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Companies are moving to automation to meet changing customer demands— and are improving their own businesses at the same time. Even low levels of automation can have a significant effect on improving your process, quality and cost.
Regardless of your needs, 3M has the resources and support to help you take the first step toward automation.
Launch your manufacturing process into the future with the 3M™ On Demand Bonding System featuring 3M™ VHB™ Extrudable Tape.
When we talk about automation it helps to understand what the different levels of automation are, where you’re at now and how you can best meet your production needs. Please understand that these are not rigid categories where you’re in one at a time – different parts of your production might be at each level, or a process might straddle two levels. The general categories are just to help understand the continuum of automation options so everyone in the discussion understands the possibilities.
As you can see below, there are several factors that can play into the decision about what range of automation best meets your needs right now and what to consider as a future option. Your decision for any process will be based on your part volume, labour, how precise the application must be, available budget and whether you do short or long production runs.
Assembly Volume: Low volume, job shop
Value of Parts: Least expensive
Labor cost: Lowest, inexpensive easy-to-hire employees
Quality Requirements: Quality can be achieved manually
Experience with Automation: None
Assembly Volume: Low-medium volume, job shop
Value of Parts: Less inexpensive
Labor cost: Low-medium less inexpensive easy to-hire employee
Quality Requirements: Quality can be achieved semi-manually
Experience with Automation: None
Assembly Volume: Medium-high volume, identical parts
Value of Parts: More expensive
Labor cost: Medium-high, more expensive, difficult to hire employees
Quality Requirements: High precision, accuracy required
Experience with Automation: Use automation or robotics today
Assembly Volume: High volume, identical parts
Value of Parts: Most expensive
Labor cost: High, most expensive, difficult to hire employees
Quality Requirements: Extreme precision, accuracy required
Experience with Automation: Use automation or robotics today