Over the past few years, you have probably heard of “Industry 4.0”—also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This new shift in the manufacturing landscape focuses on leaner, smarter manufacturing capabilities enabled by advanced robotic process automation. Read on to keep up with Industry 4.0 and secure your position in the next stage of the ongoing Industrial Revolution with insights from ASI’s robotics experts.
Understanding the Role of Autonomous Robots in Industry 4.0
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, the current era of digital manufacturing and supply chain management, involves heavy integration of advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Big Data for production optimization. These technologies enable industrial robotics to work with unprecedented flexibility both alongside human operators as well as autonomously.
In Industry 4.0, autonomous robots can rely on sensors and AI to adapt to changes on a production line or switch tasks with minimal reconfiguration or even without the need for manual reprogramming altogether—enabling continuous production to reduce downtime and increase output. In this period, manufacturers who reap the benefits of Industry 4.0-centered robotic process automation can even run 24/7. Taken to its logical conclusion, manufacturers can create “lights-out factories” that fully eliminate the need for human intervention.
Where human work remains essential, collaborative robotics—or “cobots”—can shoulder the heaviest burdens of manual labor or hazardous material handling, minimizing the risks of repetitive stress injuries or other safety hazards. As a result, human workers can focus on more value-added activities.
As you can see, there are two common throughlines in these examples—smarter operations and leaner operations. Smart manufacturing integrates AI, ML, and Big Data to make robotics more capable of adjusting, adapting, and working alone or alongside humans. Lean manufacturing uses the wealth of data that autonomous robots and sensors can collect to inform your operational strategies and help you make decisions to eliminate waste from your processes and deliver higher-quality products at lower costs. Together, these two philosophies provide a competitive edge to help you thrive in the current industrial revolution.
Three Strategies for Integrating Industry 4.0 Robotic Process Automation
Robotics integration is the key to meeting the high standards Industry 4.0 sets for manufacturers. Now, let’s dive deeper into three strategic approaches for attaining that competitive edge.
Start With a Process Audit
If you wish to ensure your plant meets Industry 4.0 standards, perform a detailed process audit before starting your search for autonomous robots or cobots.
- Identify repetitive, rule-based tasks in your physical operations and back-office functions that can be handled by robots or algorithms.
- Look for process bottlenecks, wasteful practices, and areas prone to human error. Then, you can tailor your lean manufacturing strategies specifically to address them.
- Collect data from your existing robotics’ sensors or IoT devices to assess pain points. This helps you ensure your strategies target processes where RPA will provide the most ROI.
Start Small, Plan for Growth
Industry 4.0 is about flexibility and changing with the times. Rather than a large-scale, top-down robotic overhaul, adopt scalable robotic process automation solutions—modular systems that can conveniently be modified and connected to existing systems to grow with your plant’s needs.
- Modular automation tools that allow you to expand or reconfigure as workflows change.
- Prioritize solutions that can integrate easily with your existing legacy equipment. This approach supports the adaptability and reconfigurability you need to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Explore Digital Twins
Confidence in your robotics integration strategy requires you to have a reasonable, data-driven expectation of what you will get from your integration project. A digital twin is a virtual model of your physical manufacturing system, based on existing data, that can simulate robot integration scenarios before real-world deployment. You can use a digital twin to test optimizations, detect errors, and predict outcomes without risking disruptions to your workflow.
How to Determine Automation ROI
Anybody’s biggest question about implementing new robotic process automation systems—be it fresh installs of new systems or an upgrade or retrofit of an existing system—is about when they can see a return on their investment. Robotics integration for Industry 4.0 can be costly, in terms of equipment cost, downtime needed to install the system, the time and effort it takes to train operators on the new system, and so on.
The production optimization achieved through Industry 4.0 is meant to cover and eventually exceed these costs—but how can you predict when it will and know when it has? To calculate and predict ROI, you should:
- Start with a comprehensive view of all costs associated with implementing automation, including capital costs, software fees, setup costs, change management expenses, and support contracts. Consider creating a full automation cost ledger in your ERP or financial tracking system to capture upfront and recurring expenses.
- Document your current metrics, such as cycle times, labor hours per unit, defect/rework rates, and scrap/waste rates, so you can more effectively measure improvement.
- Project the expected benefits from robotic process automation—such as labor savings, throughput gains, quality improvements, and safety improvements.
- Once benefits are estimated, determine how long it will take for the savings to offset your total costs. Total cost of automation divided by annual net savings from automation gives you your payback period.
- Track real-time key performance indicators after implementation and compare real-time metrics to your baseline.
- Keep in mind intangible benefits—non-financial automation ROI can also include enhanced customer satisfaction or improved morale, so employee feedback and customer satisfaction ratings can be a revealing part of your post-automation reviews.
Discover the Perfect Robotic Process Automation Solution with ASI
Industry 4.0 is built on the backs of technological solutions that can make your plant operations smarter and leaner—if you know how to use them to their full potential. As one of the US’s leading FANUC-certified robotics integrators, ASI implements customized robotics and controls for manufacturers across the country to reap the fullest benefits of cutting-edge robotics technology.
Reach out to us today to talk about what an Industry 4.0-ready automation solution could look like for your plant: Contact Automation Solutions, Inc.
