The automotive and sub-contractor manufacturing industries are today getting a major facelift by investing heavily in robotics. This trend has seen many manufacturing firms get the much-needed push-up they need to produce more and better quality automobiles. Universal Robots is on the forefront in making this possible by producing collaborative robotic arms that add safety and flexibility to every line of automotive production. The robots bring more value to the product and make the manufacturing process easier to accomplish.
While using robotics in the automotive industry reduces labor costs that alone is not the main reason to use them. Labor costs in any manufacturing process are not entirely what one should consider when investing in robotic arms. Other reasons why many automotive manufacturing industries today use the Universal Robots products are:
Increased efficiency
The use of robots in the manufacturing of vehicles and their parts increases efficiency as compared to the use of human labor. In most cases, workers get fatigue from long hours of work, go for sick days, take rest breaks, and sometimes just stop working for one reason or another. These breaks slow down the manufacturing processes lowering the efficiency. Robots, on the other hand, can take up more than three shifts in a day all year round without taking a break. The downtime taken by most companies that use robots is minimal because the only time the robots are not at work is when they go through the usual maintenance check-ups and tune-ups. With proper maintenance, the robots can work nonstop for over a decade.
Freed up time for workers
With the use of robots, human workers get time to attend to other duties. A robot can carry out a number of different tasks that would otherwise take several people to carry out. For example while, one robot can load and unload automobile parts, the same would require several people loading and a few others unloading the same parts.
Cut down on overheads
Labor costs in every automobile manufacturing firm are excessive. There is payment for managers, supervisors, other staff members, the cost for workplace restrooms, cafeteria and break rooms. Besides these, many companies have to pay bonuses, gratuities, take out different kinds of insurance policies, and pay salaries and benefits to the employees and other expenses. By using robots, many of these overheads reduce tremendously.
Reduce production time
One of the advantages of using Universal Robots is the reduction of production time on the automobile assembly line. One robot can process more work that would otherwise take many people and a lot of time to complete. This means that in one day, the production goes up by a larger percentage.
Save space and easy movement
The robotic arms from Universal Robots are not heavy and it is easy to deploy them from place to place within the plant without changing the previous layout of the production process. They are also not bulky therefore use very little space.
Universal Robots has three collaborative arms that integrate well with any of the existing environments in subcontractor and automotive industries. Vehicle manufacturing systems use the Universal Robots manufacturing robots the same way as other automobile and vehicle manufacturing robots. The robots are flexible and versatile and they work well in any environment and situation. Examples of situations that Universal Robots manufacturing robots handle with ease are when cutting laser rigs, making engine foundries when machines need molding, when forming presses, and in packaging and working on palletizing lines.
Other functions the Universal Robots robotics arms carry out with ease are assembling of the vehicle parts, screw driving all the necessary parts together, labeling of all the items and different parts of the cars, handling of the assembly line, and taking care of all the applications related to quality control.
Some of the automobile and subcontractor industries that use the universal collaborative robotic arms for their manufacturing and assembly processes are:
- Lear Corporation for assembly, screw driving, and quality inspection
- BAJAJ Company and Auto for screw driving, machine tending, quality inspection, assembly and for picking and placing
- Continental Company for picking, place, and machine tending
- Nissan Company for assembly
What do you think of the increased use of manufacturing robots in the automotive industry?
