The Robot Revolution

Are You Prepared for the Robot Revolution? Here’s Two Steps to Ensure You Are.

Ok, at first glance this headline could seem alarming, but you can relax.

Well…maybe.

If you own a business or a company that involves any semblance of logistics, material handling, or supply chain needs, you might want to pay extra close attention to what follows.

First, rest assured that the robot revolution is not like the zombie apocalypse conspiracies that have been turned into countless movies and TV shows. The robot revolution is related entirely to the advancements in automation that are beginning to dramatically affect (we won’t say “infect”) corporate America.

However, unlike those attacks by the living dead, our robot revolution is both real and imminent.

Why Have We Turned Things Over to Robots?

The quick and simple answer to this question: repetition.

From manufacturing automobiles to making sandwiches in a fast-food restaurant and from designing cosmetics to loading produce, there are many industries both local and global whose profit margins don’t just survive by perfectly replicating a process over and over again—they thrive in such a format.

The challenge of repetition isn’t just perfecting a process and ensuring everyone is doing it the same way every time. Although, that’s also a difficult task considering how many employees you might be hiring or replacing and the rate of turnover or growth that you’re experiencing.    

The greater challenge of replication is the redundancy—the inherent boredom, mindlessness, and the wear and tear on the human body that performs the same motions over and over again, which tends to

Today’s labor force isn’t interested in earning minimum wages performing routine activities that machines can. To spend a four-hour shift repeatedly moving an item from one bin to another; or drilling a hole in the same corner of a 2x4; or placing a cap on a bottle; or rolling a sheet of fabric around a tube?

That type of labor is enough to drive people to seek new employment—if not the help of a mental health professional.

What About the Costs?

In an altruistic world, we’d care more about our employees’ health and personal interests than profit margins. In real life, however, people start businesses to prosper. So, while there are several reasons to implement automation and robotics into your company’s workflow, we know the main reason is the return on investment.

The fact is this: Robots will improve your bottom line.

Over the past few years, economists have been monitoring the long-term savings and return on investment that accompanies the implementation of automation, and the data is impressive..

Don’t take our word for it—run the numbers yourself.

Take the time to project your company’s profit/loss margins over a 10-20-year time period. While the initial cost of adding robots to your warehouse may seem steep, anyone willing to forecast the financial benefits of automation will find that making this change now pays off substantially later.

As evidence, this article in Forbes breaks down just how profitable switching to automation can be for a business.

So…Now What?

Given the evidence, few (if any) industry leaders are ignoring or avoiding the benefits of automation. It’s difficult to find someone who disagrees with the data or the logic.

Instead, what’s holding people up is confusion about what comes next. Managers and business owners want to know how to initiate the process, but they’re at a loss of how to begin.

That’s why we’re suggesting these two, simple steps to begin taking advantage of adding robotics to your process.

1.       Evaluate Your Resources.

Time—consider the amount of time you have available to complete a makeover. The longer the process takes, the lower the ROI.

Remember, the biggest payoff in switching to an automated process is found in how quickly you can have machines doing your manual labor. Waiting, delaying, or lacking the requisite time to make this shift will cost you more money.   

Personnel—it’s vital that you know or find someone with comprehensive knowledge of your current system who’s also able to predict or identify pitfalls and unique challenges based on your particular industry, personnel status, equipment proficiencies, available space, inter-departmental communications, etc.     

Equipment—depending on whether you’re implementing an entirely new system or plan to integrate updated and upgraded controls, machines, or equipment into a legacy system, you want to ensure clean horizontal and vertical integration to avoid breakdowns of communication between diverse apparatuses, parts, and software.

2.       Hire an Integrator.

There may be some companies with all these resources on hand—they have the time, the personnel, and the equipment already nearby to make the shift to robots and automation on their own.

But those businesses are unicorns.

For the rest of us, to make a substantial shift in manufacturing processes by adding a robotic system requires hiring qualified engineers in automation hardware and software, experts in controls and warehouse management methodology, and industrious, highly efficient project managers to keep the venture on time and on budget.

Quintec Integration provides each of these services and more, and we provide an entire team of experts for each client looking to make a successful transition.

Meanwhile, if you attempt this paradigm shift on your own, there’s a good chance it will take much longer to implement, as you’re likely to run into several pitfalls along the way. When that happens, you’ll have spent more money than you intended, and you’ll have delayed your ROI.

If you’re ready to join the future of warehouse, facility, laboratory, or manufacturing plant automation, contact us today!