process industries, in most places it will take a longer time to reach especially smaller MSMEs where mostly the management is concerned about the investment which needs to be made in these technologies rather than the gains which can be realised due to the same.
 
There are two work areas – bringing raw materials into the factory, and movement of work-in-progress inside the factory – where there is much scope for automation. Which technologies are relevant in this area for different types of factories?
Going into the future, for this AGVs are the best solution for movement of raw material and work-in-progress inside factories.
 
Additionally, most importantly, there is also the requirement of feeding of raw material to various machines as also the assembly of various components which require child parts to be handled. There is tremendous scope for automating these. There are many types of feeding systems which can be used for these applications, mainly vibratory bowl feeders, centrifugal feeders, hopper elevators and conveyors of various types which can be used for feeding of small parts which as mentioned can be used for feeding to machines as well as for assembly automation. This is an area which is mostly neglected by most factories and the savings in increased productivity as well as manpower savings are tremendous in this case. Assembly automation is an area which has not been explored by most MSMEs in India and this is something which is definitely relevant in the years to come.
 
Inspection and quality is a very important topic. It is no longer just good enough to execute these functions rigorously, now it is a necessity to show off that it is being done. In other words customers might wish to view that inspection and quality check are being executed.
Yes. That is correct and vision cameras are the best solution for this. This is another neglected area but is finding a lot of heft in the present day. Presently, inspection and quality is assumed to be the job of a quality inspector who checks the same parts day in and day out. This results in monotony creeping into the job. The only solution for this is to automate the inspection and quality process. Automating the same with the help of vision cameras or some fixturing needs to be definitely implemented on a large case. Further, it also requires handling of the parts automatically, which gets us to the earlier question of the requirement of feeding of the finished goods. Again, the earlier mentioned feeding systems like vibratory bowl feeders and centrifugal feeders can definitely aid in this too.
 
Robots are going to be a presence in the factory. But importantly, which functions are going to get robotised? For instance, would cleaning the shopfloor be an application to use a mobile robot?
Functions like the following should get robotised very soon:
•         Automatic machine loading
•         Machine unloading
•         Segregation
•         Transport
•         Handling, and
•         Assembly.
 
As you rightly said, robotic automation can be used in all functions right from cleaning of the shopfloor to the final assembly and testing of parts. This has a lot of scope, especially in the machine loading and unloading. This is something which all factories should explore in order to improve their productivity as well as to improve the quality of their products.
 
Robotic Process Automation – RPA is an exciting productivity tool. How many factories use this? Why don't others use it?
Presently, only a few large factories use this. However, this is definitely the way where the future is headed. The present mindset is that RPA is a very costly thing and not applicable for a country like India. However, this is not so and using RPA can help in reducing various supply chain processes, including data entry. This results in automating processes which are monotonous for most people and doing it more efficiently than what a human person will do. Additionally, the improvement in the quality and reliability of the process is something which needs to be explored.
 
(The views expressed in interviews are personal, not necessarily of the organisations represented)

Monish Shete is the CEO of Elscint Automation, a leading manufacturer of vibratory bowl feeders, part feeders and small part handling products in India.

Specialties: Complete sales, marketing, manufacture of Vibratory bowl feeders, special purpose part handling & assembly machines.