Manufacturing Process Automation - Everything You Need To Know

Since the past decade, the manufacturing industry has undergone through lot of changes and tremendous growth. It has also seen a lot of technological innovation. With the Industry 4.0 revolution, manufactures are looking at reducing overall operation costs, increase production efficiency and streamline a seamless supply chain process. Automation has help industries to accelerate the production, increase efficiency. Manufacturing companies are finding new ways to implement the advanced technologies that can help them automate the manual tasks and rapidly increase the operational efficiency.

With the rapid advances in Automation technologies, artificial intelligence and machine learning, it has become possible for machines to match or outperform the manual work in range of various operational activities, including the ones requiring the complex capabilities. With the rise of automation in the manufacturing, McKinsey, a worldwide renowned firm, has estimated that more than 64% of the global manufacturing activities are considered to be automatable. With an automated manufacturing process, you can easily integrate robotics, systems, and your workforce into a comprehensive, optimized organisation. Companies that have automated their process, have realised that when all the components are co-ordinated and automated, including the business process, it becomes easy to run the business operation smoother.

In this article, we would be having a comprehensive look at the manufacturing process automation, what are its benefits and how they can be achieved.

What is Manufacturing Process Automation?

Manufacturing process automation refers to the use of technologies such as equipments or robotic systems & softwares to automate the production as well as day-to-day operational processes. Manufacturing process automation has the ability to perform repetitive, patterned tasks automatically in a more synchronised manner. This is done by programming a machine or a tool with the help of a customised software. The machine automatically then instructs it to perform a process. Automation in manufacturing is not limited to automating your production facility. It also has the potential to take care of other departments such as Human Resources, Inventory, Sales, Quality to Supply & Distribution. Pretty much anything can be automated to improve your business efficiency.

What are the types of Manufacturing Automation?

Manufacturing industry being a diverse industry, consists different types of manufacturing process automations catering to business specific needs. These include: Fixed Automation, Programmed Automation & Flexible Automation. Let’s take a brief look at these types.

1. Fixed Automation

Commonly known as hard automation, Fixed Automation is a type of manufacturing process automation where automation is set to produce a single product and through an individual machine. In other terms, it refers to an automated production line in which the sequence of processing operations is fixed by the equipment configuration. With the help of customized software, the programmed commands are contained in the machines in the form of cams, gears, wires and other hardware. This kind of automation is used for producing large quantities having high barrier of entry.

Examples of Fixed Manufacturing Process Automation

Assembly Lines in Automotive Industries
Material Conveyer Systems
Chemical Manufacturing Processes

2. Programmable Automation

Programmable Automation is an automation process where a production system relies on a program to govern it. The program serves as a set of instruction that the system can read, interpret and then execute accordingly. This kind of automation is suitable for producing products in batch quantities. The major advantage of programmable automation is that it has the capacity to change. It can easily accommodate different set of product configurations and can even use different programming sequence. Using this kind of automation you can even configure a new program in order to produce other batch products.

Examples of Programmable Manufacturing process Automation

Programmable logic controllers (PLC)
Computer Numerical controlled (CNC) machine tools
Industrial Robots

3. Flexible Automation

Also known as Soft automation, in flexible automation several machine tools are linked together by a material handling system. All the components of this system are then controlled by a central computer. This kind of automation offers a rapid and smooth change to the production process. Flexible automation uses Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) meaning a central computer system controls the production and machine handling systems. This automation is a great option to produce different product types simultaneously. Flexible automation is connected to the network that offers remote monitoring and control. Custom software programs are developed. Depending on the machine connected, an operator could upload, run new programs, or work with them into existing production from anywhere in the world.

