The manufacturing industry produces a significant environmental impact in terms of energy consumption, generation of waste that goes to landfill, consumption of natural resources (e.g., materials and water), and emission of harmful pollutants. There is a growing and urgent interest in improving the sustainability of manufacturing operations by reducing their environmental impact. Every technology that gets deployed in manufacturing needs to be critically analyzed from the environmental sustainability perspective.
Many manufacturing companies are facing an acute shortage of qualified workers. They need robotic automation technologies to speed up production and achieve consistent quality. For example, consider the example of surface finishing which represents a large portion of manufacturing operations. Sanding and polishing are widely used surface finishing processes during the manufacturing of parts made from metal and composite. These operations are ergonomically challenging. The availability of 3D vision and force sensors enables robots to operate without custom fixtures and accommodate part variabilities. The recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) enable robots to program themselves from task descriptions. These advances have led to the realization of smart robotic cells for use in manufacturing applications and increased human productivity to deal with labor shortages. These cells also eliminate the need for human operators to perform ergonomically challenging tasks and empower them to perform a much higher value-added task of optimizing the finishing process. Robotic automation solutions are enabling manufacturers to increase productivity, improve process consistency, eliminate waste, reduce ergonomically challenging work, compress cycle times, and expand capacity.
As the role of robots is rapidly expanding in the manufacturing sectors, people are beginning to think about the environmental impact of robotic automation. Fortunately, robots can help improve the performance of the manufacturing industry from the environmental sustainability perspective by reducing energy consumption, conserving resources, and reducing waste.
Waste Reduction
Robotic automation delivers consistent quality. Robots follow specified rules, so using robots helps to remove the vast majority of human variability error from processes. Human operators are prone to making mistakes when they experience fatigue and cognitive overload. When a company experiences significant labor churn in a tight labor market, it needs to deploy new workers with no prior experience. New workers tend to make more mistakes compared to experienced workers. Automation can be highly repeatable and therefore improve the overall process quality. Therefore, robots reduce the need for rework and reduce the amount of scrap. Reduction is scrap reduces the wastes that often goes to landfill.
Resource Conservation
In general, manufacturing companies can achieve improved resource utilization with the help of robotic automation technologies. By utilizing real-time monitoring and data analysis, robotic systems can improve production schedules, manage inventory more efficiently, and streamline supply chain operations. Consequently, this results in decreased overproduction, optimized allocation of resources, and reduced environmental impact arising from excessive resource consumption.
Robotic automation can reduce the amount of material needed in processing applications, such as abrasives like sandpaper. Human operators might not change sandpaper at the optimal time, which can lead to an increase in materials needed and unnecessary waste. On the other hand, sensors can be used in robotic cells to determine the optimal time for sandpaper changes and perform these changes autonomously. Therefore, the use of consumables, such as sanding media in robotic cells, is minimized because the robots extract optimal value from all consumables. This leads to less waste going to landfill.
AI also enables the robot cell to monitor its health and prevent failures. Data collected by the robots during the operations also enable the building of an accurate digital twin of the as-manufactured part. This model can be used to optimize the process, conserve resources, and reduce waste.
Robotic automation simplifies the process of tracking and managing product components, and materials, as well as end-of-life recycling or disposal. Therefore, improved product traceability is a natural outcome of the implementation of robotic automation.
Automation also reduces the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by minimizing or eliminating the need for human intervention in certain tasks that would otherwise require PPE. utilizing robots, workers are exposed to fewer hazardous conditions or environments that necessitate the use of PPE. This can include scenarios such as handling dangerous chemicals, working in extreme temperatures, or performing tasks that may lead to ergonomic risks. Deploying robotic automation reduces the associated costs and logistical challenges of PPE procurement, maintenance, and compliance. This also reduces the need for PPEs to be disposed of in landfills.
Reduction in Energy Consumption
Reduction in rework and scrap directly translates to a reduction in energy to perform the rework or the wasted energy on scrapped parts. In addition to these direct energy savings in processing steps, robots offer a wide variety of other avenues for saving energy.
When people are present in manufacturing facilities over a sustained period of time, building conditions need to be maintained for human comfort (e.g., temperatures between 68 and 78 degrees). Maintaining comfortable temperature ranges in buildings in many parts of the US can consume a significant amount of energy due to great fluctuations in outside temperature. (e.g., extreme cold in the Midwest during winter and extreme heat in the South during summer). Robots can function successfully between temperature ranges of 60 and 90 degrees. Expanding the operating temperature range in buildings can dramatically reduce energy consumption. Therefore, factories that do not require sustained human presence can cut down on energy consumption for facility air conditioning, heating, ventilation, lighting, and facility support. Robots also do not need bathrooms, parking lots, or other amenities, leading to a smaller building footprint and further reducing energy footprint.
Increased use of robots can lead to a reduced need for people to commute due to several factors. Firstly, automation allows certain tasks to be performed by robots or machinery at the workplace, minimizing the need for human presence in physical workspaces. This can eliminate or decrease the requirement for employees to travel to a centralized location for their work. Additionally, automation can enable remote work opportunities. With robots handling tasks on-site, employees may have the flexibility to work remotely, eliminating the need for daily commuting. This can be particularly advantageous for roles that primarily involve overseeing and monitoring automated systems or engaging in virtual collaboration. Reduction in the need for workers to commute to factories can reduce the energy associated with transportation.
Automated storage and retrieval systems enable efficient vertical storage. These systems utilize tall racks and high-density shelving to store goods vertically, making effective use of the warehouse’s height. By utilizing vertical space, warehouses can significantly increase their storage capacity without expanding their physical footprint. Automation technologies also enable the implementation of compact storage systems such as automated carousels, vertical lift modules, and goods-to-person systems. These systems optimize the utilization of available floor space by organizing products in a compact and organized manner. They eliminate the need for aisles and traditional racking systems, allowing more products to be stored within the same square footage. Increased capacity and reduced sizes of warehouses make them much more efficient from the energy use point of view.
Need for Responsible Deployment of Robotic Automation
It is important to acknowledge that while robotic automation in manufacturing provides notable environmental sustainability advantages, it is crucial to implement it responsibly. This entails taking into account the social consequences, such as potential job displacement, and offering training and assistance to workers transitioning to new positions. It is also important to ensure that automation is implemented in a fair and inclusive manner. Furthermore, manufacturers should consider the environmental impact of implementing robotic automation technologies, including the responsible disposal of electronic components and effectively managing the energy consumption associated with robotic systems.