Automation stirs up conversations around industrial robots, productivity, worries about the comparatively high costs for SMEs, and the ever-present concerns about jobs. But why should design and manufacturing embrace automation?
Automation has a key role to play in the digital transformation of the design and manufacturing industry, and yet our adoption globally perhaps isn't where it needs to be.
Jocelyn Cole – Chartered Mechanical Engineer and GoodsLift General Manager at Penny Hydraulics. Penny Hydraulics design, manufacture and install bespoke lifting equipment from its factory in North Derbyshire.
Jocelyn joined Penny Hydraulics on a placement from University to implement 3D CAD within the business. She was given the opportunity to develop an established CellarLift product into a suit of GoodsLifts which led to an increase in demand, causing the design to become the bottleneck. Using design automation techniques this bottleneck was eradicated allowing turnover to increase as the number of units fitted trebled, profit increased, and errors decreased. This automation impacts all areas of the business and offers customers flexibility in design, detailed and accurate information, and industry-leading lead times.
Dr. Simon Leigh is an Associate Professor of Engineering at the University of Warwick, where he leads the Digital and Material Technologies Laboratory. His research is undertaken in the field of Additive Manufacturing (AM, also known as 3D printing) and focuses on the development and application of digital design technologies and novel materials for manufacturing. He is also Academic Lead for the Warwick Engineering Build Space, a multi-million-pound creative design space housing everything from hand tools and machine tools to CNC equipment, 3D printers, and robotics systems.
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