Automation Canada - Robotic Integration Issue - 13

INDUSTRIAL COBOTS AND LEAN
INTEGRATORS BRING AUTOMATION TO
SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZE ENTERPRISES
Until fairly recently, automation has been primarily been a big-company advantage. Several factors have now begun to level the playing field,
including the emergence of collaborative robots, or cobots. Cobots have introduced many of the same benefits to small and medium-size
enterprises (SMEs) that traditional robotics and automation offered large organizations. The big difference is that cobots provide a safer, more
compact, and more intuitive solution that can be implemented quicker and more cost-effectively.
Like their large, traditional robot counterparts, cobots have also spawned a new class of integrators specially adapted to the needs of SMEs who
wish to leverage automation. Unlike traditional integrators, these " lean integrators " are built for speed and cost/overhead containment rather than
handling large, custom-engineered projects, and they typically specialize in serving highly targeted applications or markets. These lean integrators
are further levelling the playing field for SMEs in highly innovative and cost-effective ways.

BIGGER ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER
The history of automation in large enterprises helps clarify the need
for today's evolution. More than a half century ago, the emergence of
industrial robots introduced revolutionary gains in productivity,
efficiency, and consistency for manufacturing enterprises. From an
embryonic start in automotive body shops and forging and casting
operations, industrial robots quickly spread across all industries. Few
manufacturers, however, possessed the resources or expertise to
design and commission industrial robotic solutions in-house without
help from outside experts. As a result, there emerged a new class of
system integrators capable of tackling large industrial robot
installations.
The general business model, staff structure, and project execution
methodology of traditional integrators evolved from the demands of
large-scale traditional robot customers. In addition to the significant
capital investment required to implement a new robot-based
production line, the process often requires disruptive changes to a
facility's power structure, floor plan, and operational procedures. The
risks implicit with trying to tackle such installations internally are
exacerbated by the prohibitive downtime cost. It makes good business
C A N A D I A N A U TO M AT I O N

sense to outsource a large project (and the associated risks) to a
traditional system integrator who can bring the resources and expertise
to specify, build, install, program, and troubleshoot the installation in as
little time as possible and with the highest probability of success.
The traditional integrators that emerged were often vertically
integrated operations that encompassed multiple shops for machining,
fabrication, welding, and assembly, as well as factory floors spanning
hundreds of thousands of square feet. Execution of a single project
often begins with a kick-off meeting among representatives of multiple
departments, including mechanical and controls engineering, project
management, sales, software, application engineering, and possibly
even finance. (The client meeting generally followed later.) The
integrator's agenda for a kick-off meeting might include a review of ISO
process documentation; discussions about project overhead,
capitalization, and cash flow; and the designation of a dedicated
project team.
Like industrial robots, these integrators were built for scale. To handle
the implementation demands of highly capitalized corporate players,
they were necessarily big, well-resourced organizations that could
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Automation Canada - Robotic Integration Issue

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