Seven steps for reaching the next level of automation in your organization

The seven steps for automation any process or task are basically the same:

Step 1. Set your automation strategy

The first step is setting a bold vision for applying the new machines to reduce cost and increase productivity.

Step 2. Start small

It's a best practice to start small. Begin focussing on a specific task or business process that typically, it's a bottleneck that fustrates everybody, (e.g. minor stops, quality issues, waste, repetitive manual task, etc).

Step 3. Apply the new machine

Identify the relevant automation tools that already exist and test them out in a limited trial. Of course, if there are no commercially available tools for the process you are looking to automate, you may need to build your own platform. This will certainly be more complicated; look to buy before you build.

Step 4. Develop a prototype

Now you have the strategy, some process targets and a few potential automation machines. It 's time to put the pieces together, but you need to start with a prototype. You'll need the data, the machine, and a clear understanding of what happens before, during, and after the automation activity. The output of this step is a prototype that more or less works in a controlled environment. There will be bugs, and there'll be plenty of people saying it doesn't work, but you need to exit this step with enough of a working system to warrant moving to a production environment.

Step 5. Pilot and scale

Time for real work to be affected. As with any big change, discretion is the better part of valor, so start small. All the questions around security, privacy, and compliance must be resolved, and people's experiences should be assessed to avoid heading into a knowledge-process industrial accident.

Step 6. Analyze the results

What has the pilot told you? What have you learned? What when well? Whant din't go so well? Be honest; be critical.

Look for reasons to say, "No, this is not working", so then Pivot; adjust; recalibrate. Stay resolute.

Step 7. Repeat!

The requirement to automate is a constant, so no single project will ensure success in the digital manufacturing, so repeat, repeat and repeat!!!