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業界動向/Industry trends

Are You Ready For

The Robot Economy?

For decades, advanced industrial robotics have been predominantly pioneered and deployed by the automotive
industry, particularly by Japanese car manufacturers. Enabling technologies are making robots smarter and
faster. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) launched a manufacturing survey on industrial robots resulting in
some interesting findings about robots and the impacts on people.

As an abundance of robots and other automation Could a greater robotic work force drive the need for
technologies find their way into production facilities and more human talent to train, repair and administer new
distribution centers, as well as through supply chains, technologies, not to mention the talent needed to develop
manufacturers face new challenges with advanced the growing robotic technology industry itself?
levels of human resources and machines. Manufacturers
could experience awkward periods of systemic human- According to a PwC survey of US manufacturers, over
resource change as they introduce robots to more varied one-third of manufacturers responded that “new job
manufacturing tasks calling for greater human-machine opportunities to engineer advanced robots and robotic
collaboration. They will also prepare for the implications operating systems,” will be the biggest impact in the
of displacing human workers with robots through so-called manufacturing workforce over the next three years.
“botsourcing.”

Is It Really Top Priority? in the next three years include reasons that “they are not
cost effective” and “see no need”.
A Quick Look: From a strategic deployment view, despite strong
momentum surrounding the development and adoption Small and medium-sized manufacturers will likely need
• Annual robot orders in North America surpassed 20,000 units from 2011–2013 and a surge in orders occurred of robotic technology, there will nevertheless still exist robotics that can accommodate smaller production runs
in the first half of 2014. resistance to widespread adoption. Much of this resistance and more frequent set-ups and re-programming of their
• The number of globally published patents for robotic technologies surpassed 5,000 in 2013, the highest level relates to cost, expertise and a lack of understanding of robotic workers to adapt quickly for production of new or
ever, an increase from approximately 1,400 in 2004. how they could produce an attractive return on investment, variants of existing products.
• In 2005, 69% of all industrial robot orders in North America were made by automotive original equipment both up-front and ongoing, through maintenance and
manufacturers of automotive components according to data from the Robotic Industries Association. By 2014, programming of new tasks. Bigger growth in robot adoption will likely come when
that figure had eroded to 56%, offset by increasing shares by other industries including the food and beverage robots can easily produce in small-lots. Most small and
and consumer goods industries. According to the PwC survey of US manufacturers, 41% medium-sized enterprises will need cheaper and more
• A PwC survey of US manufacturers found the most common task was assembly (25%) followed by machining of companies surveyed do not currently use advanced easily programmable robots to make that happen.
(21%) with the least common tasks being warehousing and performing dangerous tasks (both at 6.5%). robotics technology and top reasons for limiting investment
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26 Asia Pacific Plant Management August - September 2016 27