Future of Manufacturing (Edition 1) - Q4 2021

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Q4 2021 | A promotional supplement distributed on behalf of Mediaplanet, which takes sole responsibility for its content

Future of Manufacturing A Mediaplanet campaign focused on the

Edition 1

2nd Edition

launching Tuesday 21st December in the Irish Independent

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“The industry has a leading role to play in helping address the climate crisis, labour equality and the future of work.” ~Micheál Cassidy, CTO, Irish Manufacturing Research

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“Ireland is playing an important role in developing and producing next generation products and services.” ~Leo Varadkar, TD, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment

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The future of the manufacturing industry: Leading the way in tackling global concerns

Using data to help build consumer trust in products From heavy engineering and construction to consumer goods and healthcare, there is an ever-growing demand for product data from businesses and end users.

Mike Byrne Chief Executive Officer, GS1 Ireland

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ike never before, trust in manufacturers and brandowners will be driven by their ability to answer questions such as: “What product is this? Where did it come from? What is it made of? Can I repurpose or recycle it?” Questions which can be answered with the support of global data standards for product identification, attribute management and data sharing.

Product identification and traceability This year marks the 50th anniversary of the original GS1 identification standard; the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). It has become a cornerstone for product identification and traceability in over 20 sectors and its continuing use is testament to the longevity of GS1 standards as interoperable, globally unique, persistent identifiers.

Today, the standards provide the identification of “things” for the digital factory. As component parts and raw materials are transformed into finished goods, the standards support machine-to-machine communication for automating crosscompany and intralogistics processes.

The GS1 system of standards is designed to overcome the limitations of using company, organisation or sector-specific interface and are designed for use in any industry or trade sector. Assigned at point of origin, they uniquely identify all aspects of the manufacturing process, including upstream materials, products, or their individual parts as they are transported and transformed along the supply chain. This is especially critical as factories transform from manual to digitally driven processes with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

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Industry applications In construction, the unique identification of objects and locations as part of Building Information Modelling (BIM), provides for efficiency both in the build phase and in facilities management. Inventory management is significantly enhanced since products and parts can be easily identified, especially for Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO). By encoding a Serialised GTIN into a barcode on a label or RFID tag, all trading partners can verify the authenticity of the part and exchange data on its attributes and MRO performance.

As part of a global standards organisation, GS1 Ireland is here to help businesses extract value from the use of standards, to drive greater efficiency, cost effectiveness and digital transformation within their organisations.

Adopting the standards provides many ways for manufacturers and brand-owners to achieve their business priorities while laying the foundation for digital processes today and in the future.

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The future of manufacturing is intertwined with the major societal concerns of our time. The industry has a leading role to play in helping to address the climate crisis, labour equality and the future of work.

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s the world emerges from COVID restrictions, demand has skyrocketed across many sectors, yet COVID has also left many lasting impacts in respect of industry operations and how consumers interact with brands.

Achieving net zero Manufacturing can play a leading role in our transition to a net zero world, from product design through to adopting circular economic models, energy optimisation and supply chain decarbonisation.

A recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, commissioned by WWF, highlights that searches for sustainable goods have increased by 71% over the past five years, even during COVID. Life cycle assessment (LCA) reporting will increasingly inform consumer behaviour. Leading manufacturers will embrace this opportunity well ahead of the mandatory legislation that will inevitably follow.

Data enabled change Data is ultimately the lifeblood of making informed change. The twin transitions of digitisation and sustainability depend on making data-driven decisions. Intuitive decision making is not scalable nor repeatable. The next evolution of manufacturing ecosystems will require even greater levels of sharing. Sustainable goals are shared goals and initiatives that are providing trusted shared data environments will be key to the realisation of many of these objectives.

optimisation. A 2020 PwC report estimates that AI could have a 14% increase on global GDP by 2030 with manufacturing globally contributing over 10% of gains. However, to make this a reality, much more investment is required in R&D, skills and training.

