Optimizing robot design and deployment is vital for companies for a variety of reasons. It helps with consistency in multiple market segments along with lowering costs and supply chain optimization. In this piece, we will talk about why companies must continually work to optimize the design of their robot products in a nascent market with ever-changing requirements and needs.
Why Robotics are the Future
We are already starting to see the results of the promise shown by the robotics industry. Why? Because software, and artificial intelligence, is progressing at a rapid pace and more companies are making use of robots to automate and improve their processes. Thanks to the advancement of such technologies, there will be smarter, more-energy efficient and increasingly-flexible robots. They will also be able to take on a barrage of complex challenges autonomously, helping streamline supply chains across the globe.
While the robotics industry is still quite nascent, it shows a great deal of promise, which may go well beyond what science fiction movies have tried to portray over the years. Whether on land, or on the ocean or in outer space, the use of robots will continue to proliferate and help companies achieve results that they couldn’t have visualized in their operations initially.
The Importance of Optimizing Robot Design
While making use of robotics is good practice, companies must keep in mind that, just like other electro-mechanical devices and systems, robots will occasionally be prone to errors. Sure, they are incredibly efficient and can get the job done effectively, whether in a warehouse or a manufacturing company. However, bugs, errors, glitches, poor optimization, and inefficient interactions between robots and humans can cause errors in operations.
This is why continually optimizing robot design is incredibly vital. The last thing any organization wants is a poorly-optimized workflow that could severely compromise operations and subsequently affect the bottom line. Meeting high-quality requirements and ensuring error-free production, and a satisfactory customer experience is only possible with the use of high-precision, and highly-optimized and customized robot ecosystems.
The different components within a robot-based automated system must be able to work in unison. That is not always the case. The robotics industry is quite young, and still developing. More often than not, the software and hardware systems that are solutioned have not been optimized for the specific customer use case. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach rarely works. Customization is key to enabling the newly-automated architecture to integrate into the existing manual operations.
What are the Benefits?
Let us look at some of the benefits of optimizing your robot system design.
Design Commonality in Multiple Market Segments
Consistency plays a massive part in the success of any organization, especially bigger ones. Why? Because the products are usually spread across multiple market segments and providing consistent products that allow for economies of scale across all of them is vital. As you would expect, not doing so can significantly tarnish a company’s reputation, affecting its bottom line.
Using a process that allows for customization is the only way to steer clear of such problems, making sure that the robots your company has deployed work with high levels of up-time and use. If your company has customer sites in different areas, you must also ensure that your robots are optimized by site and local applications and workloads.
Cost Optimization
Every company operates within a set budget and exceeding it often indicates that they may need to change their workflow or procedures. This is why project managers must make sure that they are mindful of their operating costs. The use of properly optimized design is vital to make sure a company’s production and other costs are optimal.
When a robotics system functions well, it offers high accuracy and keeps inconsistencies to a minimum. This can be incredibly helpful for companies, especially in their manufacturing processes, helping them spend with discipline. Of course, there are plenty of other ways to optimize costs, but this one is arguably the most effective in the long and short run.
Supply Chain Optimization
Supply chain optimization uses technology optimally to improve performance and efficiency in supply networks. A company’s supply chain is a vital business process to ensure its customer experience is successful. If a supply chain performs properly, it significantly improves a company’s overall responsiveness and efficiency, helping it provide customers with what they want, where and when they want it, while making sure that it is profitable for the enterprise.
Utilizing a properly optimized robot design is an excellent way for companies to improve their supply chain. Product distribution already has loads of challenges associated with it to begin with. Most of the issues like losing track of items, shipping the wrong product etc. can be easily addressed by using a properly designed robotics system.
When a supply chain is properly automated, companies don’t have to worry about the various errors associated with manual labor. Properly optimized robotics systems minimize, if not eliminate these issues, helping companies keep track of their products, making sure they deliver them at the right place and at the right time.
While manual labor is a critical and vital part of any warehousing or manufacturing company, it cannot be critical path when the operations include non-airconditioned environments in hot climates, or refrigerated environments with temperatures down to -20oC. What’s more, making use of robotics ultimately helps the people working in any company, making their work safer and easier.
Do you think the robotics system you are using for your warehouse or factory could be better optimized to give you better results? If so, we at Prime Robotics can help. We will make use of our robotics expertise. software and test capabilities, to identify errors and fix systemic issues to make sure everything works well together.
Our experts are also capable of gauging your robotic system’s functionality and offering the best solutions. We can help you determine the right automation and robotics solution for your organization’s particular needs and advise you on what would work the best for you. So, just get in touch with us and we will give you the robotics solution you are looking for.