Enhancing the Efficiency of Manufacturing Systems

Manufacturing systems are an intelligent mix of men, materials and machines that work in tandem to produce goods. Automating this predominantly manual system has proven to be quite beneficial, especially from an economic perspective.

Automating manufacturing systems can be done in different ways. While the use of robotic systems help replace human effort involved in highly critical and dangerous operations, other components such as sensors, actuators, programmable logic controllers and human machine interfaces computerise the operations, offering a greater degree of control over real-time production.

Manufacturing Systems – Types and Possible Automations

Manufacturing systems ideally comprise three main stages: raw material intake, transformation, and finished good or WIP output. It is possible to suitably automate each stage of the process depending on industry-specific requirements as well as the type of manufacturing process.

While automating flow or continuous manufacturing systems may involve controlling the parameters that govern the process, discrete manufacturing systems often require robotic systems for welding, assembling, material-handling, cutting, machine-loading, etc.

Working to achieve the best critical path or total product cycle time for the transformation of raw material to the finished good is key to automating flow manufacturing systems. On the other hand, agile manufacturing systems responding to ever-changing customer requirements will be able to suitably address such demands with an automated system.

Irrespective of the industry or type of manufacturing process, automations help enhance productivity and efficiency of manufacturing systems, cutting down lead time and improving customer satisfaction. Teaming up with a knowledgeable and reliable industrial automation solutions provider to identify, install and maintain the required components can help meet production targets in a timely manner.

Why Automate a Production Line?

Automating a production line – in any industry, for that matter – has distinct advantages. The following are a few:

• Enhanced process efficiency and speeds.
• Ability to scale up production based on demand spikes.
• Consistent production settings across several batches or across time.
• Repeatable, yet accurate operations.
• Easier to locate the point of failure and remedy the issue.
• Improved safety at the workplace.
• Cost-effective labour (costs associated with hiring and training new resources usually take a cut). There is always a possibility to use existing labour in more productive ways.
• Being able to keep closer tabs on the quality of goods manufactured and fine-tune the process to achieve the standards professed or required.
• Reduce wastage incurred during the production process. Automation can help segregate by-products effectively and output that does not meet specifications can be put to better use, as long as the quality of the final product is not compromised in any way.
• Last but not the least, keep pace with if not out-pace competition.

Automated industrial solutions can, in fact, be effectively integrated with digital business systems to track progress in a more centralised manner. It is possible for companies to closely track inventory, asset utilisation, product quality, labour costs, order fulfillment and several other important aspects that have a direct impact on ROI. Automated systems can also respond to structural modelling, simulations and computer-aided design.

manufacturing systems