When you work in the industrial manufacturing industry, efficiency is key. Whatever it is your facility is producing or fabricating, it needs to be made in a way that’s as affordable, quick, and consistent as possible. If you’re a business owner or operations manager, you’re aware of these facts first hand.
That’s likely why you’re reading this article: you want to know about all the possible ways you can improve your facility’s performance. There are a lot of things you could do, but only one that can tackle multiple inefficiencies at once: engineered automation.
What is engineered automation?
Engineered automation systems are a series of automation services that have been chosen, customized, and developed for a unique industrial facility or business.
How an automation service provider packages and delivers these services will depend on the service. At Summit Engineered Automation, we use a unique risk management analysis to help determine the exact needs (and related solutions) of any business that comes to us looking for automation support.
Our automation risk management system is a partnership with your team that focuses on iterative early design, collaboration, and communication. It’s goal is to create a truly engineered-for-you automation system that saves money, exceeds expectations, and addresses potential risks before they cause issues.
Engineered automation systems aren’t one size fits all because your facility isn’t one size fits all.
What are the main benefits of engineered automation systems?
We’ve spoken to the general benefits of a custom engineered system already, but there’s more they can do for your facility. If we dig a little deeper, we’ll find:
Engineered automation systems have less overall downtime. An automation system that has been custom developed for your facility is going to perform better than any alternative. This is because, from the beginning, risks and potential points of failure have already been addressed and accounted for. You don’t have to waste potentially productive time trying to adjust your existing system to fit an automation, because the automations will have been developed with you in mind.
They’re safer! An engineered automation system will be able to specifically tackle the highest risk tasks in your facility. When you have a system developed to fit your facility’s unique dangers, then you can easily shift your human workers to more specialized, less dangerous positions. You’ll save on payroll costs by only having human workers where they’re needed and you’ll keep your workers safer by having robots or other automations tackle high-risk tasks.
They’re the best way to optimize your processes. An automation system that’s been custom engineered for your facility is going to look more closely at your specific needs than any other. These systems are developed after looking at your products and processes and figuring out a plan that uses different automations to streamline your processes. Streamlined processes lead to more tasks being completed faster, more products being manufactured faster, and more money saved on both payroll and production.
Over time, engineered automation systems save money. Having a custom automation system developed has a distinct up front cost. There’s no denying that. The thing is, though, that these systems reduce so much wasted time, effort, and product over time that they’re able to quickly pay for themselves. Automation keeps payroll costs down by decreasing your reliance on direct labor. Processes streamlined by automation are more consistently correct, leading to less wasted materials. These types of systems, because they put machines and robotics in place of human beings, also reduce the costs associated with safety, risk, injury, and healthcare.
Modernizing methods of production with the assistance of engineered automation systems should be a part of any industrial businesses’ plan to stay competitive into the future.
If you’re interested in learning more about the engineered automation services offered by Summit Engineered Automation, feel free to contact us today. We’d love to start a discussion on how we can help your business automate its future success.