IBA, as the premier business brokerage firm in the Pacific Northwest, is firmly established as a respected professional service firm in the legal, accounting, banking, mergers & acquisitions, real estate, and financial planning communities. Periodically, we will post guest blogs from professionals with knowledge to share for the good of owners of privately held companies & family owned businesses. The following blog article has been provided by Peter Yordanov of PWR- Packaging with Roberts (www.pwrpack.com):
The Benefits of Robotic Process Automation for Metal Manufacturing Companies
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a software technology that eases the building, deployment and management of software robots. These software robots emulate human action by interacting with software and digital systems.
The software robots are able to interpret screen data, understand commands, and quickly navigate systems, data identification and extraction. These enable them to perform a wide range of actions. They’re also able to perform these tasks faster than a human can perform them. They are more consistent in task performance than humans.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has efficiently been adopted by different sectors such as processing and industries. Its implementation has been adopted in different sectors such as finance, legal, compliance, operation, customer service, and Information Technology just to mention a few.
The metal industry such as laser cutting has been included in this technological upgrade. It has adopted the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology to benefit in the following ways.
Offers Increased Accuracy
The general human nature is to make errors, especially when the assigned task involves tiring, cumbersome, repetitive and laborious processes. These errors sometimes become costly to the company when they turn finished goods into rejects. The said rejects are in most instances dumped away since they cannot fit in the said purpose.
The assimilation of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), reduces the occurrences of errors. It largely reduces the overall company losses caused by human errors. To completely eliminate these errors, ensure that the underlying logics, as well as rules, are correct. Also, ensure the project is well-mapped. This will guarantee error-free production.
Increases Production
Let’s take a case study, when you decide to walk a certain distance, the more time you will take to get there compared to using an automotive. The speed also decreases as the journey progresses but when using an automotive the speed is constant. We will all agree that no human can work like a machine.
The adoption of robotic process automation for manufacturing in metal industries helps increase production. It’s able to produce more than a human can and the numbers are constant for example the use of robotic press brakes. Without it, the bending would be slow and probably with bending errors.
Resource Optimization
One of the key resources especially in the production industries such as metal industries is human resources. It involves human production. When human resource is used to complete laborious and tedious tasks, they get drained. The repetition of a single task day-in-day-out causes many to get bored and lose concentration on the work at hand. It results in the human resource getting extremely worn out to a point that they cannot come up with better innovation ideas to better the firm
The use of robot software in production takes away the tedious and laborious work. It also eliminates the constant repetition of tasks by humans. The move in return leaves the human resource with only light and expertise-engaging lessons. It creates room for engaging employees in innovative idea exchange.
There’s No Downtime
Depending on human labour 100% can lead to some downtime of production. Human labour has limited supply considering they need breaks, and rest time. They are also absent from work during national holidays, weekends, and labour-approved annual leaves. They are also entitled to other paid leaves such as maternity, paternity and sick. To some extremes, human labour may end up in a strike or a go-slow. All these factors affect production.
RPA is the best solution when it comes to solving the following issues. They have the ability to work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week non-stop. They do not need leaves and holidays. The RPA also reduces the number of workforces needed, it makes it affordable to have more workforce to maximise the general output.
Empowers Workforce
It is a notion by many that the adoption of robotic process automation is slowly taking over human jobs. It is all a misconception. The adoption of RPA does not take away the human job instead, it only enhances the operation and production. It makes metal production easy and faster. The workforce gets empowered when RPA is adopted in the metal industry. The industry is able to satisfy the market needs without overworking the employee.
Has No Training Time
One of the most expensive parts of having a viable human resource is undertaking a serious series of pieces of training. They are aimed at improving the output per head and trying to enhance the quality. Unlike human labour, the RPA only requires accurate programming and the results will be magnificent. The adoption of RPA enhances production time and quality without the vigorous and expensive training.
Facilitates Better Analytics
It’s through data that companies are able to have an insight into the best practices to adopt. It also helps the metal industry to plan ahead and gain the most out of its production. The data must be accurate to make elaborate and accurate decisions. The RPA provides the metal industries with the needed data to facilitate growth and improvements. It does so by identifying possible gaps and streamlining the production line. It generally facilitates efficient production. It has access to a wider range of data beyond what humans can access. By focusing on the data from RPA, more decisions are arrived at.
Enhances Security
Theft is a common problem associated with many production industries. The metal industry is not left out in this menace. Using robotic process automation helps keep theft at bay. Most production theft is simply hidden in production errors. The RPA is efficient and keeps a record of every material and the output received. This increases accountability and reduces instances of theft. It hence helps in maximizing profits and utility.
Conclusion
A metal industry is established to bring in and maximize profits. Hence cutting down on production and increasing efficiency leads to increased profits. It also enhances market trust and helps in stabilizing and increasing customers. The best way to achieve this, especially in the metal industry, is to adopt Robotic Process Automation.
If you have questions relating to the content of this article, Peter Yordanov would welcome the opportunity to answer them. Mr. Yordanov can be reached via email at peter@pwrpack.co.
IBA, the Pacific Northwest’s premier business brokerage firm since 1975, is available as an information resource to the media, business brokerage, mergers & acquisitions, real estate, accounting, legal, and financial planning communities on subjects relevant to the purchase & sale of privately held companies and family owned businesses. IBA is recognized as one of the best business brokerage firms in the nation based on its long track record of successfully negotiating “win-win” business sale transactions in environments of full disclosure employing “best practices”.