Chris Stergiou’s Post

Manufacturing Automation – Signals Signals to Automate are visible to the naked eye! -- Confirmation with real data collection is critical to making informed decisions of course ... BUT ... for many SME operations, a walk through the manufacturing floor is the FIRST and MOST important signal that it's time to Automate. Before rushing out to invest in new MES, IoT and other Data Collection systems, that money may be better spent on observing the process to identify clear opportunities to increase PRODUCTIVITY through Automation! -- "Surveying the plant, it is often easy to “see” assembly automation opportunities in non core manufacturing steps that have remained mostly manual or with minimum automation. A typical signal is a manual operation performed at several manual or semi-automated stations on a product family. These can be assembly or adjustment steps, packaging or secondary processing steps. The product may be produced upstream with high speed, automated equipment, (molding is a good example), and this may be the final manual step, (degating, secondary finishing or mechanical assembly). Management’s response to this capacity challenge is often a fluctuation of labor to meet demand, leading to significant added costs and other inefficiencies. “Throwing bodies” at the capacity problem as it were. Inefficiencies include labor cost variations and availability, quality variations and personnel training and turnover challenges. Another indicator for an opportunity to automate is that final, highly skilled operation that is so specialized and operator dependent that only a limited number of employees are qualified to perform this crucial manufacturing step. This often leads to lack of predictability as well as dependence on a select few members of the team while cross training becomes difficult and costly, especially when an employee leaves and that specialized knowledge leaves with him/her. In these and other examples, the assembly steps may be manual or semi-automated simply because the status quo has been accepted with no manufacturing engineering or management investigation into further custom automation of that particular process, which could decrease overall costs. The problem is seldom technical, but rather managerial, as competing priorities for scarce capital let this low hanging fruit “die on the vine”, having never been identified." -- Do you observe the manufacturing process to "See" Automation needs? Your thoughts are appreciated and please SHARE this post if you think your connections will find it of interest. 👉 Comment, follow or connect to COLLABORATE on your automation for increased productivity. Helping with the WHY, WHAT and HOW of Automation! Reach out if I can help with your Funded Project, or just chat! https://lnkd.in/ej-FFrc4 #industry40 #automation #productivity #robotics #innovation

Manufacturing Automation – the ROI trap Setting the right goal is more important than how long it takes? Allocation of scarce capital for long-term returns is challenging and calculation of ROI in automation is a time-honored part of the ritual. Like a red herring, intended to be a filter of proposals, it’s often "observed in the breach" by either the team proposing the automation or the “decision makers”. With INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY the only goal, does it really matter if the returns take 12 months or 36? Done right, it's a PERPETUITY! Regardless of number more important is how the ROI is calculated and WARNING SIGNS that it’s not a good investment may include: -         A laundry list of quantified micro-benefits, usually all derivatives of increased but insufficient productivity and CIRCULAR logic. -         Not understood/controlled process with the automation promising to bring it in CONTROL. -         No systems view of the entire value stream with understanding of PRODUCTIVITY, upstream and downstream. -         The inclusion of some strategic TRANSFORMATION to a theoretical “future state”, setting the stage for OPEN ENDED further investments to realize the benefits of any. -         Other ASPIRATIONAL benefits imagined. To be fair, weaving a strategic VISION into decision making, even flawed, is a REQUIREMENT but the particular project has to deliver tangible and recognizable benefits, measured in PRODUCTIVITY. Given REAL productivity gains, like advice given to a colleague or young person considering going back to school but saying, “I’ll be 35 when I finish the degree.” The hackneyed but TRUE reply IS, “How old will you be without the degree?”. The ROI is simply a calculation of the installment plan on how to pay for the automation, NOT, a determinant of whether to proceed with the investment. That decision is driven solely by PRODUCTIVITY! Otherwise, why would we have APPROVAL cycles? and all investments meeting or exceeding some standard ROI would proceed automatically. Setting the right goal is more important than how long it takes? -- "Whereas the ROI calculation tells us how long it takes for a particular investment/project to pay for itself through the substitution of capital for labor, the productivity measure tells us if a particular investment of scarce capital changes/improves our TOTAL productivity or might we be creating an automated Sub-Optima with no real gain in productivity and perhaps, worse yet, a decrease in productivity." -- Is ROI the key determinant of your automation? Your thoughts are appreciated and please share this post if you think your connections will find it of interest. 👉 Comment, follow or connect to COLLABORATE on your automation for increased productivity. https://lnkd.in/eQx35FND #industry40 #automation #productivity #robots  

