Don't be afraid of the relentless march of automation. Industry 4.0 is really just intelligent manufacturing.
Rene Rose
By positive director Rene Rose.
Humans have long been fascinated by robots and automation.
I remember seeing Star Wars and R2D2 as a kid and thought the future would be clinical, cold, and full of little robots whose heads could turn around. I would have to take pills instead of real food because they would contain all the nutrients I needed to survive in space since my planet was sterile. It was interesting that these robots were shaped like vacuum cleaners, but anyway, I had no doubt that the future felt like a pretty scary place where there was no home for people on planet Earth.
Fast forward to 2020 and the future is here. Thank god it wasn't a Star Wars film. It lives from lively innovations and great ideas that move across the continents and set our imaginations on fire. People are inspired to look for solutions to make the future sustainable. We have robots that have nothing to do with vacuum cleaners and do the most amazing things. We have automated processes to deliver hundreds of items per minute as they are sorted and packaged by size, color, shape and weight. We have robots that work with people as employees and do the boring or dangerous tasks that we as people don't want. The future is neither clinical nor sterile. The future is pretty wonderful and it is still unfolding.
There are those who oppose change and fear technology. Industry 4.0 came and many of us (including myself) were still amazed by the idea of a World Wide Web that existed in the cloud and to which we could find the answers to almost everything. Industry 4.0 was talked to death, but we finally understand that it's really just smart manufacturing: getting information from our production lines and using it to make better decisions about our business and meet market demands. Our production develops together with the demanding requirements of our constantly developing customers.
The world has become more complex. Consumers have more choices. They are thinkers with a conscience and an attitude towards sustainability and well-being. Let's take a healthy life as an example: we have the ketos, the vegans, the paleos, the vegetarians and much more. How do you respond to this constantly growing customer base? Automation! This is the only way to adapt your production so that it is flexible and fast enough to meet these requirements.
Some believe that automation costs jobs. The truth is that automation creates jobs. It increases production and this requires more employees to control the upstream and downstream processes of this growth. Indeed, a company should make more profit through automation, which means that people can earn better salaries, be trained for better jobs, and develop their skills in areas that are more useful to the company.
If there was ever a time for automation, it is now. COVID-19 has caused toilet paper, hand sanitizer and non-perishable goods to panic off the shelves. Manufacturing should rely on automation to get the goods to the truck and on the shelves before you can say, "Sorry, one pack of toilet paper per customer."
I bet there are many manufacturers in these times who wish that they could implement their Industry 4.0 strategy faster and that they could now do a light-out process.
Automation is there to stay. It will develop and develop with us according to our constantly growing wishes and needs. We are closely connected and our desire for "more" and "better" will ensure that automation always fascinates us and inspires our imagination. For more innovation, more sustainability and more automation!
information
With a handful of experience in the advertising and marketing industry, Rene got a job as a marketing manager at a multinational company for transmission solution solutions. It didn't seem like the dream job, but it became the love of her life. She worked her way up and in 2015 founded her own company Positiv, which specializes in marketing for the manufacturing sector. Positively cares for large multinational companies and local manufacturers.
positivltd.com
