Clients are willing to consider labor saving projects at a less favorable ROI just to reduce staffing because staff is so hard to find. Labor shortages continue to push the introduction of automation and robotics, says Darrin McCormies, Epstein senior vice president, director of industrial services. Labor costs are going up faster than costs can be passed through to the customer-and labor availability is even harder, which makes labor more expensive, so other alternatives to handle the product need to be figured out, and automation is a way to do that. “We’re seeing much more automation, and we’re seeing companies take more risk on return on investment for labor savings,” says Steve Tippmann, executive VP at the Tippmann Group. The ROI hurdles have been somewhat relaxed to enable the use of more automated processes. “There seems to be much more willingness to invest in automation these days in all areas of a manufacturing facility that makes sense,” says Ed Wright, The Austin Company project executive. Cost justifications-labor the big issueĪcceptance of automation to solve labor-specific problems has increased. Not only did the industry experience strain in the production facilities but also the supply chain as it, too, changed course to meet shifting demands. Thus, the combination of evolving demands, production bottlenecks and social distancing significantly increased the need for automating manual tasks, especially those requiring close contact. Overall, this altered the investment of capital from strictly an ROI exercise to maintaining business continuity. It also created demand for certain products. The pandemic moved the point of sale of many products, specifically food production, shifting from commercial to consumer and creating production bottlenecks for many companies, says Mike Chambers, project manager, Burns & McDonnell Food & Consumer Products Group. In some regions, the availability and cost of labor does not lend itself well to automation yet in others, automation is practically required due to lack of available labor. to remove personnel from dangerous tasks), as well as to supplement labor where there are shortages in the local market. Now, there is interest in using automation for safety (i.e. “In the past we’ve seen automation generally implemented from a cost/labor saving standpoint,” says David Ziskind, Black & Veatch director of engineering. Automation comes at a cost and while attractive, it is commonly pulled back some when budgetary costs are exposed. Automation is being used where there is a labor-driven bottleneck or where quality expectations are required to be at a consistent high level, with little room for error. In many cases, manual labor may be sufficient for the operational task. With cost-conscious clients, automation is generally applied to the extent required to meet their production needs, says Chris Vigil, Black & Veatch project manager. As Ron Stewart, Jr., P.E., program manager | National Food Group, Shambaugh & Son says, “ companies are beginning to realize how handcuffed and expensive it can get locking in with one automation company.” Being brand agnostic is one piece of advice I received as a young engineer many moons ago, and it still applies today. Who better to provide a neutral viewpoint on automation-from building controls to process and packaging controls to warehouse automation-whether plant-wide or more focused on a problem process or packaging line? The benefit of choosing an A&E/C firm or an engineering house is that they’ve seen it all and can provide you with honest answers to your automation questions.Ī&E/Cs are typically automation brand agnostic-that is, they help you choose whatever equipment gets the job done. In the 44th Annual Plant Construction Survey this year, I asked architectural and engineering/construction (A&E/C) firms for their observations on trends in automation. So, this article takes a look at automation from a non-automation-vendor point of view-from architects and engineers who deal with not only designing and building plants, but also configuring and installing automation systems from several suppliers, and making them work together.
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