With good welding, stamping, and operator help being hard to find, Processed Metals Innovators (PMI), a steel fabrication facility, saw industrial robots as a workaround for its staffing problem. Yet its past method of procuring robots as a traditional capital expense didn’t consistently prove to be a reliable investment.To get more news about GRS, you can visit glprobotics.com official website.
“We had a traditional welding robot cell that sat around for the better part of three years because we didn’t have a job for it,” recounts Erik Larson, vice president of operations for PMI. “If you own robots, you have a lot of money tied up in something you’re not always using.”
Rather than ditch the idea of using industrial robots to pick up the slack and augment his current crew, Larson turned to Hirebotics, a newcomer on the industrial automation scene. Hirebotics is among a growing pool of entrants pioneering a new approach to industrial robots called robotics-as-a-service (RaaS). Much like the popular software-as-a-service model in enterprise IT, RaaS shifts a traditional capital expenditure (CapEx) to an operational expenditure (OpEx), allowing firms like PMI to deploy industrial robots without hefty upfront costs. In many cases, RaaS can be rolled out at a significantly quicker pace since the systems typically don’t require the custom programming and lengthy consulting engagements that characterize traditional industrial robot deployments.
In addition, RaaS offerings like Hirebotics generally encompass a cloud platform, mobile apps, and analytics tools used to facilitate management of the robot, including delivery of software updates, diagnostics and maintenance help as well as to deliver data-driven insights that optimize the robots’ efficiency, quality of work, and performance. While still in the early days, the RaaS installed base is growing quickly, particularly for applications in manufacturing, logistics, and hospitality, according to ABI Research. ABI Research estimates that the installed base for RaaS will grow from 4,442 units in 2016 to 1.3 million in 2026, with annual revenues surging from $217 million in 2016 to nearly $34 billion over the decade. The transition to RaaS is a win-win for manufacturers and robotics vendors, contends ABI Research Analyst Rian Whitton: RaaS essentially eliminates the need for third-party system integrators while creating a value-added revenue stream for robotics makers, he says.
“RaaS is seen as the great simplification of the value chain,” Whitton explains. “It takes third parties out of the process and creates a duopoly between the customer and the robotics manufacturer, which is now a service provider.” For customers, the RaaS model significantly lowers the initial barriers to adoption, including large-scale capital investments and the need to engage with a number of players during deployment, from the robotics OEM to systems integrators and service providers. For robotics vendors, the model provides a way to offer customers additional services and cultivate new revenue streams. The upside of RaaS
The benefits of procuring the BotX robotic welder through a RaaS model were many for PMI. Not only can the company purchase the welding robot without a significant capital investment, it doesn’t need to maintain on-staff expertise to program and support the robot. This is especially significant given that PMI is a job shop, meaning it continuously needs to change out fixtures to accommodate different projects—a scenario that would typically increase reliance on custom robotics programming and configuration, Larson says.
Larson also finds value in the Hirebotics’ experience, which aims to make the process of bringing on a robot akin to hiring a human worker. Hirebotics robots, which are managed and serviced remotely through a cloud-based platform and mobile app, are procured with a pricing model that charges for the time the robot is used and, more importantly, relative to its productivity. As a result, Larson says PMI can scale up the number of robots needed to meet demand but can just as easily back down capacity when and if it doesn’t need additional labor assistance.
“If we get really busy, we can get another robot within two or three weeks and get them on the floor,” he explains. “If we slow down, we have peace of mind that we can get rid of them with 30 days’ notice…and they’re not just sitting there for three years.”
