Planning for success: Using automation and simulation in aerospace manufacturing

In manufacturing, even predictable challenges require thoroughness, sustainability, consistency, and cost effectiveness to create exceptional solutions. Today, automation solves many of these problems and keeps manufacturers moving toward success – but automation in and of itself doesn’t provide those solutions.

With efficiency in focus, automation meets many challenges. Many manufacturers discover – sometimes the hard way – automation only works well when it works appropriately. Simply adding robots doesn’t add versatility or functionality. To quantify what works and how to use it, automation simulation shows you results before buildouts and without costly changes. Planning, simulation, and offline programming can overcome many of manufacturing’s focal problems.

Limit the impact of workforce shortages

It’s no secret manufacturers face growing shortages of skilled labor. As baby boomers retire and fewer young workers prioritize manufacturing careers, plants and shops confront long lists of open positions. Automated machine tools help produce more output with fewer workers, but automated facilities carry those benefits even further. Plan the right application of automation technology, and you can offset the lack of skilled labor – with jobs becoming more attractive to the workers you want to hire.

To ensure you select the right automation for your unique production processes and output targets, simulation shows how the technology will work, what it will accomplish, and how best to use it. The right simulation provides a realistic view of actual results, eliminating costly confusion while clarifying approaches. The digital twin you build in the virtual world enables you to try, refine, and redo without the delays and deterrents of the let’s-build-it-and-see-what-it-does approach. Ideally, you want simulation software that accommodates any industrial robot brand or model and sets up any process, from the simplest to the most complex – without the error-prone tedium of manual programming.

Adapt manufacturing to new locations

Whether you’re building a new line, expanding a plant, or reshoring an entire process, you need versatile technology producing on-target results. Instead of rough estimates and guesswork, automation and simulation enable you to plan what you need and build what you plan.

Those plans work on two levels. First, you meet your current and future needs. Second, you improve on how you accommodate them. Today’s automation offers the sophistication and power to replace manual processes with robotics accomplishing the same results faster and more efficiently. If all you do is recreate your manual line in a digital incarnation, you’re missing out on automation’s power to rethink your processes for even better results. Digital twins and careful simulation help fine tune your plans so your outcome provides quantifiable improvements over the status quo.

Solve engineering problems

Inefficiency creeps in when quirky workarounds become entrenched processes. Automation smooths out procedural steps, speeds up the line, and frees employees from repetitive, potentially painful and even dangerous work. Automated equipment can tackle tasks humans simply can’t accomplish.

Offline programming makes every robotic movement predictable and repeatable. In turn, predictability helps step up output and increase quality control. Even manufacturers who make traditional products can benefit from automation’s efficiency.

Optimize your workflow and increase your productivity

“Do more with less” has become a rallying cry for manufacturers. Customers demand price cuts with increased production and quality control. Only automation can tighten efficiency without sacrificing output – and only virtualization can plan for workable automation without compromises and wasted time.

Automation also adds flexibility and outright nimbleness to plan for new products, new setups, and new results. Instead of a locked-down line only doing one thing, automation gives you the versatility to convert to a new process without enormous effort or cost.

Make automation run smoothly

Manufacturers want a quick return on every investment in their facilities. Automation is no different. With digital simulation and offline programming, automation meets your schedule as well as your demands. Automation can enhance production dramatically, especially in industries that rely on manual processes.

The right offline programming prepares your robots to run before they’re even installed. The software you choose needs to know every make, model, and type of industrial robot so it can plan and set up your robots’ duties before they report to work. Throughout the process of digital simulation, you see and correct any potential flaw in your plans before it can occur in the real world. Robot collisions, workpiece placement, process timing: they all show up in the software so you can clean them up before you build or install anything.

Know – and achieve – what you need

Automation transforms manufacturing, but only when you use it beneficially. The path to successful automation begins with thoughtful answers to essential questions. How do you expect automation to benefit you? What can you automate? What should you automate? When you’re convinced automation can help you but aren’t sure how to use it, it’s difficult to plan what to do. Simulation reveals the answers and plans the solution. Offline programming prepares the technology to run as soon as it’s installed. To optimize the results for your unique circumstances and needs, expert consultants can help optimize the process.

Quantify how automation works for you

Automation and simulation offer many benefits to manufacturers who want better results, better processes, and better output. Many manufacturers rely on simulation and offline programming technologies such as those from Visual Components to help them create strategic plans, build digital twins in the virtual world, and prepare for real-world automation success. The results make new choices available on the road to competitive success.

Visual Components
https://www.visualcomponents.com