Sustainable goals are shared goals and initiatives that are providing trusted shared data environments will be key to the realisation of many of these objectives.

Future of work AI and automation are unstoppable trends, raising questions about the future of human work. However, these technologies do not replace human flexibility or creativity.

Therefore, we are likely to see an increase in human-in-the-loop decision making, empowering humans to make critical decisions and address novel challenges, supported by flexible physical and digital automation.

During COVID, many companies reduced their investments in digitalisation and sustainability transformations, yet research indicates that continued commitment to these plans would provide resilience against future economic shocks. The twin transition will eventually stop being nice to have and will become the only model for future success.

The impact of AI in manufacturing Better data also enables the deployment of AI which is highly suited to manufacturing environments to address tasks such as inspection, predictive maintenance and energy

Contact information: uk.info@mediaplanet.com or +44 (0) 203 642 0737

Micheál Cassidy CTO, Irish Manufacturing Research

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Project Manager: Kate McSwiggan kate.mcswiggan@mediaplanet.com Head of Ireland: Ross Bannatyne Managing Director: Alex Williams Head of Production: Kirsty Elliott Designer: Thomas Kent Design & Content Assistant: Aimee Rayment Digital Manager: Harvey O’Donnell Paid Media Manager: Jonni Asfaha Social & Web Editor: Henry Phillips Digital Assistant: Carolina Galbraith Duarte All images supplied by Gettyimages, unless otherwise specified

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Developing a framework for organisations in line with the next industrial revolution Industry 4.0 is changing the way manufacturing organisations work for the better. A new collaborative project is focussed on helping Irish organisations to thrive within this next industrial revolution.

E Sean Costello Director of R&D, Innopharma Technology

very challenge is an opportunity for growth.

For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated drug shortages and the supply chain crisis. There is growing recognition of the need for a restructuring of supply chains and the onshoring of strategic manufacturing capabilities.

With technology as an enabler, Ireland can be at the forefront of ensuring the viable refactoring of sustainable and resilient manufacturing and supply of medicines in Europe. Much is already being done to achieve this in a green way with some of the biggest solar farm projects in the country been driven independently by pharmaceutical manufactures in Ireland.

Supporting businesses through digital transformation Innopharma, an Industry 5.0 expert, has proved itself as a North Star for pharmaceutical sector on the digital transformation journey by leveraging its three divisions in education, technology and technical services. People, culture and skills are central to the organisational management of change.

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The lighthouse project collaboration The Digital Maturity and Sustainability Assessment (DMSA) was developed by Innopharma for use by the Lighthouse Partnership in Disruptive Technology (LPDT), a cluster of Irish manufacturers, service providers and Government agencies formed with the goal of leveraging

sectoral competencies and best practice experience to accelerate the transition of current operations towards Industry 5.0.

The DMSA has been used in benchmarking the current state, identifying best practice exemplars and areas of opportunity and enabling the development of a data-rich strategy that considers the unique technological and organisational direction, roadmap and destination of the participant. DMSA is a proven approach to developing a digital transformation and sustainability strategy and this approach will be extended to other manufacturing sectors to bring a greater resolution to the benchmarking process.

Empowering the Irish workforce through education Innopharma Education programmes are designed to meet the skills demanded by industry now and in the years to come. To date, we have propelled over 8,000 graduates into careers in the sustainable, high growth industries of biopharma, medtech, ICT and agri-foodtech. We support individuals from diverse backgrounds to transform their professional careers. We develop the future skills they will need to thrive during the fourth industrial revolution.

We produce self-aware, empowered workers and prepare Ireland’s labour force for a human-centric, green and sustainable future. Our success demonstrates that publicprivate partnerships can deliver a measurable return on investment in people, skills and the future.

new business opportunities has been built. The group will now strive to build an eco-system that can be rolled out to the rest of the industry including drug product and biotech manufacturers.

Each site will be at a different stage in the process so it is important to design a roadmap that the entire sector can follow and share expertise and knowledge. Innopharma have played a key role in conducting maturity assessment for a number of pilot sites.

