One of the worst hit sectors in the trade conflict between the Chinese and American governments is the robotic industry. Reports from the Robotic division of Fanuc Group stated that from April to September 2019, revenue tipped 11.5% when compared to 2018. ABB’s supply of robots was not spared as they dropped by 18% and revenues dropped by 6%.
The same was the fate of Yaskawa Geoup where sales of robots dropped by 9% in a six-month period ending in August.
It was not all gloomy during the period in review as Teradyne, makers of cobots or collaborative robots reported an increase in revenues of 4%. Cobot are designed to work alongside humans and this saw a rise in the use of collaborative robots in automotive industry. In October 2019, Teradyne announced that it was making plans to acquire a maker of more sophisticated autonomous mobile forklifts and tuggers which are well suited for bigger operations.
The success at Teradyne reflects a bigger trend and change in the robotic industry.
Although it is not mainstream, the adoption of collaborative robots has seen a rise in the industry than the use of conventional robots. Figures put out by the International Federation of Robotics stated that the adoption of collaborative robots was 23% significantly higher in 2018 than in the preceding year. Traditional industrial robotic installations on the other hand barely grew by 5%.
What is the reason for the steady increase in the adoption of collaborative robots you may ask?
We get our answer from Mark E Jagiela, head of Teradyne. In a telephone interview, he said collaborative robots are best applied to repetitious dull tasks that doesn’t require any thinking or brain activity. This holds true as constructing a production line that is 100% motorized is a Herculean task. Collaborative robots on the other hand are smaller investments that are targeted at specific problems such as the desire to perpetuate excellence in a monotonous repetitive task or the absence of human labor.
The purposeful use of cobots shows that it can take over arduous repetitive task while freeing up human labor for better more rewarding tasks without neccesarily overhauling the system. In this way, they act as collaborators to semi-skilled employees rather than replacements. Cobots reduce production costs, ultimately reducing the cost of the finished produce thereby increasing its order and employment opportunities for mid-level employees.
Where has the application of cobots been productive you may ask?
On this page, a perfect example comes in the e-commerce industry and not manufacturing like you’d expect. Amazon has employed the use of collaborative in its warehouse and this has reduced the financial burden of fast fulfillments and free returns. This has ultimately pulled in millions of customers to online shopping and created more room for employment, much more than was possible in the traditional buying and selling industry.
In the end, the use of collaborative robots in the distribution chain industry has added about 200 thousand jobs in the past year. These results serve as a pointer that production and financial sectors have lot to benefit from cobots. In the words of Jagiela, “Automation is the enabler, not the enemy”.