Automation vs Human Labour

Industrial maintenance is a very integral part of the manufacturing process. No matter if it is a large complex process or a microscopic detail, human labor is inevitable in Industrial maintenance. However, human labor also comes with its challenges that come along with it as well. One of the challenges being to maintain schedules and budgets that is required to keep the machines running. The other challenge is the human error factor which is inevitable for a certain portion of time. It can happen due to stress, lack of sleep, or any other reason that makes a human make an error.

These human errors are proven to cause production delays and costly repairs which can affect the overall strategy for a company and ultimately its survival. To keep production going without disruptions and production not being halted due to errors, companies have turned to automation to help keep their production stable.

Automation can be defined as the use of machines or computers to control or operate machinery.

Let’s take a step back and look at what actually happens in an automated factory. Let’s say you have an automated factory that manufactures car parts. You probably want high-quality production with the least amount of downtime. The only way you can guarantee this is by using the best equipment, engineers, and technicians to run it, measure it, and control it. As well as the best method of production, such as: Preventive Maintenance (PM), Continuous Improvement (CI), and Standard Work (SW). There are three factors that affect Quality: Product Design, Process Design, People.

A machine can fail or ships can get delayed or break down in shipping and you won’t notice it until they are installed but that can be thousands of rands lost and weeks before they are fixed. Automation is not cheap. It is not about saving on labor costs it is about maximising efficiency, getting things done right the first time, which decreases costs and increases profits.

Full automation ensures the best quality of work, high maintenance performance index, consistency, and reliability. It provides quality control which can be constantly observed and improved with the use of sensors.

The old way of thinking and doing things is dying. More and more industries are turning to industrial automation. They have finally realized that it is just much more cost-effective to use machines to do very repetitive work rather than human labour. This does not always have to mean more job losses.

Full automation can also increase your production capacity by up to 50% while freeing up human labour for more creative tasks. The downside is that full automation is not cheap. The initial investment costs would be high but if you are not concerned about initial investment, full automation will spice up your current industrial production.

Full automation includes communication, fire alarm, sprinklers, access control, lighting control, and MANY more! All of these enable the system to operate as a single machine working seamlessly among its peers. You can expect high uptime and optimal performance by implementing full plant automation.