Liz Reid, our MD, is presenting today at the prestigious Institute of Directors in London on the challenges of a Norfolk-based business competing in the global, fast-developing industrial robots sector.
The event, part of the Brittelstand Symposium, features industry leaders sharing their experiences of business growth and innovation across a number of business sectors.
“In many ways, the UK is playing catch up with our international competitors when it comes to the use of robotics in industry”, says Liz. “Whilst the USA has 93 robots per 10,000 workers, and Japan has 213, the UK has only 33. I see this as a major opportunity for UK business to use automation to improve productivity”.
Liz will be presenting on the challenges facing the sectors we work with, including the welding, laser cutting, manufacturing and agricultural sectors where robots are changing the way processes are carried out, examining the key business drivers for change including:
• Cost – used robots allow a low cost route to automation
• Improved productivity – robots don’t tire
• Improved quality – consistency and accuracy in movement and handling of tasks
• Retraining and upskilling of workforce – redeploy current work force into value adding areas of business
• Skilled labour shortage – population and Brexit are key challenges
• ROI – the overall cost of installing a solution versus current cost can be recovered in less than 6 months (based on a scenario of installing a robot to palletise bags of aggregate)
She continues by looking at the various types of robot applications which can improve on processes including:
• Cobots
• Flexipickers
• Robotic vision systems
• Heavy duty industrial robots which can be used for: welding – spot and mig, pallestising, painting, sealing, glueing, press tending, and nailing.
For more information on her presentation and the types of robotic applications available, please contact Liz here.
On the back of this, Liz was also invited onto Radio Norfolk to discuss the opportunities for people wishing to enter the STEM sector – listen to her interview here:
