When it comes to ‘futureproofing’ our local economy to bridge the gap between Australia and China, adoption of automation and intelligent manufacturing technology will change Australia’s economic trajectory.
As Industry 4.0 takes root in businesses across the globe, the opportunity to embrace highly-advanced technology and new, forward-thinking ways of working has never been greater. From smart cities and cashless payments to autonomous vehicles, there is no shortage of buzzworthy, headline-grabbing advances in modern industry.
One innovation that has become particularly important is intelligent manufacturing, or smart factories. A combination of cyber-physical systems, automation, and the Internet of Things (IoT), these facilities have the potential to rapidly transform business. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Australia has identified and embraced the benefits that this industrial wave holds. Automation adoption among Australian manufacturers has picked up substantially in recent years. According to the Australian Manufacturing Forum, there are around 83 robots per 10,000 employees in the country. This trumps the global average of 74 robots per 10,000 employees.
McKinsey has also identified the economic potential that the rapid introduction of robots could hold for the country. In its 2019 Australia’s Automation Opportunity: Reigniting opportunity and inclusive income growth report, the agency noted that this opportunity could add from $1.1 trillion to $4 trillion to the economy over the next 15 years, providing every Australian with $4,000 to $15,000 in additional income per year by 2030.
“As the country faces a modest two per cent GDP growth this year, and some economists speculate that the country could even face a recession in the wake of the recent bushfires and the coronavirus (COVID-19), is it perhaps time that Australian manufacturers grab hold of this automation potential and reshape the industry?” asks James McKew, regional director at Universal Robots.
Curbing economic concerns
As close economic allies, China’s halt on production has had significant impact on the local supply chain. Here, McKew notes, advancements in AI and specifically, cobotics can be used in areas where it's unsafe for humans to work or more simply, where Australian workers are unwilling to do the monotonous tasks to which cobots are so well suited.
“One of the latest and most exciting robotic breakthroughs, collaborative robots or cobots – robots that work alongside human operators safely – enable businesses to improve cost efficiency, productivity, and output quality. These intelligent tools foster a more inclusive workspace, too, by relieving workers from strenuous, repetitive and sometimes dangerous tasks so they can focus on higher-value assignments,” McKew notes.
Cobots are user-friendly, flexible, compact, safe, and have a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) compared to traditional industrial robots. TCO includes both direct and indirect costs, including maintenance, factory floor upgrades (including the ease a cobot can be re-deployed), employee training, and safety barriers, all of which are factors that typically apply to traditional industrial robots. Cobots are also less costly to set up, which further makes them a financially attractive option for manufacturers turning to automation for the first time.
What can we learn from COVID-19
Besides finding a vaccine or a cure, automation has now also been lauded as one of the safest ways to bridge the gap between the virus and service delivery.
In light of the global COVID-19 outbreak, the opportunity exists to further understand and implement automation across the country, placing Australia in a stronger manufacturing position and improving its global competitiveness rank.
“The World Economic Forum’s 2019 Global Competitiveness Index revealed that those economies that have invested in innovation capabilities are best placed to revive productivity and weather a global slowdown,” notes McKew.
While Australian manufacturers are lagging slightly behind global and regional peers in Industry 4.0 adoption – compared to Korea’s 631 robots per 10,000 employees – the country is renowned for its high number of SME and micro-businesses in local manufacturing.
“Many of these producers are hampered by costs, which could reduce as the uptake of automation on the factory floor increases. To better compete as a major player in global supply chains, they should embrace the digital transformation with haste,” says McKew.
McKinsey supports this notion, estimating that between 25% and 46% of current work activities in Australia could be automated by 2030, helping to drive a renaissance in productivity, income and economic growth.
Innovation as a failsafe
As pharmaceutical companies are gearing up towards a possible increase in production while new solutions come to the fore, robotics will become a pivotal gear in the manufacturing chain.
Robotics in the pharma industry is performing a wide range of tasks: from packaging of medical devices and implants as well as assisting in surgeries. The robot arms from Universal Robots can be used for mixing, counting, dispensing and inspection to deliver consistent results for business-critical products. They can also be used for sterile handling and assembly of the small, delicate parts that are used in prosthetics, implants and medical devices.
Robotic arms from Universal Robots can be incorporated into the processes so that engineers could easily adapt the software to the specific needs of the drugs and the required tasks. The easy programming, installation and collaborative nature of the industrial robot arms allow them to work side-by-side with the workforce for the production of efficient, high-quality medicines.
“Further, two UR5 robots now optimise the handling and sorting of blood samples for analysis at the Copenhagen university hospital in Gentofte. The solution enables the lab to uphold a target of delivering more than 90 per cent of results within one hour despite a 20 per cent increase in samples arriving for analysis. All the while protecting staff from contamination and providing a safer working environment for the lab technicians,” says McKew.
Utilising robotics and Industry 4.0 technologies, the pivot to intelligent manufacturing may just be the solution that helps countries in beating coronavirus now and future viruses that might arise.
This content was supplied by Universal Robots.
Universal Robots was founded in 2005 to make robot technology accessible to all by developing small, user-friendly, reasonably priced, flexible collaborative robots (cobots) that are safe to work with. Since the first cobot was launched in 2008, the company has experienced considerable growth with the user-friendly cobot now sold worldwide. The company, which is a part of Teradyne Inc., is headquartered in Odense, Denmark, and has regional offices in the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, UK, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Turkey, China, India, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Mexico. In 2018, Universal Robots had a revenue of USD 234 million.
In Australia, Universal Robots is represented by APPMA member Scott Automation & Engineering, as well as Andrew Donald Design Engineering Pty Ltd; Auto Control Systems; Mobile Electrics Pty Ltd (Mobile Automation); and Collaborative Robots Australia Pty Limited (The Robot People).
