Usecase 4 Industrial Robot manufacturers

Key challenges.

You, or a supplier of yours, are planning to go for high-tech production automation and purchase manufacturing robots? Chances are, several suppliers have presented their solutions to you. The outlook seems rosy, and the decision leaves no space for doubt.

But have you considered the common challenges with manufacturing robots? Have you talked with other factories that have gone ahead with a similar initiative?

1. Time to Get the Machine to Operate Properly

The robot might not be immediately productive. You might need 2-3 months to get it running fine within its environment – not only training the operators and engineers on how to interact with it, but succeeding in setting it up properly. During these 2-3 months, you need to keep your current production line running and pay the operators doing the job.

2. Maintenance Needs

Manufacturers often forget about maintenance. They simply assume a new machine will remain in excellent condition, and they will find a way to repair it once it is down.

This is not exclusive to manufacturers. Here is how an American engineer described the situation in his company in the 1980s:

“All these wonderful machines performed their intended functions, on test, but when they were put into operation in our plants, with our people, they were out of business so much of the time for this and that kind of failure that our overall costs, instead of going down, went up. No one had evaluated the overall probable failure rate and maintenance. As a result, we were continually caught with stoppages and with not enough space parts, or with none at all; and no provision for alternate production lines.”