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| Viewpoint | ||
March 14, 2024
VIEWPOINT 2024: Robert J Black Jr, North American Sales Manager, Essegi Automation S.r.l
An area of strong growth featured the use of automated guided vehicles (AGV's) to transport the components from the storage towers to the production lines automatically without the need for operator participation. This feature, available as a modular upgrade to any Essegi automated storage system customer, is growing rapidly in popularity as labor issues continue to be a major problem with electronics assembly industry. The scarcity of skilled labor, and the rapidly rising labor costs, play an increasingly important role in the rapid growth of automation as a solution to this problem. Hourly labor rates continue to increase as the availability of trained technical labor continues to shrink. In high labor cost areas, such as California, the loaded hourly labor rate frequently exceeds $50 per hour. The use of automated component storage systems to replace manual labor in the handling, kit pulling, component traceability, and ESD management, is growing rapidly as the ROI numbers continue to make automation an extremely attractive financial choice. In North America, many customers are achieving ROI’s of less than one year. We recently completed a project for customer using six component storage systems. The project had an ROI of 8.9 months on a total cost of $950,000 Another exciting development was the introduction of buffer software to automatically manage the transfer of components from the main storage location to the production lines. This software makes sure that the proper quantity of components are present at the line when a product is due to be produced. The buffer software automatically reviews the information in the production schedule and manages the component quantities to ensure that adequate components are present but excess inventory is not transferred to the line. In 2024, Essegi Automation is planning for strong growth. The North American market is performing well and Mexico in particular is experiencing strong growth. The use of automated component storage systems to achieve dramatic labor cost savings, more efficient component management, and to achieve a complete traceability solution including the strict monitoring of all ESD components, will continue to grow in popularity and acceptance. At Essegi, we look forward to continue leading the development of this technology, and its continued growth worldwide. Robert J Black Jr, North American Sales Manager Essegi Automation S.r.l. http://www.essegiautomation.com |
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