The interconnectivity of the components in a factory. This used to mean all the engineers and assembly line workers being on the same page. These days it means connecting the robots on the assembly line to an Internet of Things network so that they can talk to each other and ensure the assembly line keeps working in accordance with its coding.
Dynamic Group is a medical devices and precision products manufacturer in the United States and is also in the process of automating some of its assembly lines with the help of robotics. They have installed three robots that take care of repetitive tasks.
Joe McGillivray, the CEO of Dynamic Group said: “One of the main reasons we needed to look towards automation was difficulty with staffing. We’re lucky enough to live in a place that has high wages and low unemployment which is great on a daily basis, normally, but it’s difficult as someone who runs a business.”
Credit: Universal Robots
Dynamic Group says that the robots have increased productivity by 400% inside the factory. McGillivray says that this is because usually there would have to be three operators in the factory on a shift but now with the robots present there can be one operator on one shift.
“We essentially quadrupled our production capacity,” said McGillivray.
The industry robot they utilize is the UR10 robot from Universal Robots. It is the largest industrial robot arm that Universal supply and can lift weights of up to 22 lbs.
The fact of the matter is that if multiple robots are going to be installed into a factory, they must be interconnected through the Industrial Internet of Things. To calculate what effect the automated industrial revolution might have on the industrial industry, Morgan Stanley Research, and Automation World investigated.
It resulted in a statistic that stipulated that industrial companies’ IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) expenditure would increase from its current 8 percent to 18 percent over the next five years. The report also said that “discrete automation is expected to see the greatest [IIoT-related] growth opportunities given faster upgrade/replacement cycles and lower penetration of software compared to the process industries.”