Manufacturing Automation – the Impact Like a square peg looking for a round hole, ALL Automation that starts from the technology solution is DOOMED to under-deliver or even fail! -- Total Economic Impact, (TEI), is a retroactive review of a deployed solution to see WHAT if ANY impact it's had on the bottom line. Usually "half baked" by the solutions provider, presenting cherry picked use cases, documented with attributable user quotes, implicit in this is that two processes are the SAME, even if from the same industry or the same product. They NEVER are! At the local level, this study can be performed on an executed Automation project to see IF and HOW it has met the promised ROI and most important, how it's impacted PRODUCTIVITY, the true "economic impact". Quickly we'll find that technology AGNOSTIC solutions have the highest impact and these will generally be Application Specific, CUSTOM Solutions, NOT General Purpose Solutions. Like a square peg looking for a round hole, ALL Automation that starts from the technology solution is DOOMED to under-deliver or even fail! -- "Manufacturing Automation needs both Functionality and Efficiency! Manufacturing automation is not only about labor replacement. The real economic value comes from significantly increasing the productivity of the remaining, higher cost, labor and overall, significantly lowering the total cycle time from manufacturing inputs to manufactured product outputs.  As such, if we only capture the labor reduction benefits without significantly increasing total productivity, we will have simply swapped capital for labor and increased the remaining labor skill levels, perhaps a net “wash” and missing the automation opportunity. A general-purpose solution is more likely to result in the net “wash” or zero-sum automation ... Examples where too much of one attribute vs. not enough of a needed attribute ... can include: -         Needing a higher payload capacity will increase the footprint and envelope... -         Meeting a faster cycle time requirement, if possible, might mean swinging an arm around at high speeds, ... -         Meeting the two requirements of speed and payload can require using a higher number of axis ... -         Most of the motions and strokes available in a general-purpose solution are either not needed ...." -- How do you measure the economic impact of your Automated Solutions? Your thoughts are appreciated and please SHARE this post if you think your connections will find it of interest. 👉 Comment, follow or connect to COLLABORATE on your automation for increased productivity. Adding value on the WHY, WHAT and HOW of Automation! What are you working on that I can help with? https://lnkd.in/eSM3pUbd #industry40 #automation #productivity #robotics

Manufacturing Automation – the Extras In Automation, features and functionality you will never use add COSTS, COMPLEXITY and maintenance HEADACHES? -- Starting with the User Requirements Specification and proceeding to the discussions, both the end-user and the supplier inadvertently start to BURDEN the automation with functionality and features that go beyond what is needed, adding cost and complexity. Not necessarily a conscious act but driven by a combination of FOMO and UNCERTAINTY about future needs, each have different motivations: The supplier naturally wants to minimize the product variations offered and builds in FLEXIBILITY and ADJUSTABILITY so as to have a larger target market without incurring further engineering costs for their GENERAL PURPOSE solution. The end-user is persuaded that the market will surely evolve in the future and the next generation networking, flexible/reusable robot, or I4.0 connectivity are all best required in this new machine so as to be ready for that UNKNOWN future. However, that speculative FLEXIBILITY comes with: - Increased costs, better spent on the core functionality, if at all. - Increased footprint and other machine infrastructure burdens. - Increased technical support complexity impacting worker skills required. - Increased complexity impacting system reliability. - Increased process infrastructure required to even harness this flexibility. Starting with the bare bones, specific requirement and proceeding outwards as functionality dictates while avoiding FEATURE CREEP will invariably yield a simpler, cleaner and more robust solution. In Automation, features and functionality that you will never use add COSTS, COMPLEXITY and maintenance HEADACHES? -- "In Summary: Pick and Place applications abound in manufacturing operations and depending on our product volumes and industry, these applications may require varying levels of automation flexibility. While we increasingly see robot arms used in these applications, before we specify a robotic solution we might spend the time to evaluate more “mundane and boring” solutions which are based on time proven custom automation rubrics that call for fixed-location-orientation pick and place locations with short travel strokes. If that's achievable we will end up with simpler systems that are faster and offer lower complexity in terms of technology used such as the need for vision and variable travel paths of the product transfer function." -- How do you prevent FEATURE Creep in your automation? Your thoughts are appreciated and please SHARE this post if you think your connections will find it of interest. 👉 Comment, follow or connect to COLLABORATE on your automation for increased productivity. Helping manufacturers with the What? and How? of Automation! https://lnkd.in/e_6aDkPJ #industry40 #automation #productivity #robotics

