IS AUTOMATION THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR YOUR PRODUCTS?

NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN MANUFACTURING AUTOMATION

These days no manufacturing production is completely devoid of automation, but new opportunities pop up daily to automate additional processes. This can help speed up your production, improve part consistency and quality, and often reduce manufacturing production costs.

But for some products it may not be as clear whether adding more automation will also add more value, whether it’s due to intricate assembly requirements or a lack of production volume. Balancing these needs with your budget, schedule, and end goals can get overwhelming fast.

So how can you tell if automation is right for your next injection molding project? Let’s break down some of the key steps to evaluating your production to decide if automation is right for you.

• Start with where you hope to end up. By having clearly defined parameters for a successful project, you’ll be better able to decide what’s needed to get there. Are your goals focused on high volume output? Custom requirements? These types of factors will play a large role in deciding whether automation can get you there faster. Talk with your manufacturer early; their engineering and manufacturing experts can help you design a solution that’s custom fit to meet your needs.
• Evaluate your product’s lifecycle. Do you expect them to be around for a long time? Investing in automation does require some additional buildup time. If you don’t anticipate a healthy lifespan for your products, does the extra time investment upfront make sense?
• What’s the expected ROI? Make no mistake. There will be costs associated with designing automation into your production. The question is, how soon will that investment pay off? By doing these calculations before you begin, you’ll go into the task of adding automation with a clear plan in place for success.

BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION

Automation provides a host of benefits – reduced manufacturing times, improved quality and consistency, and reduced labor costs, to name a few – but automation for the sake of automating isn’t necessarily always the right way to go.

WHAT TO DO NEXT:

Talk with your manufacturer to discuss the goals of your next project. By working together early in the design process, you can evaluate your options and find the best production processes for your products.

Contact KASO to learn more about manufacturing automation.