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We take a look at the potentials and probable downsides of automation, examining a few of the companies indicating a smarter, more proficient and sustainable approach to manufacturing.

The trend of automation is not showing any indications of failing, rather new industries requiring more and more automation technologies to be built in. Automation enabled Smart manufacturing has been turned the motto for companies. For example, Siemens has launched a Smart Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Chengdu, China, on 21 May this year. In the meantime, Ericsson is planning to launch an automated smart factory in the United States in 2020.

In the manufacturing circumstance, automation takes various forms. Whether that’s 3D printers that eliminate human error from the equation, quality control software increasing output or robots able to gather parts with unsurpassed speed and exactness. Currently, this activity has been supercharged by the maturation of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. The ‘smart’ manufacturing advancements help to instil automated solutions with the qualities of human workers. A ‘dumb’ 3D printer will persist to print even if there has been a crash in the process, wasting resources. A ‘smart’ solution utilizing AI and machine learning, however, could identify breakdown and take measures to cancel or restart the process.

An increase in automation for business is obvious, but anxieties continue about the impact such technologies will have. Research by Oxford Economics shows that, by 2030, 20 million manufacturing jobs will have vanished and as a result, lower-skilled workers and those in poorer countries will be affected. Rise in robot installations internationally, for example, was approximated to generate extra global GDP. The Oxford Economics research forecasts, the world will have some 20 million manufacturing robots by 2030.

Fanuc

To fulfill this requirement, many companies are growing to the challenge across automation sectors old and new. The world’s largest industrial robot manufacturer is Fanuc. As per Robotics and Automation News, the company has installed some 400,000 of its robots in factories globally. Initiated as part of Japanese giant Fujitsu and the company became independent in 1972. It is the most energetic company in the field of numerical control systems, i.e. programmable machines which might be competent in milling, punching or otherwise manipulating items dependent on the requires of their owner.

Emerson Electric

It is obviously essential to act with intentionally while implementing automated solutions, and thus, the services of automation professionals are often required. Multinational Emerson Electric offers one of the two sides of its business to provide automation solutions, and in FY17 the company’s revenue reached $15.26 billion. Providing automation services to industry, Emerson alters its offerings to specific clients, notifying on its website that its skill moves away from standard approaches developed in past decades. As part of this, one of the company’s focuses is on implementing the Internet of Things (IoT) in industry.

Wandelbots

Wandelbots is a German startup that focuses on ‘human-centered’ approach to robot programming. With raising €6 million ($6.73 million) in series A funding, Wandelbots expects to blow up and disturb the existing system of robot programming, and it differs between companies and systems, by introducing demonstration-based machine teaching. Wearing a sensor filled jacket, users can execute actions which are then simulated by robots, considerably reducing the time taken and cost of programming.

Although automation, as we imagine today, has carried on since at least the 1940s and the onset of numerical control, it is apparent that we are currently at the commencement of a new era of automation. With AI, machine learning, drones and other technologies all driving new developments in automation, manufacturing as we know it is being distorted, bringing new levels of competence and totally new possibilities to industry.