Collaborative robots are to industries now what traditional robots were in the 50s. They are leveling the manufacturing playing field as they are easily acquired by both large and small entities. Automation with the help of cobots adds competitive advantage to the small and mid-sized manufacturing entities helping them to provide high quality products leading to a variety of high quality, fairly priced products.
The use of collaborative robots or cobots helps industries in numerous ways.
Addressing labor issues
As baby boomers retire, industries are facing a challenge in filling the positions they leave behind. To solve this problem, cobots have come in handy. Cobots can be assigned tasks and duties that can be automated and they will deliver much faster and produce higher quality products than any human worker can. Cobots can work longer hours without the need for breaks. In addition, have much lower costs than human employees.
Rather than take away the jobs of those working in the factory they help get these people promoted and away from the boring and dangerous tasks. Instead of being people replacers, cobots are tools that help enhance the work of the human workers.
Advanced safety features
Safety is another benefit gained by industries for using cobots. First, cobots enhance the safety in the work place. They take up all the dangerous tasks from the human workers. For example working with toxic glue or paint or chemicals is dangerous and may cause negative health effects to human workers. This task can be assigned to cobots leaving human workers to better work and working conditions.
Second, cobot design. Cobots are designed to be safely used in the factory working side by side with human workers. They do not have any sharp or jutting edges. Rather their corners are round and smooth to ensure that they do not cause any injuries.
In addition, they have safety sensors that help them detect the presence of human workers in their work envelope. This causes them to stop or slow down to avoid causing any injuries or accidents.
Easy to use
Collaborative robots are relatively easy to use. With a short demonstration and some training from the manufacturer or their agent, factory workers are able to use cobots easily.
Also, cobots are quite easy to program. Programing provides instructions to the cobot on how to complete tasks assigned to them. Programing a cobot is quite easy and the factory does not have to hire specialized programmers to program the cobot. In addition, it can be manually trained on how to perform certain tasks and it will perform them exactly as trained.
Setting up a cobot in the factory is also fast. Unlike traditional robots that took a long time to be fully set up and start working, cobots are set up in hours and ready to start working. Most are already assembled and are plug-and-play helping the organization make savings on time and money.
Enhance workers satisfaction
As a result of the tasks they take on, cobots help employers improve the working conditions in their factories and enhance employee satisfaction. This is as a result of employees having to take up tasks that engage them creatively and that require more human input.
With cobots carrying out the dangerous and difficult tasks, employees are able to work in safe environments without the risk of health hazards or the likelihood of accidents occurring in the workplace.
This also helps save the factory large insurance costs and payouts to employees for accidents, absenteeism and higher rates of turnover.
Faster return on investment
Return on investment is a financial term used to measure how well an investment will do for the investor to enjoy a return equivalent to the investment made.
Collaborative robots have a favorable and fast return on investment. Factories are able to see improved production rates and better quality products that lead to strengthening the financial position of the company within a short period of time thus making it a favorable investment.