Supporting the pharmaceutical industry to adopt Factory 5.0 A consortium of companies are working to drive digitisation and sustainability within the biopharma small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients sector by adopting the principles of Factory 5.0.

F Matt Moran Director, BioPharmaChem Ireland (BCPI)

actory 5.0 takes the principles of Factory 4.0 and adds on sustainability and the need to ensure the needs of the employee are incorporated.

It is important for the biopharma sector as it offers the opportunity for sites to become more competitive through digitisation of their operations and also facilitates the sites becoming more sustainable – key as we witness the finalisation of the COP26 negotiations.

molecule active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) sector towards the principles that underpin Factory 5.0.

The cluster comprises a number of captive API companies including Janssen, Pfizer, MSD, Merck, Eli Lilly etc. a range of contract development and manufacturing organisations (CDMOs) including SK Biotek and Thermofisher as well as some technology companies including Analog devices and Siemens Healthcare.

A roadmap to support API sector A consortium of companies led by J&J and supported by BPCI and IDA Ireland has been established to develop a roadmap to support an ecosystem to bring the small

Creation of business opportunities Each of the API companies in the cluster have been assessed by Irish SME Innopharma to gauge their level of maturity along the road to 5.0. A portal for collaboration and

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Find out more at innopharma education.com

Keeping Ireland’s manufacturing attractive There is no doubt that as the projects unfold additional skills and talent development requirements will emerge. BPCI intend to roll out the project to drug product and biotech facilities in time. The support of Government through IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland is welcome and important. Given the supply chain challenges that the pandemic revealed resulting in shortages of some medicines, it is likely that the EU will look to reshore some manufacturing – a project like this can ensure that the sector in Ireland will be attractive for this.

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How manufacturing can create a sustainable future Climate change is no longer just knocking at our front door. It’s literally knocking it down. Industry needs to ensure that sustainability is a key priority area for business.

AstraZeneca is establishing a next-generation active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facility for small molecules at the College Park Campus in Dublin.

The $360 million planned investment is expected to create about 100 highly skilled direct jobs, including scientists and engineers and further indirect jobs.

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n early November, 197 nations came together for the United Nations COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland to discuss how to accelerate current efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change across the planet. After some last-minute compromises on coal, a revised agreement was reached, which is the most ambitious climate pact since Paris 2015. The deal aims to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The COP26 agreement effectively acknowledged that commitments made so far to cut emissions of planet-heating greenhouse gases were nowhere near enough and asked nations to set stronger climate pledges next year, rather than every five years, as they are currently required to do.

Companies—large and small —will also need to take steps to ramp up their sustainability efforts to help reduce negative environmental impacts.

Building a more sustainable business At Alexion, sustainability is at the forefront of everything we do, not least manufacturing, to minimise negative environmental impacts while conserving energy and natural resources.

“We all need to be good stewards of our environment and planet,”

says Shane Doyle, Senior Vice President and Head of Operations at Alexion. “As a pharmaceutical company, we have an obligation to our patients, employees and communities to develop innovative medicines and solutions in the most responsible way.”

In late July, Alexion Pharmaceuticals joined AstraZeneca creating Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, which is the group within AstraZeneca focused on rare diseases. As a leader in rare diseases for nearly 30 years, Alexion’s mission is to transform the lives of people affected by rare diseases and devastating conditions through the development and delivery of innovative medicines, as well as through supportive technologies and healthcare services.

Building toward a sustainable future “We have done a lot of great work around sustainability and our carbon footprint. Alexion’s recent integration with AstraZeneca will really allow us to take this work to the next level enabling us to achieve our sustainability ambitions,” says Michael Teehan, Vice President and Head of Integrated Manufacturing for Alexion.

In 2020, AstraZeneca launched Ambition Zero Carbon, committing to become zero carbon by 2025 across operations (sites and fleet) without carbon credits and carbon negative in its value chain by 2030.

