Cost Savings with Robots

Replac­ing man­u­al work­ers with an auto­mat­ed sys­tem ben­e­fits the com­pa­ny by reduc­ing wast­ed time and mon­ey while increas­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. Robots are begin­ning to replace pneu­mat­ic slides, cams, and oth­er com­po­nents of fixed-automa­tion lines. 

Over the last decade, the cost of robot work­cells has decreased by 5 – 10% per year. While the cost decreas­es, the speed and through­put of robots has increased sig­nif­i­cant­ly, result­ing in low­er cost per assem­bly and cost per placement.

As costs are decreas­ing, robots are being recruit­ed for appli­ca­tions that have gen­er­al­ly been per­formed by humans. Repet­i­tive motion has result­ed in poten­tial­ly high costs in injury lia­bil­i­ty, and robots can replace this tra­di­tion­al­ly human task with­out the lia­bil­i­ty expens­es. Robots can run ²⁴⁄₇, and can per­form 2 – 3 shifts in the time it would have tak­en a human to com­plete one. This saves labor costs while increas­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, boost­ing the company’s sales.

Through­out most indus­tries, the cost to sup­port robot­ics is decreas­ing with the emer­gence of remote diag­nos­tics and oth­er online sup­port tools. Robot ven­dors and sys­tem inte­gra­tors can con­duct field diag­nos­tics over web-based inter­faces, reduc­ing the time to repair prob­lems. Less down­time leads to more work time, which leads to saved costs.

As fos­sil fuels prices soar, reduc­ing the cost of the ener­gy com­po­nent of pro­duc­tion is para­mount. Deploy­ing robots is a proven method of sav­ing ener­gy costs. Robots can oper­ate and pro­duce prod­ucts while peo­ple are not present; they can work in the dark or in unheat­ed environments.

Fanuc start­ed the Save Your Fac­to­ry Ini­tia­tive in 2004 to edu­cate com­pa­nies on the ben­e­fits of mov­ing their man­u­fac­tur­ing back to the US instead of off-shore. The ini­tia­tive attempts to spread the mes­sage about hid­den costs of man­u­fac­tur­ing off-shore (such as a long sup­ply chain, long inven­to­ry delays, high ship­ping costs, and intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty theft). Through robot­ic and automa­tion, man­u­fac­tur­ers can remain com­pet­i­tive in North America.

In a glob­al­ized econ­o­my, using robots is one of the prime ways for man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pa­nies to thrive. New emerg­ing indus­tries, new prod­uct devel­op­ments, and cost reduc­tions in robot­ics, machine vision, and dis­trib­uted motion con­trol guar­an­tees the con­tin­ued pop­u­lar­i­ty of robot systems.

Robots​.com pro­vides Inte­gra­tion-Ready Fanuc, KUKA, Motoman, and ABB robots and has been sup­ply­ing all vari­eties of indus­tri­al robots to busi­ness­es across North Amer­i­ca. If you would like to learn more about the cost sav­ings robots can bring you, con­tact us today online or at 877−762−6881.