Future Development Trends of Industrial Automation

2019-04-08

Since humans began working, they have continually strived to transfer part of the labor burden to machines. Artifacts such as certain pulleys, winches, and cranes can be traced back to 3000 BC. During the Industrial Revolution, the invention of the steam locomotive replaced large amounts of manual and animal labor with mechanical power. The widespread application of mechanization and the initial integration of machines into operating systems were finally realized after the 18th-century Industrial Revolution.
Automation aims to improve productivity and reduce costs. High productivity combined with low cost is the foundation of strong competitiveness. The implementation of automation can be divided into two levels: the larger level is corporate logistics planning or enterprise resource planning (ERP); the smaller level is manufacturing process planning on the production line.
For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), manufacturing process planning should be the primary focus of automation. Automating steps such as design, analysis, manufacturing, prototype testing, and mass production can save time and labor, especially by shortening the time from order to delivery, thus enhancing competitiveness.
Most Taiwanese companies are SMEs, and some medium-sized companies have begun automating manufacturing processes. However, automation projects are still limited to technical computer applications, such as CAD, computer numerical control (CNC), and manufacturing controls. The use of computer software for integrated design, analysis, testing, and overall management systems is still lacking.
Anyone who has managed a factory knows the importance of factory automation (FA), which aims not only to save labor but also to improve quality. For example, in automotive repair, the transition from traditional manual machining to CNC automation means workers only need to perform simple loading and unloading, while all other processes are automatically handled and controlled by computers. This greatly reduces the demands on workers’ experience, strength, and skills, improves safety, removes gender restrictions on workers, increases employment willingness, and raises productivity—bringing great benefits to enterprise management.
The principles of managing automation systems are the same as those of factory automation. Automation encapsulates knowledge and skills into physical devices or machines to achieve automation goals. It standardizes and intelligently reduces the physical and skill demands on personnel, improves cost efficiency, and ensures quality.
Traditional management relies on policies and processes to enforce effectiveness. ERP solves efficiency problems, while the quality of management policies determines effectiveness. Implementing policies involves complex human factors and capabilities. Whether a general manager or manager can effectively implement management policies depends on their abilities. Effective implementation also involves human nature and capability. Even the most capable people have limitations in time and energy, and many corporate managers lack know-how, so good management tools are indispensable.
For example, adding an NC device to a lathe can greatly improve efficiency, reduce learning curves, save costs, and ensure quality. In management, good tools can embed management requirements, enable pre-management and control, and effectively solve issues of timeliness or effectiveness. Management Automation System (MAS) calls such tools management builders (MA Builder), which integrate WF, BI, EP, and other IT tools, combined with industry and management knowledge and know-how, to build Management Automation Applications (MAA) services.
FA is accumulated through various applications such as lathes, milling machines, presses, grinding automation, automatic packing systems, automatic feeding systems, etc., with the ultimate goal of full factory automation. Like FA, MAS also aims to achieve high-level enterprise-wide automation through different stages of management automation applications.
Both the large and small levels of industrial automation promoted by Taiwan Industrial Automation should be included. Due to social diversification and the need to increase international competitiveness, the possibility of mergers and acquisitions leading to large enterprises in Taiwan will increase. Existing large enterprises are also inevitably heading toward internationalization, making automation of enterprise resource planning a natural trend.

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