These greenhouse gas targets exceed the science based targets initiative reductions required to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement, which was signed at the 2015 COP meeting.

During COP26, AstraZeneca, along with nine other global pharmaceutical companies launched Project Energize, a cross-industry renewable energy project. The programme is a first-of-its-kind initiative to drive increased use of renewable energy across the pharmaceutical supply chain. It will support suppliers in switching to renewables, significantly impacting their carbon footprint and our 2030 carbon negative target. It also sends a powerful message of collaboration and momentum towards more sustainable healthcare.

During the next three years, Alexion will move at an even faster pace in sustainability and has joined Project Energize with AstraZeneca in pursuing a science-based sustainability strategy, Teehan says.

“We all have an obligation to the world we live in to give it the best chance for the long term,” he adds.

“The less we rely on fossil fuels now, the better off we will be in the future.”

Shane Doyle Senior Vice President and Head of Operations, Alexion

Michael Teehan Vice President and Head of Integrated Manufacturing, Alexion

Bryan Mulchinock Director of EHS, Alexion

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Image provided by Alexion

We try to keep it simple and promote small changes that are applicable at work and home, like turning off devices to reduce energy use, proper segregation of waste to promote recycling and recovery, planting wildflowers at the sites and providing seeds to employees to plant in their own gardens to support biodiversity and pollinators.

Continuous improvements in operations help shape a sustainable future Continuous improvement projects accelerate sustainability efforts to help achieve climate targets.

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n 2019, Alexion proactively engaged an independent consultant who conducted a comprehensive environmental, health and safety (EHS) audit at all its manufacturing sites and research and development facilities worldwide to validate what was working well and where there were opportunities to drive enhancements.

The audit identified areas for improvement and, subsequently, each location developed specific action plans and focused on continuous improvement throughout 2020-21.

We’ve been focused on sustainability for several years and wanted to better understand how we could accelerate our efforts.

Commitment to sustainability goals “Alexion is committed to reducing our environmental footprint and ensuring the health and safety of our people and the communities where we call home,” Doyle adds.

The company is governed by a strong environmental, health and safety Policy, which is governed by our commitment to sustainability.

“Our environmental management system follows widely accepted global standards, including ISO 14001, and is backed by an extensive suite of in-house EHS standards,” Doyle says.

“We’ve been focused on sustainability for several years and wanted to better understand how we could accelerate our efforts,” Doyle says. “We took these findings to heart and are making changes today to further advance our sustainability initiatives in the future.”

Alexion focused on bolstering its EHS management review process and taking actions aimed at scaling and standardising internal reporting elements and improving in compliance activities to ensure continuous improvements could take place.

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Putting review into practice The Clean in Place (CIP) process at Alexion’s Dublin facility is a good example of a continuous improvement project by the engineering team.

In the CIP process, each item of equipment and pipework is cleaned before the next batch of product is introduced. The cleaning process uses hot water and cleaning chemicals to ensure the required level of cleaning is achieved. With the new CIP process in place, the use of the cleaning chemical was reduced by 83%, water usage by 45% and the time required to complete the cleaning by 43%.

At Alexion’s Athlone facility, the incoming water is required to be purified so it can be used in the manufacturing process. One of the steps in the process is reverse osmosis (RO) where some of the water that goes through the RO unit is rejected.

However, this reject water is essentially clean water that can be reused or repurposed. The engineering team looked at different ways to reduce or reuse the reject water settling on installation of a RO recovery skid to purify the reject water so it could be used in the process. This resulted in a 70% reduction in the amount of reject water going to the drain.

Understanding our environmental impact “To better understand climate change risks, the company also engaged a third-party consultant to conduct a Climate Change Risk Assessment of our major manufacturing sites, contract manufacturers, distribution centres and logistics activities,” Doyle says.

“The assessment considered and ranked potential impacts resulting from the physical effects of climate change, as well as those regarding the global transition to a lower carbon economy.

The findings are being used to prioritise actions for improved business resilience over the short, medium and longer term,” he adds.

