3 min read
If you are in the industrial trailer manufacturing business, you will find that automation can play a big part in reducing your overall production costs. The largest reduction from automation can come from reducing repetitive labor costs while making your manufacturing floor a safer place to work.
A 2022 Deloitte report indicated that 62% of surveyed manufacturers were considering investing in robotics and automation to increase their operational efficiencies in 2023 (reference Deloitte's "2023 Manufacturing Industry Outlook"). A more recent Deloitte study (reference Deloitte’s “2024 Manufacturing Industry Outlook”) found that 86% of surveyed manufacturing executives believe that smart factory solutions, including automation, will be the primary drivers of competitiveness in the next five years.
Reducing Worker's Comp Claims
Worker's comp claims are a huge problem for this industry because industrial trailer manufacturing involves a lot of repetitive hard labor.
Automating key areas on the shop floor will significantly reduce the number of worker's compensation claims submitted annually. This will mean higher-value jobs for your manufacturing employees, freeing them from high-risk and labor-intensive tasks.
Additionally, automation will reduce production costs by increasing uptime because machines don't require sick time, downtime, break time, or vacations.
Another benefit of screw-driving production automation includes the control systems, such as the WEBER C30S Controller, which can solve complex screw-driving applications and return screw installation data. The C30S controller ensures quality and uptime, and delivers production metrics that are always available. It captures shop floor data directly from the equipment with no operator input necessary.
Having the right information at your fingertips will help you improve processes, calculate overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), and increase profitability.
Reducing Waste
Another way automation will save you money is by cutting the high cost of manufacturing. Quality control and consistent output will result in greater efficiency, higher-quality products overall, and reduced waste.
For example, the manual process of installing the oak flooring in a cargo box is prone to operator error. The wider tolerance limits of the wooden boards are due to variations in hardness, natural knots, and water content, and when a screw breaks off during the installation, it must be ground out, or the board must be scrapped. Repairing rivets that were manually placed incorrectly in the aluminum panels is another area that requires time-consuming repair.
WEBER can reduce or eliminate errors in both of these areas using an analog depth sensor and can monitor and make changes to specifications such as torque and angle while screwing into wood.
Increasing Efficiency
In manufacturing, efficiency means producing goods at the lowest possible cost because you have reduced the time, materials, and energy required to produce them. It also means expending less effort and resources because you are optimizing your existing processes and systems.
In addition to automation, organizations can also increase their efficiency by standardizing existing processes, practicing proactive equipment maintenance, investing in employee training and engagement, managing their inventory, and eliminating production bottlenecks.
We Can Help You Get There
WEBER has been designing and building equipment solutions for the assembly business since 1956, and we can help you reduce time, keep production on schedule, and cut the overall cost of manufacturing through automation. Contact a sales rep today!
