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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
April 2021 #13261 Page #77
Adverti$$er
April Showers Bring May Flowers and Automation By Chris Scott
y April of each year, we’re ready to embrace the change Spring brings. Longer days, sunshine, warmer weather, baseball season, my corvette comes out of hibernation… the list goes on.
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Another change we’re fully embracing is the offsite manufacturing growth happening within our industry. The demand for high quality, cost effective housing paired with the lack of a skilled reliable workforce is causing many to look for different solutions. This is the driving force behind the implementation of different forms of automation. While this transition to automation is exciting, there are many opportunities and pitfalls when considering implementing automation into a manufacturing line. In this article, we’ll dive into getting started with automation. Let’s start with a story that I promise will turn into an educational analogy. The first corvette that I restored was a ’77 with a 350 engine – and that car was an absolute dog. While it looked nice, due to the fiberglass body, it was simply too heavy for the 350, even after replacing the whole top end. So, I sold the ’77 and proceeded to look for more power and found an ’80 corvette with a 383 engine that had extra work done to it. The car and engine look and perform excellent. The point I’m trying to make: When talking automation, don’t get sidetracked by shiny good-looking parts. The most overlooked part of the automation puzzle is software. When implementing automation to any process, the first thing that should be done is making sure you have the right software solution that will provide the power that will be needed. Not all software is created equal. Selecting the correct software for your operation that also works with your ERP system and your equipment is key.
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