Examples of Flexible (Soft) Manufacturing Process Automation

Material Handling Systems
Robotic Systems
Assembly Lines

The Benefits of Manufacturing Process Automation

Now that you have clearly understood what is meant by Manufacturing process automation and it’s types lets have a look at how it offers you a tremendous competitive advantage over the market and increase your business efficiency. Here are the top benefits of manufacturing process automation:

1. Reduced Operating Costs

Even though manufacturing process automation requires a significant initial investment, it offers a great ROI in the longer run. Depending upon the task, an automated machine can perform the labor of three to five people. In addition to savings the labor costs, it also helps in saving lot of energy, time and other resources that has the potential to disrupt the accounting side of your business. Automation streamlines the operational process and increases production accuracy, resulting in the minimal material wastage.

2. Improved Workplace Safety

Manufacturing process automation removes your workforce from the dangerous tasks and activities. Not only this, it also helps your workforce to manage their day-to-day operations more effectively. With automation, your workforce will be thankful to you for safeguarding them from any hazardous factory environment.

3. Increased Operational Productivity

An automated machine has the ability to work at constant speed, 24/7, sometimes even unattended. This increases the production facility’s potential to produce more. This also gives you an opportunity to introduce new products more quickly into the production process and a custom programming for this can be done offline without any disruption to existing process.

4. Informed Decision Making

With the use of customised industrial IoT devices, you are able to automate the data collection in order to capture key insights from day-to-day operations including operator productivity, task time and much more. This, thus enables you to identify the improvement opportunities and take decisions accordingly within a fraction of time.

5. Accurate and Constant Documentation Management

With automation, document management becomes hassle-free, is more precise and accurate, enabling more robust & accurate data eliminating manual data-entry errors and inconsistencies.

How Manufacturing Process Automation can be used in your Business?

Manufacturing process automation comes in different forms. There are countless scenarios and use cases where automation can used to improve your manufacturing business. Some of these are:

1. Procurement

Procurement process can automated with the help of supplier portals to Vendor Management Portals and can free your employees from consistent and repetitive tasks. Right from Request for a Quote (RFQ), to Vendor Quotes, from Purchase Order (PO) to Material Procurement, you can automate and streamline the entire process and thus you can focus on the more important business critical strategic works.

2. Order Processing

Automating your order processing allows you to keep track of the new orders, modify orders, and price calculation all in real time. With automation you can easily track all the orders and related data such as work orders, inventories, invoices and much more.

3. Manufacturing

You can use the manufacturing process automation to improve the manufacturing process by implementing a combination of machines, IoT devices, and custom softwares to manage on floor workforce, collect data and physically carry out day-to-day-tasks. You can even use manufacturing process automation to improve machine operator's workflow and collect the real-time data. This data can be used to identify any redundancy within the manufacturing process, allowing floor managers to take corrective actions.

4. Supply Chain

Automating your supply chain will help you a lot in the longer run as supply chain plays a vital role in any business operation. This will help you manage your raw materials, item inventory more smoothly. You will be able to decrease the delivery times of your products.

5. Customer Service

From smooth customer onboarding to maintaining customer relationship history, from automating customer quotes to order generation, from invoicing to recording payments, with the help of automation you can tremendously increase customer experience and thus generate more revenue.

6. Operations

Manufacturing process automation will help you seamlessly streamline your business operations, improve the workflow, reduce manufacturing time, and ultimately boost the efficiency right from bottom to the top. With automation, you will gain a competitive edge over the market and will be able to generate more revenue.

How can Zizbey help you?

Zizbey is a leading IT service provider offering expertise and development services to worldwide clients across vast industry verticals. We are a team of experienced, talented and highly skilled professionals leveraging our expertise to build some of the best solutions for businesses.

With a blend of Business Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, we help manufacturing process automation by streamlining your manufacturing process, improve productivity and help you save time & money.

Zizbey is a key enabler for manufacturing process automation initiatives within the manufacturing industry. Having an expertise in custom CRM & ERP solutions covering all the aspects of manufacturing business, Zizbey can optimise the core operations for enhanced agility, quality and speed.

If you are considering manufacturing process automation for your business, or would like to dig in more, feel free to drop us a message and we would be glad in assisting you transform your manufacturing process.