Manufacturing Automation – Missing Ingredient "Automate everything" isn't right sized Automation! -- Covid served as a catalyst to "automate everything" and some AMAZING and other RIDICULOUS contraptions emerged in many applications and especially in manufacturing. As if taking the human worker TOTALLY out of the loop was not only the GOAL but a NECESSITY as we were all going to be WFH forever, going forward. Understandable digression perhaps but long since debunked as not only IMPRACTICAL, but more important, NOT PRODUCTIVE! Time to put the human worker back into the manufacturing process, with simple and reliable PRODUCTIVITY enhancement tools! -- "Automate the Process Not the Worker! The advent of collaborative robots, “cobots”, in the last few years has opened possibilities for introducing manufacturing automation to SME, (Small Manufacturing Enterprises), and has gotten quite a bit of attention. The thinking has been that automation has been slow to be accepted by SMEs and deployed in small manufacturing and job shops due to the high costs and complexity involved with traditional custom automation and that the lowered costs and reduced complexity of the cobots will attract more manufacturers to benefit from manufacturing automation. This, the thinking goes, will increase investments in manufacturing automation and improve productivity. Is this true? In many cases, smaller manufacturers have indeed taken the plunge and invested in some of this type of automation and the anecdotal evidence is that in many cases this has resulted in more streamlined operations and reduced labor costs as many repetitive tasks have been automated. What has also emerged is that the total costs of these deployments are usually higher than simply the price of the cobot, as much as 3-4 times higher depending on the application and that the deployment of these automated cobot solutions involves significantly more than simply unpacking the cobot and manually “teaching” the motions and actions involved. To counter this, the cobot suppliers have encouraged a “baby steps” approach so that the SME not only benefits from the first deployment but also starts a learning process and develops the soft skills which are always necessary in benefiting from manufacturing automation." -- Are you automating the Worker or the Process? Your thoughts are appreciated and please SHARE this post if you think your connections will find it of interest. 👉 Comment, follow or connect to COLLABORATE on your automation for increased productivity. Helping with the WHY, WHAT and HOW of Automation! Reach out if I can help with your Funded Project, or just chat! https://lnkd.in/exQ2e7PS #industry40 #automation #productivity #robotics #innovation

Design so your end user can get to what they need with three clicks or taps. Ain’t no one got time for digging deep to find their data and the more complex something is the less likely it is to be adopted. Of course all this goes out the window for engineers, we can always go deeper.

