What to Do about Tariffs? Let's Ramp Up US Production with Automation!

I think that it’s safe to say that most business professionals in the world today are worried about the new US tariffs and their effects on the economy. Naturally, the biggest concern is how this might affect families—the viability of their jobs and the price of the goods they consume. From a business standpoint, leaders and investors are concerned about disruption to supply chains and elimination of profits.

Rather than debating the tariff policy itself, I’d like to look at how US manufacturers should focus on automation as a tool for adapting to this new challenge.

?

Automation Is More Important Than Ever

Clearly, US-based automated manufacturing should be the focus of our strategy for dealing with these tariffs. The USA consumes a lot more goods than it produces. Even if we were to put all the unemployed into the manufacturing workforce, it still wouldn’t be enough to create all the products that Americans want to buy. Our manufacturing facilities must be improved so that we increase the average output per individual worker.

Everyone in the manufacturing sector knows the benefits of automation, but there’s still a lot of reasons to hesitate before implementing it. I’ve heard of some automation systems that take years to develop and even more years to see a return on investment. Sometimes a manufacturing process is hard to automate, which makes it difficult to find an engineering company with the know-how to design a cost-effective, custom solution. Sadly, factories sometimes pay for machines that don’t work as well as they had planned. I’ve been to a lot of factories with “state-of-the-art” machines that are collecting dust in a corner.

What Kinds of Processes Should Be Considered for Automation?

First of all, let's acknowledge that human beings are really good at carrying out most processes. I am amazed at the ability of the human eye, brain, and hand to carry out virtually any task that is given to it. There are many situations that need the attention of a warm-blooded technical craftsperson.

However, there are many situations in which machines outperform human beings. Activities that are repetitive or tedious can be done many times faster by machine and with fewer mistakes. Machines don't get fatigued in the same way humans do. Often, one operator can supervise several machines at once.

Here are a few categories of manufacturing tasks that could be automated: processing, assembling, material handling, data collection, tracking, sorting, automated inspection (this is Optozilla's favorite), storage and retrieval, labeling, and packaging.

Tips for Getting Started with Automation

The goal for any manufacturer should be to settle on an automation system that enables a quick return on investment by having a low cost and fast implementation. Even more importantly, the system needs to actually work.

After working in this sector for about twelve years, I’ve collected a few strategies that tend to lead to successful automation solutions:

Consider Doing It Yourself

For simple projects, use an off-the-shelf, turnkey solution or put something together in-house. Search the internet to see if there’s already something out there that solves your problem. It's not always a bad idea to build your own system. Factory manager usually know their factories better than anyone else. If they can MacGyver a solution that is safe and sustainable, then they should consider the problem solved.

If you have any success stories with home-grown automation solutions, please feel free to tell me about it! I love to hear about clever tricks that people have used to solve manufacturing problems with minimal technology.

?

If You Hire an Expert, Talk to Them Before Committing to Hardware

For complex projects that require a system integrator, it’s best to contact them first before selecting any hardware. Integrators already know dozens of suppliers with thousands of different hardware options, so you can often save money and get a higher performing machine by letting the integrator select the machine components.

Optilla LLC is a flexible system integration company that can work with a large spectrum of automation components. If you already bought some hardware, we can probably still work with it, but it would be best to have a conversation before imposing unnecessary design constraints.

?

Shop Around

It never hurts to get quotes from a few different integration companies. Ask each of them for a detailed proposal and pepper them with questions once they give it to you. Some integration companies might avoid giving you information about their preliminary design concept before signing a contract, but you must insist that they give you at least a general explanation of how their proposed machine will meet your needs. You need to know what you’re buying!

Compare prices and proposed timelines with the other proposals. Some integration companies will try to convince you that price should not be a key factor in your decision making, but that’s just ridiculous. Price is always a factor!

Project Size vs Integrator Size

When selecting an integrator, consider how big the project is compared to the size of the integration company. If it's a big project, you need to find an integrator with enough employees to handle the work in a timely manner. However, big companies are usually disinterested in small projects because they distract them from more profitable work. If your project represents only a small percentage of the company revenue for that year, then they won't give it the same priority as their larger projects. A small company is more likely to give a small project the time, love, and care that it deserves.

?

Keep It Simple, Reduce Motion!

When comparing proposals, try to select the system that is the simplest, especially when it comes to motion systems. Simple solutions are cheaper, faster to implement, easier to maintain, and often have a higher production output.

Motion is the most complex aspect of any factory automation system. There may be clever ways to perform a manufacturing step without having to move the components very much. If motion is needed, solutions that use pneumatic components and conveyor belts tend to be more economical and more reliable than multi-axis robots. There is a time and a place for robotics, but not every situation needs it.

?

Conclusion

I recently heard a news commentator say that we are about to enter the greatest economical experiment that the world has witnessed in at least one hundred years. As a small business owner with several children, it makes me nervous to hear the phrase "economical experiment".

In spite of the uncertainly, I believe that we should be optimistic. Rapid change like this may not be good for the economy as a whole, but disruptions like these can lead to innovation. Small, US-based manufacturers need to do their best to rise up to this occasion and provide America with the products that it needs.

My hope, as always, is that Optozilla can provide meaningful help to any manufacturer who needs it. Feel free to connect with me and talk about any manufacturing issues that you might be facing.