Employees bring passion and commitment to a sustainable future Passion for the environment fuels the work of the environmental, health and safety (EHS) team within Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease.

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his team’s commitment to continuously evaluating and reducing our environmental footprint is definitely infectious,” says Michael Teehan, Vice President and Head of Integrated Manufacturing for Alexion. “They have taken some great ideas on sustainability and made them a reality.”

The team, which has decades of experience between them, works closely together, across continents, to develop and execute practical strategies that advance the company’s commitment to be good stewards of the planet.

Tackling tough sustainability challenges “By day, this team tackles some of the most complex challenges that impact the company’s environmental footprint and safety concerns. However, they also take some basic sustainability concepts and help to implement them across the entire organisation,” Teehan adds.

“For more than six years, the team has been educating their colleagues across the globe on simple steps that have big impacts,” says Bryan Mulchinock, Director of EHS at Alexion.

“At our sites, we run events that focus on different elements of the environment and sustainability such as awareness days on waste disposal, recycling and local biodiversity.

“It’s great to see how employees engage with these events that help promote and reinforce new behaviours in one another,” Mulchinock adds.

“We try to keep it simple and promote small changes that are applicable at work and home, like turning off devices to reduce energy use, proper segregation of waste to promote recycling and recovery, planting wildflowers at the sites and providing seeds to employees to plant in their own gardens to support biodiversity and pollinators.”

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Supporting food and drink businesses to drive down emissions Ireland’s pioneering food and drink sustainability programme, operating on a national scale, is bringing together government, the private sector and the full supply chain from farmers to food producers.

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rigin Green is the world’s only national food and drink sustainability programme.

It has enabled businesses across Ireland to set and achieve measurable sustainability targets that respect the environment and serve local communities more effectively.

Deirdre Ryan Director of Origin Green, Bord Bia

Sustainability achievements Currently, the programme collaborates with over 300 leading Irish food and drink companies to prove and improve the sustainability of the food they produce to meet the evolving needs of customers and consumers globally. Our members have achieved significant milestones across the supply chain, and account for 90% of our food and drink exports. Manufacturing members have set a total of 2,779 sustainability targets and established 13,600 initiatives between the years 2012 – 2021.

In addition to supporting our members in measuring and monitoring sustainability performance across the supply chain, we have continually introduced new services and resources to support manufacturing members in driving further improvements to drive down emissions from the sector.

Recognising sustainability performance As part of this programme evolution, in 2020, we introduced a new Gold Membership, recognising members who are performing at a high level or excelling in their sustainability performance. The number of Gold Members increased by almost 100% in 2021, with 51 companies announced this year. To attain Origin Green Gold Membership, a company must demonstrate exceptional annual performance in areas such as raw material sourcing; water and energy efficiency; waste reduction; packaging; and social sustainability.

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We will continue to demonstrate leadership in food sustainability, providing the food and drink sector in Ireland with the knowledge and guidance to embed sustainability into their businesses.

Pathways to net zero In March 2021, Bord Bia published Pathways to Net Zero, highlighting new procedures and guidelines that put carbon emission targets on a mandatory footing for food and drink manufacturers as the sector seeks to accelerate its contribution to the programme for Government’s aim of carbon neutrality by 2050. This marked a significant shift for the programme and will see member companies go beyond reductions of energy-related emissions, to include a more comprehensive assessment of their entire carbon footprint, including value chain emissions which incorporates indirect emissions associated with food manufacturing.

Looking to the future, we will continue to demonstrate leadership in food sustainability, providing the food and drink sector in Ireland with the knowledge and guidance to embed sustainability into their businesses, helping to bring a competitive advantage to the Irish food and drink industry and forging a reputation for innovative leadership internationally.

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Manufacturing is helping Ireland prepare for challenges of tomorrow Today, the sector employs over 260,000 people. Companies at the top of their market in areas such as biopharmaceuticals, medtech, electronics, engineering and industrial technologies are operating across the country.

