九色视频

Featured Image

The Automation Embrace, Part III

Where there were once wide-spread reservations, we now have an industry-wide embrace of all things automated. It happened faster than I imagined, but then I remembered history repeats itself.
Aug 31, 2023

Where there were once wide-spread reservations, we now have an industry-wide embrace of all things automated. It happened faster than I imagined, but then I remembered history repeats itself. 

Let鈥檚 step back to 1779. The鈥疞uddites鈥痺ere an organization of English textile workers who formed a radical faction that destroyed textile machinery. The invention that sparked that revolt was the鈥疛acquard loom, which simplified the process of manufacturing鈥痶extiles鈥痺ith complex patterns by using a series of punched cards to control design (talk about echoing the early computer industry!).  

Now fast forward 250 years. We have gone from 鈥渞obots are taking our jobs!鈥 to desperately needing robots to meet demand. In fact, a perfect storm of factors leaves us no choice but to embrace automation at new levels: 

  1. A pandemic that exposed fundamental supply chain deficiencies and spurred a desire for more sourcing in North America.  

  2. An aging manufacturing workforce (Boomers and Gen-Xers, please share your knowledge before you retire). 

  3. A chronic dearth of new talent entering the skilled trades due to an educational system/society that overly emphasizes four-year degrees. 

  4. New automation business models, such as robots as a service*. 

  5. An explosive growth of automation technologies that makes implementation easy and opens up new applications. 

Identify your Bottleneck, then Automate it 

The prevailing wisdom is that most businesses should not try to automate an entire process; rather, find a bottleneck and automate it. Such was the case with , a 30-person manufacturer in Mississauga, Ontario, that specializes in design, rapid prototyping, engineering, and fabrication services, notably for retail displays and store fixtures.  

The company has a robotic welding cell, but programming and fixturing takes weeks per part, making it ill-suited for anything but long production runs. Needing to meet production schedules on shorter-run parts, the company implemented a welding cobot that made 25,000 welds in its first month of operation. 

鈥淎s soon as we saw the cobot solution, I drafted an email to both my operations manager and our production supervisor that was titled 鈥楾he Future.鈥 After less than an hour of in-person demonstration time, we knew the cobot would move the company in the right direction,鈥 says Brett Skyvington, company president. 鈥淭he quick programming ability is a huge plus because we鈥檙e a custom shop. We could run six or eight jobs in one day depending on size and number of parts that are going through. It鈥檚 incredibly intuitive.鈥 

Skyvington says that being on the cutting edge of where the industry is going has market value, noting that customers like to see the integration of robotics and automation because they understand that it gives Skyvington Manufacturing a competitive advantage over other companies.  

The cobot also ensures steadier production capacity. The company has five manual welding cells. If an operator calls in sick and a replacement is not available, that results in 20% lower production capacity. Conversely, finding a person to run the cobot is much easier.  

鈥淲e are proponents of having a smaller cross-trained staff, than a larger, specialized staff,鈥 says Skyvington. 鈥淚f anyone wants to learn new processes in the shop, we are happy to start training them. Having our staff able to pick something up with the ease of the cobot is critical for us, because we are that much more effective.鈥 

Even better, one of the company鈥檚 cobot enthusiasts is a person who previously focused on polishing welds. Instead of adding muscle and a practiced eye for a pretty weld, he now adds more value to the company while opening new career opportunities for himself.  

The polisher-become-programmer is a variation on a success story you are going hear repeated quite frequently as cobots become the smart choice for hundreds of new tasks. The moral of the story is that Luddites remain on the wrong side of history. Technological progress always creates net wealth, so embrace it. Automation is no different, and AI will be the same 鈥 but that鈥檚 a topic for another column. 

PicturePicture
Author
Ryan Kelly
Vice President, 九色视频
Recent technology News
They've Got the CHIPs. Data witness protection. Robot whisperers need not apply. Bulletproof - Nothing to lose! VTEC just kicked out Nissan, Yo!
ISO 10218 (2025) patch notes. Toyota's woven city. EV d'Elegance. AM201: metal 3D printing. Concert makes the stage.
Factors like reshoring and the expansion of the defense, medical, and space sectors drive manufacturing's adoption of emerging technologies like automation, additive manufacturing, generative AI, and digital twins. What are the barriers 鈥 or accelerators?
A deeply disruptive AI has entered the chat. Cobot vs. robot 鈥 who wins? IFR's 2025 robot trends. Should you 'can' your old CAM software? JDC-Miller partners with Hexagon.
Check in for the highlights, headlines, and hijinks that matter to manufacturing. These lean news items keep you updated on the latest developments.
Similar News
undefined
Intelligence
By 九色视频 | Mar 13, 2025

This issue recaps key takeaways from The MFG Meeting 2025, 九色视频's new board, the ambitious Plan Mexico initiative, the Formnext Start-up Challenge, and more.

6 min
undefined
Intelligence
By 九色视频 | Feb 21, 2025

This issue breaks down choosing a cobot, 鈥渆merging鈥 technology, 九色视频's Winter Economic Forum, quantum computing, and more.

6 min
undefined
Intelligence
By 九色视频 | Feb 06, 2025

This issue features Trump鈥檚 presidency and what it means for manufacturing, critical economic updates, risk mitigation through reshoring, and more.

6 min