Manufacturing technology has been on a constant uptick for several months, and information and automation systems are becoming more desirable. There’s been a constant increase in demand for robotic systems, supervisory controls, information management systems, and more.
There are several trends emerging, but here’s a look at our top five:
- Increase in spending on automation
- Spending on automation is rising sharply. Manufacturers want to increase their productivity which in turns increases quality and reduces costs by using machines instead of humans to do more of the work. The total for manufacturing technology orders in the USA reached 388.27 million by May 2011 (according to the American Machine Tool Distributors Association for Manufacturing Technology.)
- Robots are more popular
- The use of automation across the manufacturing industry (robots in particular) was seen mostly in the auto industry. Now, the auto industry only represents about 50 percent of automation, with the rest spread across multiple industries.
- Advanced training
- Now that workers are being replaced by robots, it increases the desire for employees to be more experienced and knowledgeable. When more experienced employees are hired, it leads to increased salaries and training costs. Technical personnel are also in high-demand now that automation allows for more proactive monitoring and maintenance strategies.
- More emphasis on quality, repeatability, and safety
- Companies are now looking for ways to reduce costs and ways to remain competitive by keeping customers happy.
- Less space is needed in factories
- With the increase of use in robots, it eliminates the needs for large production lines and more vertical space is used. When less space is needed, it also decreases energy costs and other overhead expenses.