T Leo Varadkar TD Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment

he story of Irish manufacturing is one of incredible transformation and progress. From printing computer manuals to making microchips for the world, from producing garments to innovative medicines, from a factory floor for Britain to producing leading products for a diverse and highly competitive global market, the manufacturing industry in Ireland is unrecognisable to what it once was.

Investment in research and innovation We have worked hard to provide the right environment for the industry to thrive here. Our low corporate tax rate was initially only for manufacturing. The sector was a huge focus for the Shannon Free Zone. More recently, we’ve invested in a network of research centres, providing access to the latest technologies, expertise and equipment.

Ongoing Government grants are available to support innovation, company transformation and growth and we are, of course, very proud of and continue to invest in, our talented and skilled workforce.

The sector has shown remarkable resilience over the past few years with the pandemic and Brexit throwing up unprecedented challenges and uncertainty. The industry and those working in it, have actually grown their operations over the period, which is an incredible feat given the circumstances. In doing so, they have kept supply chains going for products which are vital to

thousands of people, including medical devices and lifesaving medicines.

Preparing for the next challenge ahead I’ve no doubt that the industry will rise again to the next set of challenges facing us, and will play an important role in solving them. With the need to decarbonise and digitalise our society and economy, we will require innovation and fresh thinking. Our manufacturers are very future focused and recognise the importance of embracing cutting-edge technologies including, extended reality, additive manufacturing, robotics, and automation, as well as Internet of Things sensing capability, edge-to-cloud connectivity, analytics and AI engines.

Irish operations are increasingly the home to global companies’ R&D functions, meaning Ireland is playing an important role in developing and producing next-generation products and services. Our Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) invests in such cutting-edge technologies and supports collaboration between industry and our research institutions.

The future of manufacturing is exciting. Ireland is wellplaced to play a role in what comes next and the Government is committed to backing companies based here to seize the opportunities it presents.

Manufacturing transformations can help increase risk resilience The Irish manufacturing sector is facing unprecedented challenges linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, the climate crisis and competitors embracing Industry 4.0.

T Xavier Velay Head of Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, IT Sligo & Project Lead, Advance Centre

he pandemic, combined with Brexit, has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies and helped to reshape supply chains, however, weaknesses remain. Despite some attempts to localise or regionalise supply and production networks and to implement nearshoring, the dominant strategy has mainly been to increase inventories.

The latest advances in data analytics enable Planning 4.0 to redefine the end-to-end supply chain processes. The digitalisation of workflow-driven, multi-enterprise supply chain applications allows manufacturers to devise new scenarios, drive innovation, accelerate response times and even change the economics of production.

Sustainable manufacturing The targets for net zero demand a decarbonisation of the manufacturing industry. An important step for this is the

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electrification of the sub-sectors with low and medium heat requirements, using clean-energy sources. In addition to sustainable product design, manufacturers must take further steps towards cleaner and greener processes across the value chain.

Manufacturers that have fully implemented their digital transformation by adopting a datacentric approach and a collaborative environment can now access data, information and decisions throughout the lifecycle of their products. This digitalisation is a key enabler for up-scaling various models of the circular economy.

Smart manufacturing The speed of adoption of the various enablers for Industry 4.0 has exposed threats, but also presented various opportunities that will reshape several manufacturing paradigms. In terms of technology, the focus is on scalable and

obsolescence-resistant IT stack, fast-tracking automation programmes, cobots, connected analytics, digital twins, and extended reality.

With well-established lean manufacturing strategies, manufacturers have already fully optimised their operations.

However, they have not yet maximised the use of their own data.

The integration of quality and lean management models, with advanced analytics, could harness the value of such data. The outcomes of such a development will generate new models of integration that will be critical for the smart, virtual and digital factories of the future.

Addressing digital challenges Today, the digital-skills gap and cultural issues pose the greatest challenges to the digital transformation journey and manufacturing resilience. To transform the workforce of the future, University College Dublin, IT Sligo and TU Dublin, together with the HEA, founded the Advance Centre.

