What will the factory floor of the future look like in the UK. ? Will we be delivering levels of automation like the ones already happening in Japan and China and how will the realities of the post covid world affect it.
For those industries that survive the current crisis, it is likely that further investment in robot technology will drive the success of these industries rather than hinder it.
The power of cloud computing, 3d printing and A1 will continue to be harnessed which will increase robot automation and new efficiencies will be discovered further enhancing many industries and the way they typically operate.
Robots are becoming much more highly adaptable, increasing the range of tasks which can be automated. They are also able to switch quickly and more efficiently between tasks massively speeding up production.
Machine learning tech and remote access powered by Big Data means errors will be quickly rectified maximizing uptime for factory production lines as well as increasing the quantity and quality of items produced.
The Foxconn plant in China has been trailed as a facility connected by 5g and wireless technology. At Foxconn, machines calibrate themselves, regulating their own performance with little or no human intervention.
The promise of industry 5.0 is a more realistic vision for the future, whereas industry 4.0 put smart technology at the forefront of manufacturing, 5.0 is imagining increased collaboration between humans and smart systems. Combining the two will add both speed and accuracy to industrial automation.
Humans are able to now collaborate more safely and effectively with machines and we know that this kind of approach is already delivering powerful results for some manufacturers.
Of course predicting the future is always a tricky business but one thing that is becoming obvious is that the most successful factory floors are the ones that combine both humans and machines.
