The Bigger Picture: Quality of Life

When Goss International won the Siemens Award, Jeff Upchurch, senior vice president of Research and Development, said it was all part of their mission to ” improve productivity and short-run agility while reducing waste and maintenance requirements.”

This is what automation is about, in a sort of jargon-filled way. Let’s break it down:

  • Improve productivity– that’s the primary reason for automation. Whatever you’re doing with a room full of people, automation lets you do it faster. Better yet, you can usually do it better. A machine can do the job more precisely, more consistently, and with fewer errors. You don’t want sudden creative innovations in the way widget parts are welded together or in the way packaging parts work together, so this means faster and better at the same time. That frees up human workers to do the jobs that require creative innovations, improving their productivity as well.
  • Improve short-run agility-It’s one thing to set up a system and keep it running. It’s another to be able to respond to changes. When Indramat introduced the first practical industrial brushless AC servo drives in the 20th century, the responsiveness was amazing. Being able to change the firmware modules in moments was a game changer. Now Indramat servos are being used in PC-controlled robots for even greater agility.
  • Reducing waste– Automation allows less waste of materials through greater precision and fewer errors. Energy use per item produced is also much lower with automation. Automation is green. Another way that automation reduces waste, we can’t forget, is by increasing safety. Time wasted in dealing with injuries and environmental danger is a particularly bad kind of waste.
  • Reducing maintenance requirements– Automated machinery breaks down less often. Communication among the parts of the equipment means greater compatibility and fewer problems — plus problems can be identified and dealt with more quickly. With increasing data collection in manufacturing systems, predictive maintenance is making this factor even better.

But all these terms break down further to something much more elemental: better quality of life. Consumers get better, cheaper products. Workers get more time with their families. We all get a cleaner environment.

When your quality of life is threatened by problems with your Indramat servo motors, drives, and controls, call (479) 274-8422 and let us fix it for you fast.

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customerservice@hyperdynesystems.com

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