5 Disruptive Industrial Automation Technologies
McKinsey Global Institute ranks the Internet of Things (IoT) along with its application in multiple Industries as one of the “most disruptive technologies to 2025.” It suggests much of this growth will be at the expense of older technologies and new revolutionary shifts will force entire industries to slide into obsolescence. McKinsey warns that change is imperative & no business can afford to be among the last in the race of Automation. In the manufacturing automation business, IoT is advancing at a steady pace. There is a clearly strong interest among large end-user customers, especially for cutting costs and improving productivity for worldwide markets. Listed below are the top 5 Technologies Disrupting Industrial Automation at present :
Sensors & Automatic Identification
Sensors are currently proving to be one of the most widely adopted emerging technologies impacting supply chains. After installing Sensors, they provide real-time data on the location and the condition of a company’s supplies and products as they are transported around the globe, allowing companies to gain end-to-end visibility of their supply chains. It’s a benefit as more organizations are taking note of and continuing to drive sensor adoption rates up.
A recent Deloitte & MHI research identified sensors and automatic identification as the top technology creating the “always-on” supply chain. Sensors are used by approximately 44% of supply chain organizations, according to a survey of 900 supply chain industry leaders. The adoption rate for sensors falls just behind cloud computing and storage, used by 45% of organizations. A large number of organizations plan to implement sensor technology into their supply chains in the future. 87% of survey respondents said they plan to use this technology in the next 6 to 10 years.
In 2013, approximately 20 million sensors were estimated to be in use in supply chains. In 2022, this number is expected to grow to around 1 trillion, and by 2030, the Deloitte and MHI report projects around 10 trillion sensors to be deployed.
Cloud computing and storage
Cloud Computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.
At the pace by which Automation is gaining ground in our lives, by 2020, the popularity of the “cloud” will have grown significantly. There will be many pleasant changes overtime & Experts believe that all the present “no-cloud” companies will definitely start using cloud services in their work. After all, at the end of 2015, 88% of entrepreneurs transferred their companies to the cloud.
The future of cloud computing is a golden chance for a huge technological breakthrough for the companies using this technology today. However, in a few years, we will see that the cloud will bring much more benefit to the world than one can imagine now. Therefore Owners of companies should stay up to date on the latest developments in the world of cloud technologies in order to be competitive. Very soon, cloud technologies will allow working even faster and more efficient than today.
Industrial Robots
According to a report, In the year 2015, an estimated 1.63 million industrial robots were in operation worldwide.
An Industrial Robot is a robot system used for manufacturing. Just because they can be programmed to perform dirty, dangerous or repetitive tasks with consistent precision and accuracy, Industrial Robots are being increasingly used in a variety of industries and applications. They come in a wide variety of models with the reach distance, payload capacity and the number of axes of travel (up to 6) of their jointed arm being the most common distinguishing characteristics.
Typical day-to-day applications of these Industrial robots include painting, welding, assembly, pick & place, packaging & labeling, product inspection, and testing, all accomplished with high endurance, speed, and precision, & better than any human could ever do. They assist in material handling too.
Predictive Analytics
Predictive Analytics encompasses a variety of statistical techniques from machine learning, predictive modeling and data mining that analyzes current and historical facts to make predictions about future or otherwise unknown events.
This is an important new age technology which can improve the current capacity & efficiency of the industrial processes multifold because it can predict the future events, and adjust their present operations. The patterns so found in the historical & transactional data can be used to identify risks & opportunities for future. By successfully implementing predictive analytics the businesses can effectively interpret big data for their benefit.
Autonomous Industrial Vehicles
Vehicles used in the Industries have evolved over the period of time.
On February 2, 2018, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released a research report entitled “Industrial Mobility: How autonomous vehicles can change manufacturing” based on their study of manufacturers’ adoption of Autonomous Vehicles technology and their perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of integrating autonomous vehicles into their industrial operations.
“We call this industrial mobility,” PwC wrote, “and it covers diverse transportation modes from mobile and autonomous robots on factory floors to autonomous trucking, drones, rail and marine transport in public roads, airspace, tracks, and waterways.” In other words, autonomous mobility both within private facilities and outside, on public transportation infrastructure.
Approximately 9% of manufacturers say they have adopted some kind of semi-autonomous or autonomous mobility within their operations, with another 11% saying they expect to do so in the next three years. Those numbers are relatively less, but PwC writes that if ‘mainstreaming’ can be considered 30% adoption, then industrial mobility technologies are well on their way towards the mainstream.
The survey also indicates that manufacturers have given the most thought to autonomous trucks which help in transportation of goods, represent one of the most advanced forms of the technology and one of the last to see widespread adoption. Manufacturers seem to have given comparatively less attention to autonomous & mobile robots inside warehouse and plant walls, but there are strong indications of winds blowing in the opposite direction. PwC in their report made the point that since 2014, while Amazon has hired 50,000 new human workers at its warehouse facilities, it has also added 30,000 robots to work with them.
Now that you know the Technologies in the Industrial Automation world, Get ahead of your competition by incorporating these technologies in your Business. You don't want to stay behind in the race. Do you?
Read the full PwC report here: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/industrial-products/library/industrial-mobility.html
Participate in the Automation Expo 2018 as an Exhibitor or as a Visitor: http://www.automationindiaexpo.com/
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