Before you automate the factory, start with one process.
PRG independently evaluates the manufacturing process that is hardest to staff, limiting production or driving excessive cost. It then determines whether automation makes technical and financial sense before you buy equipment.
Independent · Vendor-neutral · ROI-driven
Example: automated load and unload on a CNC machine, one of the process types a Manufacturing Automation Assessment evaluates.
You have a manufacturing problem. Automation starts to look like the answer.
Most automation conversations start with a pressure the plant is already living with:
What often happens
PRG’s approach
Start with the process. Not the robot.
The people deciding whether you need automation shouldn’t have to sell it to you.
Robot companies, integrators, vision vendors and equipment suppliers bring real expertise, and you will need it. But their business begins after a company has decided to automate. PRG operates before that decision, and answers a different set of questions.
- Is this process actually suitable for automation?
- Is the process stable enough to automate?
- Should the product, fixture or workstation change first?
- What level of automation is appropriate?
- What should the system actually accomplish?
- What investment can the business justify?
- What annual savings are realistically available?
- What risks could prevent the projected return?
The recommendation can be: don’t buy.
Start with the process giving you the most trouble.
You don’t need a factory-wide automation study to get started. Bring PRG one manufacturing process that is difficult to staff, creating a bottleneck, producing excessive overtime, labor intensive, generating quality problems, creating ergonomic concerns, preventing a second or third shift, or restricting production capacity.
CNC machining
Operator repeatedly loading and unloading a machine.
Injection molding
Manual removal, trimming, inspection or packaging.
Fabrication
Manual press tending, welding or part movement.
Assembly
Repetitive fastening, dispensing, handling or testing.
Quality
Manual visual or dimensional inspection.
Packaging
Picking, packing, labeling or palletizing.
What we evaluate
Observe the process
PRG evaluates the actual operation on the manufacturing floor, not a description of it in a meeting room.
Diagnose the constraint
Determine what is actually causing the problem before assuming the answer is equipment.
Improve before automating: never automate waste
A simple improvement may eliminate the need for expensive automation entirely. PRG determines whether the process should first be simplified.
Evaluate automation feasibility
If automation is appropriate, establish what it would actually take to make it work in this plant.
Build the business case
Convert the engineering picture into the numbers management actually decides on.
Every process ends with one of four recommendations
Strong technical and financial case. Proceed toward functional specification and equipment sourcing.
Automation may eventually make sense, but the process should first be stabilized, simplified or redesigned.
Potential exists, but additional testing, data or technology evaluation is required.
Volume, economics, flexibility or technical complexity do not justify the capital.
The goal is not more automation.
The goal is better manufacturing economics.
A business decision, not an equipment quote.
Process assessment
Current-state analysis of the selected manufacturing operation.
Automation feasibility
Technical determination of what can realistically be automated.
Improvement opportunities
Changes that should occur before automation is considered.
Preliminary automation concept
A functional description of how an automated process could work.
Capital range
Preliminary estimate of the investment required.
Financial business case
Estimated annual savings, ROI, payback, labor impact, throughput impact and quality impact.
Risk assessment
Key technical and operational implementation risks.
Clear recommendation
AUTOMATE / IMPROVE FIRST / INVESTIGATE / DO NOT AUTOMATE
The best automation is often the simplest automation.
PRG does not assume every problem requires an expensive custom robotic cell. Depending on what the assessment finds, the solution could be any of these:
Low-cost automation is what makes US localization arithmetic work
When a product designed for offshore manufacturing is simply requoted domestically, the number that moves most is labor content. Material and overhead are largely set by the design; freight, duty, lead time and in-transit inventory come off the other side. Targeted low-cost automation attacks the one segment that actually creates the gap, which is why the automation question and the localization question are the same question.
Directional illustration only. Segment sizes are conceptual and do not represent measured values for any specific product, plant or program. The actual structure is established during the assessment.
Labor content is the gap
It is the segment that changes most when production moves, so it is the segment worth engineering against.
Simple beats sophisticated
Fixtures, feeders, error-proofing, machine tending and vision typically carry far lower capital and integration risk than a custom cell.
Landed cost has more than price
Freight, duty, lead time and inventory carried in transit come off the domestic side of the comparison.
Design still governs
If the product itself was designed around offshore labor economics, automating that design locks the problem in. The design question comes first.
Where PRG can help
CNC & machining
Machine tending, handling, gauging, deburring and inspection.
Fabricated metal products
Press tending, welding, material handling and inspection.
Plastics & injection molding
Part removal, trimming, sorting, inspection and packaging.
Electronics assembly
Handling, fastening, dispensing, testing and inspection.
Automotive Tier 2 / Tier 3
Machining, stamping, molding, subassembly, quality and material flow.
Industrial equipment
Assembly, fabrication, inspection, testing and handling.
Packaging
Picking, packing, labeling, palletizing and movement.
Medical device manufacturing
Assembly, testing, inspection, handling and traceability-related processes.
Find one win. Then find the next ten.
Single-process automation assessment
Evaluate one operation.
Plant automation opportunity map
Walk the facility and rank every significant candidate by savings, capital, payback, complexity and risk.
Detailed business case
Develop the selected opportunities into investment-ready projects.
Automation functional specification
Define what the system must accomplish before soliciting proposals.
Vendor / integrator selection
Help management objectively evaluate competing solutions.
Implementation oversight
Design reviews, acceptance criteria, launch readiness and performance verification.
PRG stays independent throughout, helping management move from opportunity identification through implementation without ever having equipment to sell.
Manufacturing judgment comes before automation technology.
Waqar Hashim brings more than three decades of product development, manufacturing and engineering leadership experience to PRG’s automation assessments.
Experience developing and launching billions of dollars in products and, more relevant here, sitting on the approving side of manufacturing capital decisions.
He has approved and rejected manufacturing investments, and been accountable for what happened after implementation.
An engineer on management’s side of the table.