Fanuc Robotics Annual Meeting

17 Feb Fanuc Robotics Annual Meeting

I just attended the Fanuc Robotics annual meeting for their Authorized Service Integrators (ASI’s)

Some of the information was general economic and industrial data, and some was specific to advancements made by Fanuc, the world leader in robotics.

Below are the Top Ten Takeaways:

1. Many supply chain issues are clearing and the sources of congestion are also changing. Electronics, chips, drives, PLCs continue to be a problem and those components can hold up an entire project. Oher supply chain issues are generally improving. The back logs at US ports have moved from west coast to east coast. That is consistent with import emphasis declining from China and increasing from the EU. It also means lead times and inventory levels on many products, including robots are improving.
2. The labor shortage is not expected to improve in the coming years. In fact, the participation of available labor being employed is at a very high level. Retiring boomers, immigration policy and desired type of work among the work force means many manufacturing jobs will not be filled. Meeting product demand will require additional levels of automation for most and Intelligent Automation for many.
3. People in the manufacturing and automation space talk about AI and the internet of things, but those are all parts of Intelligent Automation. Many facets of Intelligent Automation will be presented to the manufacturing industry in the coming months and years. Fanuc and Right Stuff Equipment are committed to this concept. A Fanuc example is Zero Down Time (ZDT) software. It monitors the robot through machine learning, and will advise you of pending problems with your machine BEFORE you ever notice a problem. There are many other examples of what can be done. Ultimately all types of machines in production will get smarter and capable of making adjustments and decisions during the manufacturing process which will improve your Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE), making operations more productive and profitable. The bar continues to be raised for manufactures to up their performance to stay competitive.
4. General industry and specifically Consumer Package Goods (CPG) companies are becoming larger employers of robotics. Primary applications include, palletizing, case packing, and other pick and place repetitive motion tasks.
5. Collaborative robots (Cobots) are moving into mainstream manufacturing. Safety and ease of use are driving the trend. Many cobot projects from the past were more of a curiosity and ended in failure or short lived robots. Lower payloads and limited speeds have also acted as a deterrent on introduction to many manufacturing projects, but things are changing. Cobots are making a move onto more production floors.
6. The Graphic User Interface (GUI) which have been available on Cobots, made them easier to program. These types of interfaces are being introduced on Fanuc’s line of industrial robots. This does not mean ALL projects get easier to do in house but some of the more straight forward projects do.
7. Many applications are becoming more standardized, which brings down overall project costs. Engineering costs can be diluted over multiple applications across markets by integrators. This is a reason to employ an integrator for your automation projects. They have already absorbed much of the costs to learn and develop robotic applications. They are only on your clock during the project phase then no longer an ongoing cost.
8. Primary Food contact robots have become cleaner and safer to operate in FDA and USDA plants. Washdown and sanitary designs have allowed further use in these markets.
9. New robots with specific capacities, motion profiles, speeds and range of motion are being designed for an expanding demand from manufactures filling in gaps from the past.
10. Fanuc has robots inside 1,500 schools. Why is this important? Well, robots are becoming more pervasive in industry and it is increasingly likely that your company will employ some robotics in the future. As you hire young employees, those who have robot experience will likely have it with Fanuc robots. That flattens the learning curve if the robots on site are also Fanuc for those students who worked on robots during their schooling

In the 1999 Andy Grove, CEO of Intel wrote a book titled “Only the Paranoid Survive”

You only need to read the title to get the message. Technology continues to evolve at a blistering pace. Those who stay up with the developments will see opportunities to improve their business performance relative to the past and to their competition. Those who don’t evolve, risk getting passed and put under pressure. If you want to learn more, or review possible opportunities to automate parts of your manufacturing process, email info@rightstuffequipment.com or call 303-941-1223