Not too long back, a lot of the functions carried out by machines and systems today were being performed manually and production rates were lower, and error rates were higher than what it is currently. That was until the IoT came and swept almost each and every industry off its feet with the advantages that it brought along with itself.
Automation across various industries has been so successful that the global automation market is expected to touch a whopping $350 billion by 2024 at a CAGR of 6.6% from about $180 billion in 2015. One of the best examples of automation around the planet is the self-driving cars and the automobile industry as a whole. Previously, when pistons were manually installed in engines, the error rate would be higher and once automation was introduced the error rates went down from as much as 1-1.5% to as low as 0.00001%. It is because of reasons like this that automation has now become a cornerstone of every major industry around the world.
This has seen the IoT meander into the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) which has managed to carve quite a niche for itself by managing to get a combination of sensor data, automation technologies, M2M learning and machine learning to produce connected factories and smart machines. It has been predicted that the Industrial Internet of Things will be the largest shareholder of enabling technology by the year 2023. In other words, IIoT can be described as a “transformative manufacturing strategy that helps automation manufacturing companies to improve quality, safety, and productivity in their plants.”
Amongst the main driving factors for the growth have been the widespread use of enabling technologies in government initiatives toward the implementation of industrial automation in various industries, need for mass manufacture and connected supply chain in order to cater to the increasing population, nonstop innovation in industrial robotics boosting its adoption in manufacturing and in manufacturing itself. Everything has not been smooth sailing though since things like limited re-investments and high capital investments have proved to be a bit of a deterrent at times. Apart from this, fluctuating oil and gas rates are also major hindrances since they directly affect infrastructure related investments.
From the above, it can be determined that industrial automation and control services are a trend which is here to stay. Today, the business world is all about collaboration, connectivity, and continuity. Companies that stay ahead of the game are the ones that are taking advantage of the latest solutions that technology has on offer. This has helped the men in charge to arrive at faster and smarter decisions thanks to powerful visualization and monitoring of all the production data. Let us have a look at some of the reasons as to why the implementation of industrial automation and control services have become more or less a norm for businesses around the globe.
Better efficiency
It is a well-known fact that machines have a better performance rate than humans when it comes to consistency. To add to that, there is no fatigue factor, something that a human will eventually experience if overworked and more often than not is the reason behind variation in products. This automatically translates into better quality of products being manufactured.
Higher productivity
It is not possible for any human being to continuously work for 24 hours nonstop. Automation solutions help a company to keep its production line running for as long as it is required without any interruptions.
Better data collection
Not only does this help in improving processes, but it also helps in reducing waste. One can reduce data collection costs while improving accuracy and collecting key product information.
Safety
Last on this list, but definitely not least, it is better not to deploy humans in conditions which could prove to be hazardous.
All these above factors collectively contribute to saving money. There may be the occasional glitch in these systems and solutions are man-made at the end of the day. Even the biggest and best like Apple and Google have not been spared, but they have bounced back to become even bigger and better thanks to industrial automation and control services.
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