Manufacturing Automation – the Why There’s no General Purpose answer to the Why? Each manufacturing process is a unique evolution for any manufacturer and although the product being produced may be common, the process represents the confluence of many factors over time, native market conditions and historical economic forces that have shaped it, including: -         Industry being served. -         Regulatory requirements. -         Specialized labor inputs required. -         Evolution of the target market over time. -         Capital intensity of the industry. -         Other macro-factors that serve as the background “weather”. As such, each manufacturer, especially SMEs, have weathered these factors in some common ways but always with DISTINCT features whereby the scarcity of one input has necessitated compensation with another to results in UNIQUE recipes as a permutation on a common objective and these can be observed in the process as: -         Unique works flows. -         Distinct physical process sequences. -         Custom mix of automation and labor. -         Disparate levels of technology deployed. -         Particular skill levels of the labor used. The deployment of automation under these circumstances necessitates an understanding of the full underlying process AS IT IS and in can’t be approached with general purpose solutions as that would imply a “ONE SIZE FITS ALL” solution that may be too much of something not needed for the process while being insufficient in other requirements. Answering the Why? Is the first and most important step in the automation process and from that answer will flow the CUSTOM SOLUTION that addresses the core strategic reason to automate, PRODUCTIVITY, the inputs to which are only known and understood by the END USER himself. While external advisory resources, if needed, can help navigate the process to answering the WHY, starting with the solution first is unlikely to lead to an answer any more that filling the shopping cart with random ingredients at the market is likely to result in having the ingredients to making a good stew. It takes a little more reflection as it's unique to that process. There’s no General Purpose answer to the Why? -- “If we consider the “all-in Total Costs”, we might say, the general-purpose robot is where an Automation System Design ends up, Not where it Starts!” -- What has your experience been with answering the Why? In Automation? Your thoughts are appreciated and please share this post if you think your connections will find it of interest. 👉 Comment, follow or connect to collaborate on developing automation for enhanced productivity. https://lnkd.in/ep7Z9eEK #industry40 #automation #productivity #robots    

Manufacturing Automation – Distraction Automation is ALWAYS Specific, so why use a General Purpose Solution? -- Enticed by the promise of lower Costs, (usually not the case), internally at the local machine level or at the process level, General Purpose solutions have proliferated as the "go to" option. Arguments FOR include: - Flexibility - Re-deployability - Keeping up with technology - Creating higher skill jobs - Other marketing slogans Nothing to do with the application and Seldom any mention of: - Increased Total Costs - Productivity - Slower Speeds & Performance - Increased Total Costs - Increased maintenance complexity - Increased footprint - Increased safety requirements Manufacturers might do well to compare General Purpose solutions with Application Specific solutions! -- "Unique problems require unique solutions! A word about costs. A general purpose robot is a pre-engineered system, presumably built at some scale with various configurations and options available. As such, one would expect and is usually the case, that, a single “one off” design and build of a particular version would be/is cost prohibitive vs. purchasing it off the shelf. Of course, our objective in designing and building a manufacturing automation system for a particular application is not that! The objective is to meet the requirements of the application functionality and to do so, efficiently. In meeting the constraints of functional and efficient, our design is free to combine any combination of axes intelligence and merge structural and functional aspects of the design to result into a compact, robust and reliable solution. As such, more often than not, a robot application, whether conceived or already deployed, can be replaced with a custom configuration robotic system which will decrease footprint, increase reliability, increase throughput and be more cost efficient on a total basis. Further, since a custom system has all the design flexibility needed, it will capture all the value of automation to begin with and any increased costs are more than recaptured through the incremental value captured, ... If we consider the “all-in Total Costs”, we might say, the general-purpose robot is where an Automation System Design ends up, Not where it Starts!" -- What has your experience been with General-Purpose Robot solutions vs. Custom Solutions?? Your thoughts are appreciated and please SHARE this post if you think your connections will find it of interest. 👉 Comment, follow or connect to COLLABORATE on your automation for increased productivity. Helping manufacturers with the WHY, WHAT and HOW of Automation! Reach out if I can help with your Automation or Funded Project! https://lnkd.in/ervTVABN #industry40 #automation #productivity #robotics #innovation

