The Growth of Robotics in Manufacturing Sector
Published on : Monday 15-06-2020
Robots are primarily being installed and incorporated in the high production capacity manufacturing plants to enhance the overall business processes. Also, it is implementing in the small-scale production application in the manufacturing sector owing to its advanced programming set up and easily collaborated with humans to scale up and efficient production execution.
Current Implementation of Robotics in Manufacturing
Considering the current manufacturing sector, robots are using along with human intelligence. For instance, Tesla Inc. incorporated KUKA’s robots integrated with Fanuc machines to manage the payload capacity of 700 Kg at Fremont Gigafactory. Moreover, the Gigafactory was equipped with the self-navigate Autonomous Indoor Vehicles (AIVs) that can remotely monitor by humans to further shift goods between workstations.
There is term “cobot” is devised to intended for direct human-robot interaction robots within a shared space. Cornell Dubilier, a power capacitor manufacturer in the US, coined the ROI behind cobots through inspect capacitor installations and estimated the actual production, which results in doubling of its labeling process from 125 parts an hour to 250 parts an hour. Also, the company widely reduced the waste or idle time throughout the supply chain and initiate the focus of human workers into tasks related to enhance design and creativity.
As per the latest survey study from Capgemini, they estimated that the 91% of the all respondents are in favor to believe that the robotics process automation (RPA) saves the repetitive production time, while 84% of that RPA users are stated that the use of robots can significantly reduce costs.
The robotics are the helping hands for human capability through replicating human minds and hastening operations and transforming business processes with a high level of efficiency. It is expected the incorporation of robotics can assist the manufacturing companies through the adoption of repetitive tasks or back-end paper works such as invoice processing and purchase management order.
The Global Robotics Industry Market Size & Forecast
According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) data by DC Advisory, the global robotics market is estimated to reach USD 275 billion by 2025, which was USD 105 billion in 2019. Moreover, it also estimated the global annual supply of industrial robots which was 384,000 units in 2018, 382,000 units in 2017, and 294,000 units in 2016.
It is expected that around 1.9 million robots will be in operation across Asia in 2020. Moreover, it is also estimated that China, South Korea, Japan, the US, and Germany are the top consumers for robotics in the global market in 2019. These 5 markets are expected to account for over 70% market share in the global robotics industry in 2022, while these accounted for 74% in 2016, as per the IFR.
The key robotics manufacturing companies in the global market include Denso Corporation, Fanuc Corporation, Kuka AG, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, Comau SpA, ABB, Toshiba Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Staubli International AG, Nachi Robotic Systems Inc., Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd, Seiko Epson Corporation, Comau SpA, Adept Technologies Inc., Intuitive Surgical Inc., Stryker Corporation, and Maxar Technologies Ltd.
The Robotics Opportunity
There are wide opportunities for the incorporation of robotics approach by manufacturing companies to enhance the production capability and product quality to gain market position and take competitive advantage. Moreover, the rise in trend for Industry 4.0 is further creating the opportunity in the market for the manufacturers to invest in the expansion of the overall market growth.
The manufacturers are primarily focused on commercializing robots based on real-time data collection by integrated sensors along with factory-wide networks of machines and systems. This strengthens the consumer's power to predict the performance of robots, manufacturing plants, and the human workforce. For instance, the University of Lincoln’s National Centre has introduced the research and development (R&D) project by revealing state-of-the-art robotic arms to minimize the overall waste in the food supply chain. These initiatives are expected to create awareness and traction among companies in the manufacturing sector.
However, the lack of standardization and lack of understanding about the implementation of robotics technology in the manufacturing application is restraining the adoption of robotics in the market in the coming years. Moreover, the high cost associated with the adoption of robotics is the main challenge in the market.
The Robotics for Small-to-Medium-Sized Manufacturers
To create awareness and demand among the small-to-medium-sized manufacturers, the robotics manufacturing companies are implementing leasing models to accelerate the adoption of robotics. Also, simplification and understanding through continuous support to the users to enhance the ongoing need for robots. The primary use of robotics can also be helpful for the manufacturers having a lack of specialized production engineers in-house across small-to-medium-sized industries. The high availability of easy-to-use robots on the purchased based or on-rent can easily integrate into standard production processes to sustain efficient and flexible manufacturing for small-to-medium-sized manufacturing companies.
In conclusion, it is expected that the rise of advanced technologies, such as RPA and robotics arm as well as the propagation of e-commerce and growing need for automated warehouses are creating the opportunity to propel the transformation of robotics in the global market across the manufacturing sector. Moreover, the manufacturing sector is widely expanding at a high growth rate in other economies in the region such as India and Mexico, are further creating the potential for growth of robotics in the market in the coming years.