The Centre offers a flexible and modular portfolio of accredited courses addressing Irish industry’s current and future skills needs in the digital transformation arena. The Advance Centre plays a pivotal role in providing manufacturing employers with the human capital they need to remain agile and competitive in our ever-changing digital world.

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Find out more at advancecentre.ie

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Get hands-on with innovative technology at Dublin’s first automation hub

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COVID-19 has impacted Ireland in many ways, but one unforeseen change is that the automation of manual tasks has increased significantly.

Peter Creighton Managing Director, Reliance

Images provided by Reliance Automation

McKinsey report analysis suggests that 39-58% of the worldwide work activities in operationally intensive sectors could be automated by employing current automation technologies.

Reliance Automation, Ireland’s largest automation supply partner, has seen such a change first-hand within the Irish market where their customers are finding it very difficult to attract labour. The issue is apparent across the whole island, especially for repetitive, arduous and dangerous tasks.

This shift in the market has prompted the company to seek out even more new and innovative solutions to customers’ needs in our manufacturing industries.

As a result, full automation of heavy lifting, packaging, driving pallet trucks, manual picking and placing of parts and even handling dangerous components is now more commonplace.

Utilising mobile robotic technology Examples of innovations that are being continually deployed in today’s factories include the use of AMRs otherwise known as autonomous mobile robots. Previously these were known as AGVs but newer technology allows the mobile robots to now move around workers and obstacles safely and be programmed easily without any need for floor or wall sensors.

Reliance Automation distributes AMR’s from the world leading mobile robot brand, Mobile Industrial Robots A/S (MiR). Companies are

deploying MiR robots to simplify and automate logistical tasks like moving products between clean rooms and warehouses, moving pallets to storage areas etc. Typically, this frees up crucial staff for more meaningful tasks thereby improving job satisfaction.

MiR robots can be used seamlessly with many other collaborative technologies such as universal robots, OnRobot grippers and ROEQ accessories (carts, rolling conveyors) for the top of the mobile robot.

Full automation of heavy lifting, packaging, driving pallet trucks, manual picking and placing of parts and even handling dangerous components is now more commonplace.

Safe human and robot collaboration Another automation trend that is being deployed on the manufacturing floor is the use of collaborative robots, meaning robots that can safely interact with humans without the use of extra guarding or safety systems.

The robots are built specifically for this purpose as well as focusing on ease of programming and flexibility of re-deployment. Universal robots are the market leader and a partner of Reliance Automation. UR collaborative robots now have many compatible technologies to make the systems even easier to implement into production, by the end user themselves in many cases.

OnRobot is a company based in Denmark, Europe’s silicon valley for automation. The company has a vast range of end of arm tooling that clips easily and seamlessly onto the universal robot. The tooling is high tech and extremely intuitive. It automatically communicates with the robot so that minimal programming is needed to run an automated process.

The range includes palletising, electric suction grippers, finger grippers end even sanding and screwdriving tools. OnRobot grippers are fully collaborative, very affordable and additional safety validation is not necessary for deployment.

New automation hub Reliance Automation will be opening a brand new automation hub within its new facility in Ballymount, Dublin in January 2022. The hub will allow engineers and stakeholders to experience innovative automation technologies first-hand on a oneto-one basis with their technical experts. The hub will also house Dublin’s only training centre for Universal Robots. A launch of the automation hub is expected in the first quarter of 2022.

Interactive technology on display at the automation hub will include innovative products such as a world’s first collaborative high-speed delta (spider) robot with built-in safety scanners and vision system. A vision guided collaborative palletising system for bags and boxes, an intelligent bowl feeding system, a robotic welding system and electrical pneumatic replacements will also be showcased.

If you are part of the manufacturing industry and would like to attend the launch or book a one-to-one automation experience, please visit relianceautomation. ie/automation-hub/ to secure your place.

A no strings attached free site audit to evaluate automation possibilities.

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