Productiveness is an typically debated query in robotics. Is robotic productiveness actually higher than the productiveness of human staff?

Generally, the reply will not be as clear-cut as you’d first assume.

Whenever you consider manufacturing robots, you in all probability visualize one thing just like the super-fast delta robots doing choose and place on manufacturing unit conveyors. Or maybe you visualize the quick, highly-accurate welding robots in automobile factories.

In these examples, it may possibly appear apparent that such fast-moving robots would improve the productiveness of these duties.

However, robotic productiveness will not be all the time so clear-cut. The velocity of the robotic would not essentially translate right into a extra productive course of total.

Collaborative robots (or cobots) are an ideal instance of this. Cobots normally transfer extra slowly than typical industrial robots and may even transfer extra slowly than human staff.

Does their gradual velocity imply that cobots are extra productive? Not essentially…

The definition of robotic productiveness

Robotic productiveness means the ratio of enter to output in manufacturing {that a} robotic cell can obtain. Like manufacturing productiveness it’s a measure of effectivity. The extra a robotic cell produces in a specific time interval, the extra productive it’s.

Nevertheless, the productiveness of a person robotic cell is just one side of productiveness. If you happen to had been to fixate on this measure of productiveness, you’d doubtless prioritize the velocity of the robotic. However, simply because a robotic cell works sooner doesn’t suggest that your complete course of will essentially be extra productive.

You additionally must have in mind how robots have an effect on the general productiveness of your course of.

Robots is usually a key software for growing the productiveness of your manufacturing operations. However, they’ll solely do that should you place the robotic at a bottleneck activity. We’ve seen many examples of conditions the place robots have been used to ease strain on a bottleneck activity. This has led to a rise in productiveness in the complete operation.

Human vs robotic productiveness: a fancy query

When individuals see collaborative robots in motion for the primary time, they often say “These robots transfer very slowly.”

They examine the velocity of the robotic with the velocity of their human staff or with different forms of automation. They discover it arduous to image how a slower-moving robotic might assist enhance their productiveness.

Let’s take an instance of a specific activity: stacking bins onto certainly one of two wood pallets.

How a robotic performs the duty

Image a robotic performing the palletizing activity.

A conveyor feeds the robotic cell with bins. The bins arrive at irregular intervals as they’re packaged by human staff beforehand within the line.

The robotic waits patiently for a field to reach. At any time when a field arrives, the robotic reads its label. If the label is crimson, the robotic instantly locations it on the left pallet. If the label is inexperienced, the robotic locations it on the correct pallet.

The robotic operates continually with out breaks.

How a human performs the duty

On this case, a human employee is tasked with palletizing the bins. Because the bins don’t arrive in a short time, this employee additionally has an unrelated inspection activity that they carry out on the similar time.

The bins queue up on the finish of the conveyor. When sufficient of the bins have queued up, the employee rushes over from their inspection activity and begins palletizing the bins.

They must test the label of every field manually. They put the field on the proper pallet relying on the colour of its label. As a result of the employee is shifting rapidly, they don’t place the bins as precisely on the pallet because the robotic would.

Generally, quite a lot of bins pile up on the conveyor when the employee hasn’t acquired time to do the palletizing or is on a break.

The result’s that palletizing could be very inconsistent. The standard of the palletizing suffers and the employee is all the time dashing to attempt to meet up with the duty even once they attempt to do the duty rapidly.

Which of those two programs appears extra productive to you?

When do robots improve productiveness in a facility?

As you may see within the instance above, the velocity of operation is not the one side of productiveness. Consistency additionally has a big impact on how productive the duty might be.

Robots improve productiveness when they’re used for duties that people battle with within the first place.

Within the instance, palletizing will not be a really appropriate activity for human staff. To palletize bins effectively, it’s essential work constantly at a constant fee and accuracy. Robots are all the time constant however people are usually not.

Staff typically see this potential themselves. One examine discovered that 77% of individuals would welcome robotic help at work if it meant that the variety of guide processes decreased. As people, we excel at cognitive duties however extremely repetitive guide duties are simply not the perfect use of our expertise.

Whenever you apply a robotic to a bottleneck activity that’s already not a superb activity for a human, that is typically the place productiveness enhancements are most clear.

Hear from firms which have used robotic productiveness the correct means

You needn’t take our phrase for it that robots can enhance your productiveness.

We’ve a complete assortment of case research of assorted firms which have used robotics to spice up productiveness of their facility.

An incredible instance of this in motion is the case examine of how French producer Alliora elevated its productiveness with robotic palletizing. You may examine their experiences right here.

Do you suppose robots might be extra productive than people? Inform us within the feedback under or be a part of the dialogue on LinkedIn, Twitter, Fb, or the DoF skilled robotics group.