Robot icebergs

Citation

Loughlin, C. (1998), "Robot icebergs", Assembly Automation, Vol. 18 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.1998.03318baa.001

Robot icebergs

Robot icebergs

The automotive industry (our theme for this issue) has always been a bit special. Not only was the production line invented to support it, but it remains a major industry with a distorting influence on statistics. The British Robot Association recently announced the 1997 robot sales for the UK. This saw the numbers of robots sold leap by a massive 60 per cent over those for the previous year.

The numbers sold into non-automotive industries had stayed virtually constant at just 520 units; however, those into the automotive industry went from 596 in 1996 to 1,274 in 1997. The bulk of this increase was due to a few major orders for 250 plus robots; however, there is also apparently a trend towards greater use by the suppliers to the automotive industry.

The BRA is actually rather disheartened by these statistics as they are keen to see robots being applied across a broader spectrum of industries. This would not only provide growth in the sector but would also help even out the peaks and troughs which inevitably occur when you can count the major users on the fingers of one hand.

I am not really one to extract the last drop of analysis out of a group of statistics, but one number that is depressing regardless of any amount of numerical adjustment is that the total number of robots sold into assembly applications was just 55.

Fifty-five ­ I have seen single production lines in Singapore and Japan with as many robots and yet here in the UK it is the best we can do with a whole country to play with. Oh I know people will say that things are different over here and that anyway the Japanese call anything that moves a robot, but this is simply not true. They do use a broad spectrum of different robots, but they are robots. And things are not that different over here. More and more we live in a global economy and the same products are produced wherever appears most suitable at the time. Labour rates do of course have a bearing on the issue but these tend to equalise quite quickly. However, experience of similar activities is something that adds value to a nation's resource. If you are good then you get the work and if you get the work you get even better.

Robots should not be seen as an end in themselves because they represent the tip of an automation iceberg, supported by impressive arrays of parts feeders, inspection systems and dedicated machinery. The value of this equipment can easily be ten times that of the robots themselves and the use of robots can tell you a lot about the forward planning and future prospects of the companies that use them.

I consider that countries like the UK must invest much more heavily in advanced automation and robotics or we will simply get left behind.

Clive Loughlin