Manufacturing Automation – Misalignment Misaligned automation is worse than no automation! The hodgepodge of AVAILABLE "solutions" for adding automation to the process, makes it easy to take a manual process that may or may not be in control and throw it into DISARRAY by focusing on either automating the WRONG STEP OR deploying automation that is INCONGRUENT with a common objective. Much like tuning the carburetor of a car engine rather than tuning the engine itself! Examples of WRONG automation, most often TECHNOLOGY driven, might include: -         Automating the worker rather than the process. -         Using IoT to instrument irrelevant 2nd or 3rd order inputs that have little to no impact on a controlled or predictable process. -         Deploying complex MES systems before having a full understanding of the process with old fashioned documentation, creating complex training disruptions for the workers. -         Deploying autonomous materials transfer devices without first rationalizing workflows … sometimes as simple as moving a pallet of raw inputs next to the point of use. -         Pursuing complex solutions which violate the dictum: “Man does perception and dexterity functions, while Machine does power and precision functions. -         Artificial, vendor driven STANDARDS for hardware, software and methodologies which burden the process with excessive COSTS and COMPLEXITY in the name of “ease of maintenance”. -         Other permutations of trend driven solutions; not native to or flowing from the process but are presented as panaceas from the automation vendor base. For SMEs, the sole objective of increasing PRODUCTIVITY to improve competitiveness, automation that flows from the process itself as it organically evolves will ALWAYS yield better results. To be certain, these solutions will involve some of the technologies on offer BUT at all times these are nothing more than the tool kit available to the automation designer and not the driver of the automation itself. Results of the RIGHT automation will be recognized when: -         Worker travel distances, materials travel distances, and cycle times are getting shorter. -         Responsiveness of the process to product changes is getting faster. -         A handful of metrics, viewed at a glance, quickly tell us IF the process is in control or not. Misaligned automation is worse than no automation! -- “The road to Industry 4.0 goes through Industry 3.0 …. There are No Short Cuts!” -- Is your automation strategy, technology driven or do you follow your process signals? Your thoughts are appreciated and please share this post if you think your connections will find it of interest. 👉 Comment, follow or connect to collaborate on automation for enhanced productivity in your process. https://lnkd.in/eyKhx5ia #industry40 #automation #productivity #robots    

Manufacturing Automation – the Pause The road to Industry 4.0 goes through Industry 3.0 …. There are No Short Cuts! For SMEs in particular, the pace of the new manufacturing paradigm has slowed and coupled with the slowdown in capital investments, blamed on the interest rates & inflation, it appears manufacturing will not be Industry 4.0 by next Thursday as predicted. Phew …. That was close! The transformation promised a holistic, ALL or NOTHING proposition with: -         Machines talking to each other and few human workers. -         Integration with supply chains so that material/inputs will appear if and when needed, to specification and minimized friction. -         Robots that will show up, plug themselves in and after a high five greeting and a smiley face, tirelessly work without complaints or coffee breaks. -         Fewer human workers, whose new skill sets will have been downloaded overnight while they slept, showing up with a hop and a skip in their step as they look forward to a day of interfacing with the factory via teach pendants. -         Analysts sifting AI prepared summary insights, extracted from the data for strategic decisions, unlike the old days when they just bounced around in a darkened room guessing. -         Other attributes that will make the company and the world a better place! Not without benefits IF in the process of learning Industry 4.0 is, we learned Industry 3.0 and realized our plants aren't really complying with most of those steps, including: -         Value stream map our process so that we understand it. -         Understand the quality/attributes of our inputs. -         Increase worker training and engage them to harness their invaluable process inputs. -         Develop & deploy simple and quick ROI PRODUCTIVITY enhancing tools and automation. -         Re-engage with suppliers and customers and align our process with them so that overall friction is reduced. -         Other “meat and potatoes” boring manufacturing practices to make us competitive in the newly realigned global markets. If we have “relearned” Industry 3.0 manufacturing methods across our SME industrial backbone, then Industry 4.0 has done the best service of all! The road to Industry 4.0 goes through Industry 3.0 …. There are No Short Cuts! -- “In summary, while understanding why we automate, we continuously run our automation search, using stable inputs and an understood process as our signals and maximizing the ROI/IRR to identify economic targets for automation.” -- Is your manufacturing process Industry 3.0 compliant? Your thoughts are appreciated and please share this post if you think your connections will find it of interest. 👉 Comment, follow or connect to discuss how to collaborate and plan automation for enhanced productivity. https://lnkd.in/gHd5ecJq #industry40 #automation #productivity