Automation Canada - Robotic Integration Issue - 15

LASER-FOCUSED ON LEAN SOLUTIONS CNT'D.
Lean integrators typically focus on mastering one or two end
applications within a regional market and often employ no more than 10
to 15 people, including the principal or owner, who often doubles as
the project manager and head of finance. Their operational footprints
rarely exceed 10,000 square feet, and they tend to deploy capital on
knowledge workers rather than equipment for vertical integration. All
this translates into much lower operational overhead while spurring
innovation, which enables lean integrators to be successful even when
taking on projects under $100,000. It also allows them to commission
cobot installations within weeks rather than the months-long process
required to integrate industrial robots.
Less vertical integration means that lean integrators tend to favor
off-the-shelf cobot peripherals and accessories over fabricating every
tool in-house to meet a unique specification. The make-versus-buy
debate usually ends with a buy decision, keeping overhead down and
speed of execution up. This approach has facilitated the growth of
partner ecosystems around cobots. The largest of these, Universal
Robots+ (or " UR+ " for short), is a global ecosystem of components,
software, and application kits that have been validated and certified to
be compatible-mechanically, electrically, and digitally-with cobots
from Universal Robots (UR). This approach further drives down time,
cost, and risk as compared with a traditional automation approach.
Specializing in serving smaller enterprises that have very specific
application needs may seem like a losing business model. The truth is,
however, that lean integrators address a much larger overall market for
their services. Most manufacturing firms in the United States are SMEs,
according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics on U.S. businesses; 83% of
establishments have less than 500 employees, 77% of companies have
less than 100 employees, and 69% of all companies have less than 20
employees.
The unique value proposition of many lean integrators boils down to a
highly targeted specialty defined by the targeted customer and
application, as illustrated by examples of two lean integrators. Both
focus on improving the efficiency and productivity of a specific
application for a particular class of customer. Also, notably, both have
C A N A D I A N A U TO M AT I O N

built business models that would have been difficult to impossible to
achieve before the emergence of cobots.

Troy Ojalehto (left) at Rapid Design Solutions, a Certified Systems
Integrator of Universal Robots, developed the initial machine tending
application with UR cobots at Toolcraft. The Seattle-based machine
shop's automation engineer, Brian Laulainen (right), was able to handle
the daily operation in addition to developing a parts rinsing and drying
station as an application add-on for the UR5e. Laulainen did the training
through the UR Academy, then supplemented with a few hours hands-on
training with Ojalehto.
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1

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Automation Canada - Robotic Integration Issue

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