ATS Life Sciences

What is agility in manufacturing and why is it so important?

Agility is just another word for adaptability. Most automated processes, like milling, injection molding, and packaging, already have easily adaptable equipment. Over the last 4-5 decades, automated assembly is the one process that still depends on the engineer to order equipment.  

Agile automated assembly manufacturing means you can quickly adapt your equipment for multiple production processes and/or families of products to meet consumer demands. Flexible equipment allows manufacturers to produce multiple variants in smaller batches on the same equipment. In other words, most automated assembly machines are single-purpose machines that can do one thing and that’s it. Engineer-to-order, single-purpose assembly machine introduce risks to automation, takes up valuable floor space, and is not sustainable. 

The Economist Intelligence Unit says that “agile firms grow revenue 37 percent faster and generate 30 percent higher profits than non-agile companies.” And the need for agility only grows in the face of increasingly common market disruptions.

For manufacturers, it’s not just about increasing equipment effectiveness. A flexible platform can replace multiple custom-built, single-purpose machines, thus reducing floor space. Furthermore, it dramatically enhances a manufacturer’s resilience. A business in the 1990s could produce a single line of product let’s say “lipstick” for years from a factory in China. Today, that same business must not only be able to move from lipstick to hair gel in quick succession, but it must be prepared to scale up for a third product it can’t predict. A manufacturer that focuses on agile assembly equipment is going to capture more market shares by getting their product to market faster.

Doesn’t choosing flexibility to mean slower machines?

Not anymore. The conventional wisdom in assembly manufacturing is that you have to choose between being fast and being versatile. But groundbreaking automation technologies have changed the game. A digital, standardized, pre-engineered, and modular platform can offer flexibility and the same or better performance as custom solutions. You don’t have to choose anymore. You can be fast and flexible.

What about the risks associated with adopting new technology?

That’s the thing: these technologies I mentioned are not “new”. These technologies have been in use for over a decade, and the results speak for themselves. Whether it’s reduced tooling, costs, floor space, and maintenance, or the ability to plan, develop, test, and scale up production with unprecedented speed, these machines are the path forward.

But manufacturers are a careful bunch who are skeptical of innovation. The general attitudes are why fix what hasn’t broken?

The answer is the days of Henry Ford “you can have any color, as long as it’s black” are long gone. Manufacturers who fear innovations are on the path to a slow death.  

Companies that fear innovation should heed the lessons that Kodak, IBM, and Blockbuster did not learn until it was fatal to their future.

“Digital automation platforms are the future. Old mechanical cams can be completely digitized, allowing for incredible flexibility efficiency gains”

Kodak invented the first-ever digital photography technology in 1975. Executives at Kodak shelved the new invention.  Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012.

IBM was a computer manufacturer leader for four decades. The majority of their revenue and profit came from their mainframe sales. Despite trends that showed PC growth and mainframe competitors going bankrupt, IBM executives, satisfied with the status quote and feared that PC would cannibalize its mainframe business, refused to pivot their strategy until it was too late.  IBM is no longer in the computer hardware business.

As a struggling start-up, Netflix met with the CEO of Blockbuster in 2000 and offered to sell the company for $50 million. Blockbuster did not want to cannibalize its existing business and declined the offer. Blockbuster went bankrupt in 2010. 

Consumers have options!

The only certainty you have is that every day someone is trying to go after your business with a better and faster “mousetrap.” You don’t know who, you don’t know how and you don’t know when. The question is not if you will lose what you currently have but when and how quickly your business will be taken from you. The only way to win is to stay ahead with innovation and be agile.

There are assembly technologies that have been in the market for 10 years that offer speed, flexibility, and precision. These are flexible, high-performance assets assembly equipment that disrupts the way things have been done in the automation assembly industry for the last 4-5 decades. But the industry has been slow to adapt because people are afraid of losing their jobs if they are wrong.

A friend who used to work for Pitney Bowes, once said that when Pitney Bowes first enter the market, they struggle to break into the market despite having better products and financial terms. He once asked his customer why they picked Xerox despite Pitney Bowes offering more for less. The client responds that if he buys Xerox and the photocopier does not work, he would not be fired because everyone buys Xerox. If he buys Pitney Bowes and if the photocopier does not work, he would be fired. Staying with the mass is safe.

A recent article about fear of innovation by McKinsey Exponential Intelligence will be a measure of how likely a person is to thrive and lead in a changing, technological world.

The company reported that 85 percent of executives agree that fear holds back innovation efforts—but that four out of five fundamental strategies for overcoming that fear involved a reckoning with the facts instead of the myths of innovation.

And the facts are straightforward: conventional, custom machines are increasingly slower and more costly than high-performance, agile solutions. Ultimately, the foot-dragging stops when you see how it affects the bottom line or in the worst-case scenario suffer the same fate as Blockbuster, IBM, and Kodiak.

You mentioned, “digital” How does that factor into agility and performance?

I'm old enough to remember that when you picked up the phone, you picked it up off the hook and dialed a number on an actual dial. It was all mechanical. Maybe we have nostalgia, but I don’t think anybody regrets moving on. And the biggest difference which allows for all this convenience and efficiency and agility is the move from mechanical to digital with our smartphone. With manufacturing, it’s the same concept.

Digital automation platforms are the future. Old mechanical cams can be completely digitized, allowing for incredible flexibility and efficiency gains. We still call it a cam, just like we call it a telephone. But the revolution occurs out of sight because it seems the same, just improved.

If you stick with a conventional mechanical system, you're back to being inflexible because the most minor changes require some sort of machining or fabrication. That's no longer agile. It’s a fixed asset and once its purpose is complete, it’ll just sit there taking up space. Digital platforms are inherently agile as their reprogramming is so much easier than retooling, refitting, or rebuilding. This makes standardized, pre-engineered solutions much more attractive because it reduces automation risk and changeover is fast and simple.

You speak with such passion about automation! What gets you so excited about this?

First, I’m a geek. I am deeply interested in the forces that are shaping our world today: automation, of course, but also big tech, global supply chains, post-industrial shifts, reshoring, sustainability, Industry 5.0, and so much more. I’m just fascinated by the changes in cultural behavior and how they impact and shape the manufacturing sector.

Second, and more importantly, I want better outcomes for real people. It’s no exaggeration to say that we improve lives. From syringes for life-saving vaccines to autoinjectors for treating diabetes, automation delivers lifesaving drugs safely and fast. I have been in the advanced manufacturing sector for almost 30 years building automation equipment for many sectors. If our machines can make these devices faster, and if we can shorten the development and validation time to get these production lines up and running, then it’s no stretch at all to say that we save lives. Every single day. That’s something I’m proud to be a part of, and excited to continue working on.