Do you run a soft drink or liquid filling facility? If so, then automation will surely be at the top of your mind. Should you be upgrading the technology in your facility? Do your processes need to be smarter and more efficient? These are all questions that all factory owners consider at some point or the other. In this article, we will be looking at both the advantages and disadvantages of automation. In doing so, we hope to help you determine if this is the right course of action for your business.
Benefits of relying on automation in your facility
Decrease in production time
Having a device that is automated certainly speeds up the production time because no human effort is required by the equipment, there is much better repeatability, and much less human error. Take for example the usage of a liquid filling machine in a drink manufacturing facility. With this bit of automation, you will be able to ensure absolute accuracy and uniformity in liquid filled per bottle. Furthermore, no product will go to waste, thus ensuring maximum efficiency.
Rise in precision and repeatability
When an automated device is set to do a job repeatedly again, the precision and repeatability contrasted to a worker is much greater. This is particularly so for tedious tasks that require a certain level of accuracy. Being humans, we are all prone to careless mistakes or parallax errors. While unavoidable, this errors can be costly for your operation. This is why automation can be really beneficial for your operations under these circumstances.
Much less staff member expenditures
By adding automated devices to an operation, indicates much less workers are needed to finish the job. It also suggests less safety and security concerns, which leads to economic savings. With having less workers, there are multiple expenditures that are diminished or reduced such as payroll, benefits, sick days, etcetera.
Huge upfront investment
Automated devices can be among the most pricey operating costs for a firm. With automated devices costing anywhere between thousands and millions of dollars depending upon the kind and level of automation.
While automation has come to be an asset for remaining competitive in the manufacturing sector, there are definitely some factors to be taken into consideration in order to be competitive and to obtain a return on the investment. Depending upon the operations, automation may or might not be a great fit.
The initial financial investment of purchasing an automated device would not be affordable if it is a modest operation with modest manufacturing quantities. On the other hand, if the operation has a larger center with lots of employees on the shop floor 2 produce medium to huge runs, automated equipments would be better suited.