Consistent themes we find during our visits to companies up and down the NZ are firstly, there is increasingly strong interest in using robots to automate manufacturing

processes and secondly there is a tendency to want to automate everything simultaneously.

Our experience shows the key to success lies in simplicity and a step-by-step approach to automation. It pays to start by mapping out the tasks you wish to automate with robotic solutions.

This involves looking carefully at the impacts of automation upstream and downstream from where the automation is planned to be installed. Examples of problems that can occur if this is not done thoroughly include the product may not lend itself to automation and may require some modification to enable the transition from manual to robotic processes; and the downstream part of the process (eg manual packing) may not be able to keep pace with the new automated process. It may in fact be better to automate this process first.

Another key consideration when introducing a major change initiative such as automating manual processes is to get early wins through productivity gains and health and safety improvements. This encourages buy in from all and gives the team the confidence to take on the next automation project.

At Design Energy we have a team of engineers with 150+ years of robotic automation experience. If you like help with you automation projects contact us here.