Ease of integrationĪdvances in computing power, software-development techniques, and networking technologies have made assembling, installing, and maintaining robots faster and less costly than before. It’s also made the task of programming robots easier and cheaper. The availability of software, such as simulation packages and offline programming systems that can test robotic applications, has reduced engineering time and risk. Today, these subjects are widely taught in schools and colleges around the world, either in dedicated courses or as part of more general education on manufacturing technologies or engineering design for manufacture. Robotics engineers were once rare and expensive specialists. People with the skills required to design, install, operate, and maintain robotic production systems are becoming more widely available, too. If you would like information about this content we will be happy to work with you. We strive to provide individuals with disabilities equal access to our website. As demand from emerging economies encourages the production of robots to shift to lower-cost regions, they are likely to become cheaper still. Over the past 30 years, the average robot price has fallen by half in real terms, and even further relative to labor costs (Exhibit 1). Falling robot pricesĪs robot production has increased, costs have gone down. Today’s most advanced automation systems have additional capabilities, however, enabling their use in environments that have not been suitable for automation up to now and allowing the capture of entirely new sources of value in manufacturing. In part, the new wave of automation will be driven by the same things that first brought robotics and automation into the workplace: to free human workers from dirty, dull, or dangerous jobs to improve quality by eliminating errors and reducing variability and to cut manufacturing costs by replacing increasingly expensive people with ever-cheaper machines.
This “lights out” production concept-where manufacturing activities and material flows are handled entirely automatically-is becoming an increasingly common attribute of modern manufacturing.
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