The traditional thought on including automation in a factory setting was that it would perform all of the dirty and dangerous jobs, but not be able to do much more than that. This view, however, is quickly changing as technology gives rise to more sensitive and more utilizable. While most auto...
With the popularity of factory automation growing, there are more and more predictions about what the future of automation will bring to the manufacturing industry. There are three major initiatives that have been suggested recently, one suggests that efficiency should be replaced by fulfillment, another looks at moving to the...
Until recently, factory automation has been limited to large manufacturers that have large enough budgets to pay for highly customized robotics systems. Because of this, smaller manufacturers have been unable, and unwilling, to pay for these expensive systems. The most prohibitive part of purchasing factory automation is the installation process. The...
Chinese factories are home to the production of many of the electronic devices we use every day, like laptop computers and mobile devices. The manufacturers that build these devices in China have been looking to come up with a way to be more cost effective as wages begin to grow...
With the 21st century’s wave of distrust in technology beginning to wane, research is being undertaken to better understand the best ways to implement automation into the workplace. On such project, being performed at MIT has determined something interesting, that humans seem to be happier when robots are making decisions. [N]ew...
As the presence of robots in factories has increased in the last few decades, the opinion that robots will take away manufacturing jobs has been growing. Even so, the robots that have replaced human labor have also opened up new opportunities and jobs for people, rather than making them obsolete...
In the age of automation, manufacturers are getting further and further away from the manufacturing process and relying on machines and computers to produce their products. Toyota is trying to bring itself closer to the production process in order to better understand their production needs. Inside Toyota Motor Corp.'s oldest plant,...
The 21st century brought about many technological advances to factory automation, from basics like internet connectivity all the way to remote data collection and production control. Since the beginning of automation, with robots performing never-changing repetitive and dangerous tasks, automation technology has been changing, new tasks being automated, new technologies...
Coming out of the last recession, companies that had invested heavily into new automation technologies beforehand are less willing to invest again in new technology. However, there is new automation technology that would make new investment worthwhile: the portable assembly line. It uses battery-free automated guided vehicles (AGVs) with inductive power...
There is no way to prevent a factory from having an unscheduled shutdown from time to time. However, there are ways to prevent many of the equipment failures that can cause these shutdowns. One of the easiest preventative measures is conducting proactive, rather than reactive, maintenance. An analysis by ABB’s Process...
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