You're not too small for robotic automation

Robotic automation is no longer the prerogative of large manufacturers. Thanks to innovations in robotic system integration, even SME manufacturers producing only a few items per batch can cost-effectively automate their production. In this article, you will learn how.

Limited capital. Time constraints. Shortage of technical staff. No performance guarantee. Solutions that don’t meet the flexibility requirements of high-mix, low-volume production.

The reasons for smaller manufacturers to hold off on investing in factory automation are plenty. They may have started as legitimate objections to SME automation, but now, thanks to the launch of the innovative, no-code integration platform D:PLOY, they are just excuses holding you back.

Meanwhile, your manufacturing facility is less productive than it could be, and your larger competitors are drawing further and further ahead.

You say you’re stuck in a vicious cycle. We say it’s time to quit the excuses and close that gap.

Why there is no such thing as being too small for automation

Take your production from manual labour to robotic automation in a matter of days with D:PLOY. This innovative integration platform makes it easy for you to build, run, monitor and re-deploy collaborative applications right there in your factory. And no, you don’t need a master’s degree in programming. The platform does all the coding and integration for you.

It is the perfect tool to hammer down on those outdated excuses for not investing in SME automation:

Limit the need for investment capital

It used to be that the enterprises that were able to automate their production line successfully were the ones that could afford to invest huge sums and not see any of it back for months.

With D:PLOY, setting up each robotic application is a matter of a few days or hours, depending on the application, and requires no programming experience. This means you can easily automate in small stages, one workstation at a time, thus limiting your upfront capital expenditure and enabling you to win back the investment faster.

Increase productivity and revenue faster

With conventional programming, robotic SME automation easily takes up to six months or more.

D:PLOY automates the integration and deployment of robotic applications so you can skip the most time-consuming programming steps. This cuts down deployment time by up to 90 % and enables you to start testing your robotic applications on site in just a few days.

Not only will the time spent on automation be significantly reduced; you will also start reaping the productivity and revenue benefits of your investment that much sooner.

See how BS CNC increased productivity with robotic automation

No programming experience required

Professional programmers are in high demand, and upskilling your current operators to handle the conventional programming and system integration of robotic applications is a big ask.

D:PLOY automates most of the deployment programming, and its app-like interface is intuitive and easy to use.

So easy, in fact, that in our tests, users with zero programming experience managed to deploy robotic applications successfully in 80-90 % less time than it took a professional programmer using conventional programming methods.

This not only means you can get started on the deployment straight away, but also that your operators can look forward to safer, more value-adding jobs in exchange for the tasks now carried out by the robotic application.

Ensure performance before a full roll-out

Low-volume, high-mix production often requires custom robotic solutions which don’t come with performance guarantees. And the prospect of deploying a fully automated production line with no guarantee that it will work is hardly appealing.

By automating in stages, one workstation at a time, you can test each application and adjust it to the specific requirements of your production before rolling it out to the rest of the line. This is made possible by the fact that D:PLOY enables you to deploy each application on the factory floor in just a few hours – zero programming, zero simulations needed.

This has the added benefit of ensuring that your automation project doesn’t become one of those mega-projects that invariably fail.

Respond to production changes in a few hours

SME automation has long been hampered by the need for flexibility. When your production items, batch sizes and palletizing patterns change daily or vary from customer to customer, you can’t spend days or weeks redeploying a robotic application.

D:PLOY renders this a non-issue. Now, you can redeploy your robotic applications for new items, positions or palletizing patterns in one to three hours with no programming experience, quickly responding to production changes without compromising on quality.

In short, D:PLOY does away with your automation concerns about limited capital, time constraints, technical staff, performance guarantee and flexibility and puts robotic factory automation well within your grasp, regardless of production volume and mix.

How to get started with D:PLOY