By 
Automation has risen to become one of the biggest determinants of success in business. Thousands of companies are running towards it in bid to improve their position and effect in the market. This has resulted in stiff competition in the business world. With almost every company automating their processes, it is easy for you feel the necessity to join in and compete in the same level.
You should however take your time and assess your business before making the decision since the process of automation can not only increase your productivity, but also lead to numerous losses if not well thought through. This article will look into the things you should know before deciding to automate your business.
1. Cost and ROI
When considering automating your company, it is important to know how long it would take for you to get back the amount of money you invested. If automating will take more time to return your investment then it is probably not the best option. The cost of purchasing and maintaining the robots or Cobots should also be considered with respect to the company’s budget to ensure that the company doesn’t strain its finances
2. Effect on Employees.
Traditionally, robots have been associated with many accidents and errors caused by a bad relationship with human workers. Some were even locked in cages or fenced! It is therefore important that you invest in Robots that will be accepted by your employees and will provide a suitable working environment for them.
Automation should result in better working conditions between the employees and ensure efficiency and productivity. The rise of Collaborative robots has allowed robots to work peacefully with humans and thus may be a good option for your business.
3. Effect on Productivity.
The sole purpose of automating your business is to increase your productivity. This means the results of automation should not stagnate but rather improve. Incorporating Cobots in your system should reduce the time it takes to package things, increase the number of customers you serve and even increase the number of active working hours.
It should also free the employees from some of the tedious, mundane and repetitive tasks and allow them to perform and learn better skills to help in the industry. In turn the overall productivity should increase.
4. Reason for automation.
This is the most important factor to consider before automating your business. You need to know exactly what process in your business needs automation and the effect automation will have on the employees working there. It also determines the scale of automation required.
Losses would be incurred if the scale of automation installed is greater than the need present in the business and thus would lead to underutilization of resources.
5. Flexibility of the Cobots.
The cobot installed should be allow utilization in more than one area of the business and overcome the limitations of traditional Robots which have been known over the years for their complex programs that make it hard to reprogram them into doing different tasks. You should therefore consider Cobots which offer ease in programming thus can be involved in multiple tasks.
The robots installed should also have a good lifespan to avoid the cost incurred in constant maintenance of the robots.
6. Availability of resources.
Before automating, you should consider different aspects such as space, power and even availability of maintenance guys. This is because, Cobots and robots may occupy space, do you have enough space to accommodate them? Since they are electrical gadgets, they require electrical power, can you afford to provide power for all of them?
Whenever the robots experience hitches, do you have technicians who will be able to repair and maintain them? Answering such questions should allow you to determine if automation is right for you.
Conclusion
Automation of businesses is the next big thing in the business world and as such has become almost a necessity for businesses to succeed. It should therefore be implemented with great care to ensure that you get the best out of it
Comments