Human drive is the key to automation in manufacturing

Mike Lewis, innovations director at Mpac Lambert explains the era of artificial intelligence and robotics, and how humans can make manufacturing more automated.

As robotics and artificial intelligence combine, headlines start to predict the end of the world as we know it. Whether used as a point of fear, or a more optimistic view of the future, there is no denying that human roles in the workforce are changing.

But when it comes to humans being replaced by robots, there are a number of factors that rule out the use of robots in many applications.

Mpac Lambert provides technology leading automation solutions to the medical and consumer healthcare markets, and has established itself as a leader in cutting-edge automation processes and transformational technologies.

Human drive is the key to automation in manufacturing. There is this obsession with job-stealing robots that can cause us to overestimate the impact of automation. Every machine, piece of hardware or software is only as good as the people behind them.

When integrating automation, we take a holistic approach. We constantly ask ourselves ‘why’. The automation needs to create efficiencies, be highly flexible and customisable. Ultimately for us, it comes down to design – everything needs to add value.

Automation helps us reduce uncertainty in complex processes and provides us with product consistency and quality control. But what it doesn’t do is have the flexibility and dexterity of the human hand. Automation can’t think, adapt or react in the same way that people can.

Instead, we focus on seamless integration, and building machines that work with people, not in replacement of. People are able to provide muscle, whilst machines provide added cognition, and both are crucial to accomplishing a given task.

At Mpac Lambert, innovation is key. It offers us opportunities for new efficiencies as well as products and processes. We work with clients to design and develop products and its manufacturing processes.

We detail all proposed automation and evaluate its impact on the product design and production process so the resulting effect is improved product quality, automation throughput and efficiency.

Mpac Lambert www.lamberteng.com