4 Reasons Why Deploying Collaborative Robots Leads to Reduced Downtime:

Extended downtimes are extremely costly for small businesses. The production delays that they cause usually lead to lost opportunities, dissatisfied customers, and a tainted reputation. As a result, any small business that wants to thrive in the manufacturing industry has to figure out a way to avoid the damaging effects of extended downtimes, especially if they exist in a fast-paced and fast-changing sector.

One of the easiest ways to avoid extended downtimes is to use tools and equipment that are easy to install, operate and redeploy. And as far as automation is concerned, collaborative robots are the best option. Here is what you should know about how deploying these types of robots in your facility will lead to reduced downtimes.

Easy to Program 

In order to program or reprogram a collaborative robot. This is mainly because cobots typically come with intuitive interfaces that utilize graphics to make it easier to program and run. As a result, installing them can take as little as a day. And since they usually come already armed with the ability to handle different tasks, reprogramming and redeploying them usually takes as little time. Both of these things usually translate to less downtime.

No Expertise Required to Program

Collaborative robots have been designed in such a way that one does not need to have extensive robotics expertise in order to program them. What this means is that in cases where a company has to do a pivot or to simply change their workflows, they don’t have to wait for an expert to do the job. They also don’t have to go through the process of searching for and interviewing candidates in order to find persons that are competent enough to handle the job. And considering the unpredictability of the skilled labor job market, this is a huge advantage that can save a company from having to suffer the inconveniences that come with unnecessary downtimes.

No Need for Extensive training Programs in order to Operate

Most traditional robotic systems tended to use overly customized software. In some cases, they even tended to use customized hardware and processes. As a result, in order to effectively use them in a company, the employees had to undergo extensive training programs. These programs cost a lot of money. They also took a lot of time. 

Therefore, in order to plan for overhauling a system or even changing workflows, companies using these robots had to make room for orientation and training. And since these processes were almost always necessary in order to reduce mistakes and to enhance productivity, they always led to extended downtimes.

Collaborative robots are extremely easy to use to a point where a user doesn’t really need any training. One doesn’t need extensive training with regards to safety precautions because they have in-built safety mechanisms that make them safe enough to work alongside human workers. As a result, a small business can cut on the time that is usually set aside for orientation and training, and this can lead to shorter downtimes.

Availability of ready-to-use end-of-arm tools

One of the things that make cobots incredibly flexible is the fact that they can use different types of end-of-arm tools without needing any major modifications. For example, if a business has already deployed a welding cobot and it has already been programmed to handle soldering tasks, repurposing it so that it can handle TIG or Arc welding tasks is as easy as fitting it with a different end-of-arm tool. 

You don’t have to order customized hardware or install different software. This is because a collaborative robot comes with this versatility already inbuilt. And when you couple this with the fact that these end-of-arm tools already exist in the market, it is easy to see why these robots are perfect for companies that want to avoid the dangerous trap of extended downtimes.

When you consider the benefit of reduced downtimes, in addition to the affordability and flexibility of these robots, it is easy to see why they are seeing increasing adoption in the manufacturing industry.