*This content was created by Huffman Engineering, Inc. with contributions by
Alex Flamme, Mechanical Engineer and originally published in Strictly Business – Omaha
In the competitive environment we all find ourselves in today, competing for talent and
technology, there is no greater time to plan for strategic moves to keep your company
productive and efficient with an element of automation. Ensuring your plant is up to speed
on the latest in automation will be vital to the future performance of your organization.
Everchanging Compliance Regulations
Whether you’re an industrial producer of food and beverage products, manufacture
life-saving drugs, clean the water we drink each day or provide the electricity our
homes and businesses run on, regulation is a part of your world. Everything needs to
be documented, archived and audited to ever-changing specifications. Automation can
let software programs do that work for you.
Workforce Shortages
It’s no secret we’re all looking to find the best talent and ramping up our workplace amenities
to try to hire and retain them. Why not let a collaborative robot (cobot) or an industrial
robot do the things no human really wants to do in the first place? Robots often do them
with more speed and accuracy than a human can to begin with and with less wear and tear
on the human body, saving healthcare costs in the long run. Automation on the production
floor frees up the human mind to do higher level strategic thinking jobs while the production
lines seamlessly run, making significant gains in production.
Improved Efficiency and Performance
True seamless gains in production come because controls and automation in processes can
work overtime often at speeds and cycles no human can execute. Alarming technologies can
be implemented into your processes to detect flaws a human eye could miss. Because these
technologies exist, partnering with a system integrator who regularly builds technologies
into complex processes will allow you to get the most efficiency based on the specific needs
and outcomes of your particular processes.
Cybersecurity
The sophisticated nature of cyber attacks is growing by the hour. We’ve seen everything
in terms of possible security breaches from a password written on a sticky note attached
to a computer on a plant floor to machines that have not yet incorporated multi-factor
authentication on their systems.
The way to be the most secure in this fight, that simply will not go away, is to combat
it by partnering with the most secure technologies and by leaning on subject matter
experts to help you. Automating your system with cyber secure technologies provides
a major level of security if done well.
Competitive Advantage
If meeting and exceeding compliance regulations, battling workforce shortages, improving
your efficiency and performance and protecting against cyber-attacks aren’t enough reason
for you as a business owner or manager to employ an automation strategy today, then we
encourage you to consider one last reason: competitive advantage. If you’re not thinking
automation, you’re falling behind.
Companies looking to the future with a shrinking workforce and higher expectations
from international markets will have to employ automation and digital strategies to
keep up with the pace of technology and competing markets. This is an exciting time
to shape the future of manufacturing and public utilities both in the United States and
across the globe. The systems that operate the basics of our society are dependent on
automation for the future health of our state and country and Huffman Engineering
stands ready to help you along the journey.
AUTOMATION UPGRADES
Five Reasons this Must Be in Your 2024 Strategy
Contributions by
Alex Flamme, Mechanical Engineer
Huffman Engineering, Inc.
