Gaining Globalization’s Efficiencies Closer to Home

By Bartosz Mazurek, VP Electronics Segment, Bright Machines Electronics manufacturing has seen a good deal of transformation in the last few decades – the implementation of advanced pick and place was a […]

Automation technologies are nothing new. Since the dawn of time, new inventions have been introduced into society with the ultimate goal to help improve our lives. From the wheel to the printing press, the powerful impact of automation is inevitable in shaping our future. And whether or not we welcome these advances with open arms, these forms of automation have had a profound impact on the way we produce, purchase and participate in our society.

At Bright Machines, we have high ambitions for the future of factory floors. When talking to customers about implementing automation for their factory line there are typically three primary considerations – output, quality, and cost. Return on Investment (ROI) is embedded in all three vectors but one often overlooked consideration is how customers can win more business using our automation solutions.

The promise of automation – higher throughput, less downtime, fewer errors – is what every manufacturer wants; but its cost, as measured in both dollars and time, can make it unappealing. But with software-defined automation, you’ll achieve above benefits and lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your automation equipment.

Manufacturers today are facing some tough challenges: a rapidly changing geopolitical climate, ever-evolving consumer demands, concerns around labor cost and availability.

Computer vision technology has made monumental leaps in the last 10-20 years – look no further than self-driving cars as an example of the huge technical accomplishments in the space.

Bright Machines placed #13 on the new Forbes AI 50 – an annual ranking of America’s most promising artificial intelligence companies. Forbes recognized us for our work leveraging AI to solve for the inherent problems afflicting one of the world’s largest and most critical industries – manufacturing.

“Machine learning” gets thrown around a lot. These days it seems like any description of a technological innovation would not be complete without the term “ML” attached to it. Reminds me of “.com” circa 1999. But what does it mean for a machine to truly learn?

Not all automation is created equal. As automation permeates nearly every part of businesses today, there are still lots of exciting opportunities in manufacturing that weren’t feasible even a few short years ago. Picking the right starting point, the right project, is critical to success and buy-in for the next project.

If you’ve been managing a factory floor, you have likely learned the hard way that assembly automation can come at a price: unscheduled downtime. Whether it’s due to malfunctions, making small process changes that turn into big redesigns, or the time-consuming process of reconfiguring a machine…