ROBOTICS? · innovations in the field of robotics, and how they are able to improve not only the...
Transcript of ROBOTICS? · innovations in the field of robotics, and how they are able to improve not only the...
People say that in the future robotics will
influence our life in all aspects, but we say:
that future is now!
RoboRobotics is no longer relegated to
businesses but it’s entering in our lives.
During our research we have found robots
in factories helping workers, robots
replacing doctors in surgery, drones
fighting on battlefields and robots that
help people live better: all this is already
happening, right nohappening, right now.
Thanks to the development of new
technologies such as cloud computing,
Artificial Intelligence, and innovation in the
field of sensors, in recent years robotics has
been developing very rapidly.
Businesses are adopting these
technologies not only in production
processes, but also in the creation of
robots for the retail market.
InIn the field of product innovation we have
considered Leka, an interactive robot that
helps children suffering from autism, or
even AirSelfie, a compact mini drone that
lets you take midair selfies, and these are
just a few examples of innovation
technologies that we found during our
researesearch.
Developments in this field will soon lead to
robots resembling humans that can help
physically disabled people, or replace man
in laboured tasks.
AsAs regards the process innovation we have
seen how PAL (Panel Assembly Line) is able
to increase the production rate of Boeing’s
737 line by 33% riveting the wings of the
airplane without the aid of human labor,
and also Amazon, implements KIVA robots
to facilitate the logistics, from the arrival of
goodsgoods in stock, up to product packaging of
the orders that will be delivered to
customers' homes.
The use of robotics is bringing enormous
changes, not only in the job market but
also in the social sphere. People wonder
whether robots will replace human labor,
and what will be the consequences for
those individuals who risks to be replaced,
and businesses are worried about
implementaimplementation time of these new
technologies, and about the payback
period of those investments.
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ROBOTICS?THAT’S WHAT WE’VE LEARNED ABOUT!
We were fascinated by the process
innovations in the field of robotics, and
how they are able to improve not only the
organization, but also the profitability and
productivity of the company.
For these reasons we decided to collect
information about these processes,
interviewing a company of our territory,
which has recently introduced robots in its
line, Costan.
Today Costan has 19 robots allocated in
this way:
• 5 robotic bending islands (9 robots);
• 2 islands for special handling (2 robots);
• 1 island for serpentine drafting of
Mobile (1 robot);
• 1 robotic assembly line for refrigerator
doors (7 robots).
MeMetti could not give us specifics
informations concerning the cost incurred
to realize this investment, but confirmed
that was very consistent. Despite the large
amount of capital invested, Metti told us
that it turned out to be a successful
operation, which has brought an economic return in few yearsreturn in few years.
Costan caseCostanCostan was founded in 1946, when
brothers Mario and Alberto Costan built
the first workshop to produce coldrooms
and refrigerated cabinets. At the end of the
80’s Costan joined the EPTA Group, a
leading supplier of equipment for
commercial refrigeration, which still
reprepresents a historic brand of product. This
company has today more than 900 employees and a plant located in Limana
(Belluno) of 69,000 m² in continuous
expansion.
In recent years, the company has decided
to introduce robotics in some stages of its
production process, which is why we asked
Ivano Metti (Method and Technology
officer) to give us some information about
the reasons that led to that investment.
Automated systems were first being
employed to deal with standardized processes and because they allow to have
a fixed setup time, and therefore
predictable, together with constant realization rates; secondly, they have
allowed to reduce human intake of heavy
andand repetitive tasks that presented a high
risk of accidents.
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We were curious to know what had been
the impact related to the replacement of
men with robots, and honestly we were
prevented by the fact that this investment
would lead to the reduction of human
labor; rather, we were proved wrong by
Metti that said instead: "We increased
prproduction capacity so it was not
necessary to lay-off staff, and having
assigned the Robot to heavy machining,
the department has instead appreciated
the introduction of these
anthropomorphic”. There was no negative
impact from this investment, even if the
intintroduction of these automata
necessitated additional spending to create
skilled labor. At last, Metti confirms us that
Costan will implement new investments in
robotics in the next future.
Our conclusions
Since we started to introduce automata in
the production processes, there was often
contrast between robots and manual labor
force, it was thought that automata would
have replaced human labor.
FFrom our interview we have instead
learned that human labor was not removed
by robots, but the investment made
necessary retrained worker in more
specialized employement, the formation
of these knowledge workers, have led to
an increased internal knowledge
enterprise.enterprise.
These investments have also enabled
Costan to improve the manufacturing
processes, through efficiency gains. The
company we have analyzed has drawn
positive experience from robotics, and we
believe that these innovations will be
important in the future for the success of
many businesses. many businesses.
The critical factor is to know how to take
these opportunities, which are already
available now, because as we said
previously: the future is already here!
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