FOUNDATION FRAMEWORK
Mikko Urho , CEO , Visual Components are the key to repeatable , quick and accurate processes , with humans often unable to achieve the same consistency over the same period of time and across numerous products . Cobots are also flexible and space saving , so workers on the factory floor can safely work alongside them . Being smaller and lighter , they ’ re also cheaper to deploy .
To apply cobots to tasks , automated programming via robot offline programming ( OLP ) offers manufacturers the opportunity to create a highly accurate digital replica of the cobot and its work cell . Movements and associated workflows are fully reproduced . Staff can program the cobot concurrently alongside its deployment , ensuring its automated capabilities can be put to task straight away . Cobots and OLP can come together to support humans by streamlining their working day and giving them the opportunity to focus on higher-value tasks .
The customer-centric pillar
Smart factories of the future must be flexible , adaptable and able to continue production in the event of a machine breakdown . With time-to-market so critical for meeting customer expectations , manufacturers can deploy digital twins to simplify development , optimisation and commissioning processes .
Digital twins behave like the real environment and can give an accurate insight into the interrelationships between machines on the real factory floor . From here , manufacturers can make a number of optimisations . For example , they could create and test alternative production workflows in the virtual space that can then be deployed in the event of a machine picking up a fault .
End customers are likely to be dissatisfied with long lead times for delivery of ordered products . To ensure that manufactured products reach them in the shortest possible time , firms need to be looking at the gains they can make at the beginning of the product lifecycle . For example , digital twins enable manufacturers to identify opportunities for reconfiguring their layouts to optimise available floor space and devise the fastest path for robots to follow when
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