Also, if your work environment comprises a large indoor environment with flat level floors throughout (and some people doing things here and there) and even multiple levels connected by elevator then this is a good environment for a MiR. You need a good WiFi network for the MiR to operate. If yours is a people-rich, dynamic, collaborative environment a MiR might be your best automation option. Often forklifts and AGVs are simply not an option – they are inherently dangerous and not collaborative. Do they have the experience and the internal authority to effect the change? Is there a cap ex budget? Is there an automation mandate to see the project through?Ībove: Collaborative Application – person and robot working together during unloading and replenishment.Ī Culture of Safety. Increasingly manufacturers and service providers across industries and regions are creating a workplace culture of “safety first”. In fact, in most industry reports at least 70% of manufacturers says collisions and other shop floor accidents were either a very challenging or challenging business issue. Project Champion? Someone in your business needs to be the lead person who champions this next level of transformative automation and takes responsibility for the outcome. Now or Never? By not automating a process than can and should be automated you are in effect making a decision to keep your processes as they are now potentially forever. Should this process be automated? Yes or no? But there is a more basic consideration to be made: Can this process (human-performed task) be automated? Yes or No. And up to now your options are: conveyors, AGVs (ie fixed tracks), forklifts, trolley-jacks, people pushing trolleys, people carrying items and so on. You know that you have a requirement to continuously or frequently move materials or goods from point A to point B in a specific production or process flow in a large indoor environment with human workers. Having said yes to the questions above, (congratulations), you might be on an automation quest as we speak. Firstly, is your company and its culture open to innovation and change? Is there an imperative or a mandate to seek automation opportunities for the obvious reasons of improved optimisation and performance, improved productive capacity, improved safety and reduced workplace injury, and reduced costs or improved margins? Believe it or not, not everyone can honestly say yes to these fundamental questions.Īutomation Considerations Now. If you say “yes” to many of these considerations then the MiR might be right for you. Yay or Nay? The Fundamental Considerations. Sure, that sounds great you say, but how do I really know if the MiR is right for my specific business? More than that, is it right for our business right now, in our current facility, with our particular goods and materials mix, and with our current semi-flexible work practices, and our particular culture, with all of our human workers and visitors still busy moving about doing their thing? Different industries have different needs but the MiR is able to solve a diverse range of challenges due to a broad selection of models and tools, all with built-in flexibility. The various MiR cobot models can allow – perhaps for the first time ever – some types of businesses to design and implement a Utopian workplace environment that can deliver the highest levels of both automation and safety currently possible. Once it has the map of its environment it can go from point A to point B – even through doors and lifts – fully autonomously. And a MiR like other collaborative robots can be easily and quickly redeployed via tablet and app to perform new and different tasks now and forever. SLAM enables the MiR to move through complex indoor environments like hospitals, offices, factories, and distribution centres that are rich in fixed (ie walls) and dynamic (ie people) obstacles – without using expensive and fixed guided tracks. Sort of like bringing your new puppy home and letting her explore the house. Above: Creating a map for the MiR using a tablet and the MiR app.
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