Industrial Automation Magazine India

Robotics can reduce labour costs and increase productivity in industrial manufacturing

Published on : Tuesday 02-04-2024

K Srinath, Vice President, Smart Manufacturing Business, Multivista Global Pvt Ltd.

What are the current global trends in the use of robots and cobots in manufacturing industries?

There is increasing interest in using automation, specifically robotic automation in manufacturing.  Supporting this, the International Federation of Robotics – IFR, in one of its reports states that robot usage is steadily growing for multiple years now and the average robot density in the manufacturing industry is 151 robots per 10,000 employees in 2022. This represents 1 robot for every 66 employees. Asia remains the largest market for industrial robotics with over 74% of all newly deployed robots, with Korea, Singapore, Japan and China as the primary adopters in Asia.  India made it to the list of ten countries with the highest annual robot installations. Ranking #10, our position would change within the next decade as robotics in India increases.

Innovation in robotics is also accelerating its adoption. The usage and development of Collaborative Industrial Robots (Cobots) are accelerating faster than ever and democratising automation. Many believe human and machine collaboration plays a paramount role in the development of Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

 

In what ways do robots and cobots contribute to increased efficiency and productivity in manufacturing?

Productivity, efficiency and quality form an extremely powerful combination that every manufacturer desires to excel. This is not a choice anymore in a competitive world. Having a robot involved in manufacturing operation, can quickly bring in improvements as unlike humans they don’t get distracted or defocused from their task and are able to work predictably and continuously without fatigue. Robotics can reduce labour costs and increase productivity in industrial manufacturing.

This is not the only reason for doing robotic automation and there are many other reasons. It solves many business challenges by multiplying human productivity by allocating dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks to cobots, attracting and keeping skilled manufacturing teams with fulfilling work and upskill opportunities, providing consistently high-quality parts with robotic precision and repeatability. Robotics can also prevent a recurrence of future plant shutdowns, in case of a pandemic or any other disturbance, as robotics allows industries to continue production while human controllers can monitor safely from the distance, or even remotely.

 

How can manufacturers effectively integrate robots and cobots into existing workflows? Do these replace human labour or create additional opportunities?

Collaborative Industrial Robots as a technology is of great help in assisting humans in the manufacturing industry. Cobots are equipped with advanced sensors for fine-tuned work. They are quick to learn from the people who use them, becoming great co-workers and collaborators. So integrating collaborative robots has been easy and fast to implement. Cobots are intuitive to use, easy to move, and capable of automating manual processes in many industries. This means cobots can help both your business and team reach their potential.

Would robots steal jobs, is an interesting question. As defenders of technology, we argue that every new wave of automation – from steam engines to computers – has led to fears that technology would ‘take over’ and render human workers superfluous; but in reality, it has resulted in net gains in job creation, not job losses, in the long term. It’s a fact that neither side can deny: some jobs will go, but robotic automation is a net creator of jobs. In the short run, some jobs will be displaced only for humans to take new roles that would emerge.

In manufacturing there is no cool job or cool place to work relative to many other professions and attracting talent into manufacturing has been a challenge. No one likes performing monotonous, repetitive, and strain-inducing jobs given a choice. Hence most people would be much relieved to have a robot co-perform such jobs and some of them would like to manage these robots instead of being the robot. There are many staff positions open that they simply cannot find enough people to work in manufacturing. Most manufacturers would relate to what I am saying here and hence automation is a solution.

As manufacturing becomes competitive, businesses expand, needing more people to work for them. The most optimal way to balance this resourcing for manufacturing would be to deploy people for the uniquely human skills they have and leave the rest of repetitive work to robots. Recent OECD studies suggest that less than 10% of jobs can be fully automated, thereby limiting the number of jobs robots are likely to ‘steal’ away from human workers. This opens up new avenues of automation with a combination of Humans with Robots. Growing demand for cobots is a clear indication of this trend and hence in future we are more likely to see humans and robots working together on the factory floor rather than humans being replaced altogether.

 

What skills are required for workers to effectively operate and collaborate with robots or cobots?

First is to adapt and accept robots are here to help workers and see cobot as their co-worker; then to upskill themselves to work with, and manage new technologies. This sentiment and perception is an important change. Manufacturers should encourage workers upskilling to work with modern technologies and going out of their comfort zone to learn new things like programming a cobot. Recognising and rewarding such employees making such shifts for the rest to follow.

 

How are manufacturers addressing the need for training and upskilling their workforce in the era of robotic automation?

Employees drive your company’s success. Your business depends on them. So, when employees understand how automation can help them, they do their jobs better. Helping people feel confident and comfortable is the first step to a successful automation implementation.

Manufacturers are aware of the importance of upskilling their employees. They also see this as a strategy for their retention as they know automation improves the work environment by making it safer and reducing injuries and repetitive tasks that can otherwise cause employee turnover.

Robotics offers employees the opportunity to upskill. Training them will allow them to become confident cobot operators. Job satisfaction increases as new skills are learned. Basic operation is within reach of most staff, while the keenest employees and cobot champions can learn to become advanced operators, taking your production to new levels.

 

How well do robots and cobots contribute to the flexibility and adaptability of manufacturing processes?

We are moving from mass production, to mass customisation to mass personalisation. Mass customisation is good, but consumers want more. Hungry for products, services and experiences with a ‘human touch’ that lets them express themselves, consumers want not just mass customisation, but mass personalisation. We see this and related trends that involve giving products and services an individualised ‘human touch’ accelerating, and we believe that a future ‘Industry 5.0’ will revolve around putting even more of the human touch back into products.

Flexibility and adaptability of manufacturing is key to enable mass personalisation. A well-designed robotic system brings in flexibility in your manufacturing for doing different tasks and enables you to scale to big improvement in your operations leading to mass personalisation.

 

In conclusion, the future is collaborative…

Industry 4.0 is a fascinating development in automation and is indeed worthy of its place in the history of the industrial revolutions that have taken place since the advent of water- and steam-powered mechanisation over a century ago. It is impossible to separate the birth of cobots from the evolution of robots in general and of robotic automation in particu­lar. Because of this, cobots share a history and many ideas with the whole universe that the term Industry 4.0 is currently used to cover.

Still, the fundamental collaborative nature of cobots – the fact that they are designed to collaborate with human operators instead of eschewing workers the way that Industry 4.0 would – places cobots somehow outside, if not diametrically opposed to, the Industry 4.0 worldview. This difference – the cobot difference – exposes some significant limitations to the concept of today’s Industry 4.0, and at least points to something beyond it. Some­thing that paves the way to Industry 5.0

 

(The views expressed in interviews are personal, not necessarily of the organisations represented.)

 

K Srinath is an experienced leader with over 30+ years working with manufacturing companies, engaged in innovation, change and transformation of manufacturing operations with technology. He is passionate in helping companies, especially discrete manufacturers, to digitally transform in innovative ways through the use of Industry 4.0 technologies and the companies that enable this capability. Srinath believes in order to enable such transformation for manufacturers, there is a need for collaboration between clients, technology developers, service providers (partners), co-worker, academy and industry evangelist and empowering them to achieve more. While all are important, one of the key elements of his focus since 2017 has been to enable service providers (SMEs) to professionalise their organisations to deliver value and growth with his leadership.

References

1. https://ifr.org/img/worldrobotics/Executive_Summary_WR_Industrial_Robots_2022.pdf

2. https://interestingengineering.com/how-industry-40-will-affect-the-life-of-engineers

3. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/the-risk-of-automation-for-jobs-in-oecd-countries_5jlz9h56dvq7-en