Industrial automation doesn’t confine itself to automating manufacturing processes and augmenting production output, but introducing a set of transformations that help manufacturers generate and use business insights for better and informed decision making, make process improvements, and achieving manufacturing excellence in the long run. Accordingly, industrial automation brings several benefits to the assembly line of an industrialist.
However, as in the case of every technology and transformation, industrial automation proves disadvantageous across a few technical and commercial aspects. So, to help industry owners make an informed decision, Mekonix System, one of the top automation companies in India, highlights a few crucial pros and cons of industrial automation.
5 Advantages of Industrial Automation
1.Augment Manufacturing Pace and Output
Industrial automation employs machines programmed to reduce per-unit production time, or in other words, increase the daily output. As against a human workforce that confronts physical limitations, systems based on the principle of industrial automation are quick and facilitate 24/7 production.
2. Ensure Process Compliance
Committing mistakes is a human tendency. Even the most experienced workforce can make mistakes, some of which are trivial and some significant enough to impact production and product quality. However, an automated production assembly line is programmed to adhere to a particular workflow and thus ensures process compliance.
3. Achieve a Higher Product Quality
Industrial automation increases production output, and since it ensures process compliance and reduces manual errors, companies achieve better product quality. It helps them enhance their competence. However, there’s another and a much larger dimension to it. Adoption of industrial automation at the industry level fosters healthy competition and gives consumers even better options. These factors prove beneficial to the country in the entirety.
4. Reduce Labor Expenses
Automation does what a group of 100 people can’t! As a result, you do not have to employ an extensive workforce for a particular job, and annually, you save millions spent in paying employee salaries and administration costs.
5. Increased Work Safety
Often, manual operations, especially the age-old ones, make assembly workers vulnerable to many onsite accidents and health risks. However, modern-age industrial automation employs structurally and operationally safe setups that reduce work safety risks. Besides, the fact that machines can lift excessively heavyweights, and perform various risky jobs, reduces workplace safety threats to a significant extent.
5 Disadvantages of Industrial Automation
1. High Initial Investment
Industrial automation is beneficial. However, based on the extensivity, complexity of operations, and the customization required, it demands a considerable amount of initial investment of time, thought, and effort. Besides manufacturing costs, testing the automation system, and installing it, attract significant investment. While the larger companies manage to make these investments, the smaller ones do not have the financial muscle to deal with it.
2. Employee Capacity Building
Introducing an entirely new system into the existing setup and expecting people to work on it efficiently demands investing time and money into employee training and development. These factors add to the initial automation costs.
3. Increased Unemployment
On the one hand, wherein the ability of automation systems to do the work of hundred human beings proves beneficial to the company, on the other, it renders those hundred jobless. Further, an industrial-level adoption of industrial automation contributes to the country’s unemployment figures to a significant extent.
4. Maintenance Effort and Cost
Maintenance is an essential aspect associated with industrial automation. Industrial automation setups require annual or half-yearly or quarterly maintenance, based on the applications they serve and the extent to which they are used. Although maintenance forms an integral part of manufacturing operations otherwise as well, the complexities involved in industrial automation systems, in particular, may make periodic maintenance more expensive.
5. Scarcity of Skilled Automation Programmers
Dealing with the dearth of skilled automation programmers is another factor concerning industrial automation. It isn’t that the market doesn’t have automation programming talent. However, there aren’t as many to serve the industrial needs. That makes those available expensive to hire. These factors add to the overall investment in automation.
Mekonix – One of the Top Industrial Automation Companies in India
Mekonix Systems is one of the top industrial automation companies in Pune and across the country as well. The company empowers its clients with competitively priced yet highly efficient and customized industrial automation solutions. It proves a sustainable partner that helps companies align themselves with Industry 4.0 and contribute to their endeavors to achieve manufacturing excellence. For more details, connect with Mekonix Systems at +91-9673207838.
