President, Motion Industries
WHEN WE THINK of efficiency, a simple definition is “minimum input to create maximum output.” Over the past couple of decades, we have focused a lot of attention in improving a plant’s efficiency as it relates to the consumption of energy … moving to energy-efficient electric motors, changing from incandescent lighting to fluorescent and now to LED, as well as installing solar panels to generate electricity rather than typical consumption from the utility company. All of these changes create efficiency as it relates to electricity consumption costs to power equipment to produce an equivalent amount of product output in a plant. Some of these types of efficiency gains will continue for decades to come. But the real efficiency of the future in manufacturing plants will come from automation!
Let’s take a look at a couple of reasons why, keeping in mind the definition above “minimum input to create maximum output.” I believe it is fair to say that if you have a plant built or upgraded in the last decade, you have already moved to energy-efficient lighting, motors, air conditioning, water consumption, etc. So yes, you have become more efficient by reducing your operating costs, but have you also “increased your output” with these efficiency upgrades? In most cases the answer is NO, you just lowered your operating cost. What if you could not only lower your cost, but also increase your output? That would be a real efficiency gain by any standard! Automation is the answer!
Now let’s take a real-life example of automation = efficiency at Motion Industries. As most of you know, Motion is one of the leading and largest industrial distribution companies in North America. Motion operates over 600 locations, including 15 distribution centers, shipping millions of parts annually. One of the company’s largest distribution centers is located in Birmingham, Alabama. This location was selected to pilot a new fully automated “goods to person” inventory management and retrieval system that will store and manage thousands of parts in a compact amount of square footage inside the distribution center.
Early this year, Motion purchased the new automated “goods to person” machine and began the six-month installation process. The decision was rationalized because finding employees to work in the distribution center was becoming increasingly difficult; wage costs continue to increase, as well as healthcare and benefits; utility costs are on the rise (the machine can operate with the lights off); and real estate is not getting any cheaper. The automated “goods to person” machine cost was significant; however, the payback was calculated to be less than three years. This is based on the number of employees needed to put away and pick products equivalent to what the machine can handle (30 vs 4); elimination of lost time from accidents or sickness by conventional employees; elimination of wasteful handling of empty totes and energy-inefficient conveyors to move the totes; low energy consumption robotic technology to pick and put away the parts in the machine compared to traditional methods; and the elimination of the cost to purchase additional real estate to expand as needed.
So, how much more efficient is the automated “goods to person” system – or in other words – how much more output can be achieved from the investment in the system … 540% more! Automation of the process is what creates the efficiency and increased output. Automation = Efficiency.
I encourage all plant managers, plant CFOs, and reliability/sustainability engineers to not only think about energy consumption as it relates to operating an efficient plant, but consider automation of the processes and equipment to reduce operation costs and increase output … creating “real” efficiency.
Randy Breaux is President of Motion Industries. His career as a strategic leader in industrial manufacturing and distribution spans over 30 years, including 20+ years at ABB/Baldor Electric Company and the last nine with Motion Industries. Visit MotionIndustries.com/efficientplant, or check out Mi Automation Solutions (https://tinyurl.com/y4jsl7ur).