International. Competitiveness can no longer be measured in terms of doing it first and in greater quantities but of doing it well and with quality always. For this reason, automation has become one of the key aspects for efficient industrial production.
Once the budgeting levels have been overcome, entrepreneurs determined to automate their processes must carefully plan what levels of technology they want to achieve, and be clear about the productivity benefits they need to become more competitive.
According to Schneider Electric experts, these benefits are very specific and have to do directly "with the increase in profitability of the products, competitiveness against foreign incursion, sustainability and local growth, as well as international projection if they wish. Considering that the most significant result of process automation within a company is the substantial improvement of product quality, process control and supervision, costs and productivity of operators, which allow companies to offer greater value in the market, against their competitors, whether local or international."
Three pillars for automation
On the other hand, brand experts say that productivity, efficiency and safety are the three fundamental pillars for the implementation of automation in industrial processes.
The first is productivity, which has to do with the relationship between production processes and the optimization of the resources allocated for these processes which must be implemented by analyzing the critical stages of each process, in order to optimize them and improve profitability.
The second is efficiency, measured in the ability to carry out processes in an agile way, consuming the minimum of resources and costs, without sacrificing their quality and safety. It is implemented by reducing execution times with the same resources or in the best case, using fewer resources.
The third is security that guarantees the performance of processes optimally, avoiding events that put at risk the integrity of people and the continuity of processes. Today there is a greater demand from companies for government regulations in terms of occupational health, impact on the environment, among others. They are implemented through the analysis of the critical stages of each process, identifying the causes that generate risks, and taking measures to counteract them, either by eliminating them or controlling them.
Faced with increasing competitiveness on a global scale, which is increasingly aggressive, more sectors of the economy are implementing automation solutions in their processes, but what are the industries most conducive to doing so? According to the concept of Schneider Electric, "they are all those Industries that have production processes of goods and / or services in which you have electrical and / or electronic devices operated manually on which it is expected in the future to have optimizations, monitoring, visualization and where human error impacts productivity".
Mature sectors for automation
Among the main industries and / or sectors we find the agro-industrial sector, made up of processed foods, livestock, sugar, poultry, coffee, milling and dairy industry; then we find the construction segment, in which brick, brick and floor companies and cement companies can take advantage of automation. The industrial, composed of metalworking, chemical, auto parts, assemblers, paper and textile companies, among others and the energy with companies focused on businesses related to oil, gas and mining, are also among the most suitable to automate their processes, "they say.
"Finally, there is the public sector where automation is applicable to the plants of utility providers. Such as water, gas, energy and telecommunications and government manufacturing companies such as liquor and defense companies. All these sectors have countless manual or semi-automatic processes either within their production lines or within their traceability and monitoring processes," explain experts from Schneider Electric.
Where to start automation?
Finally, they assure that companies in all these sectors must be aware of following a guide to plan, implement and make their processes more efficient, which can be summarized in three main steps:
In the first place, monitor, analyze, anticipate, plan, simulate and resolve, through the generation of preventive and corrective maintenance plans that minimize the risks of machine shutdowns and cost overruns generated by them and by work accidents. Most companies only solve when they have a problem, do not anticipate it and lose money for this reason.
Analyze the efficiency and productivity indicators of all processes. This allows you to identify the critical points of your processes to optimize them, improve the quality of your products, customer service and passing through, analyze the costs per production line, guaranteeing a smooth operation.
Finally, be at the forefront of technology as long as the return on investment is attractive to the company. The technology focused on automation and control allows to optimize processes and generate greater efficiency and integration of the plant "On-line" with the administrative management systems and therefore, increase the profitability of companies and customer satisfaction.
