The holiday shopping season used to be more predictable. On Black Friday, consumers headed to malls and department stores to wait in line for the sweetest deals on items like electronics, toys, and clothes. But with the rise of e-commerce and consumers expecting quicker delivery times, the holiday shopping season starts earlier every year and new demands continue to arise.
In fact, a Gartner report found that one-third of shoppers now begin their holiday shopping before November, and 20% plan to increase online shopping this year. As brick-and-mortar and online stores fill with holiday memorabilia, manufacturers face increasing pressure behind the scenes to keep up with demand and expedited shipping.
With such high expectations and unpredictable demand, manufacturers must simplify production processes, eliminate unnecessary downtime, and fill production line gaps while battling ongoing labor shortages. Accuracy and efficiency can make or break production this time of year, and automating may be the key for manufacturers trying to keep up.
Robotic Automation: The Gift that Keeps on Giving
If you’re one of the 75% of manufacturers facing a skilled labor gap, it’s unlikely that your employees alone can keep up with a holiday surge in demand. Facilities need to implement solutions to meet additional production needs.
Robotic automation can bring holiday cheer by aiding workers, increasing productivity, eliminating downtime, and improving safety and consistency.
1. Employees Benefit from Automation
As orders for items from food to electronics to packaging speed up during the holiday season, manufacturers and production floor employees can find support in material handling, palletizing, and case packing with automation.
Robots, which can handle repetitive tasks in high quantities and with programmed efficiency, free up employees to do more quantitative work like working with vendors to meet increasing consumer demand.
Mi Rancho, a tortilla, salsa, and chip manufacturer shared that automation benefited both its production and employees. “By installing the latest automated equipment, we can produce more and transition repetitive jobs to roles like machine operators and mixers,” said Joe Santana, Mi Rancho’s Senior Director of Operations. “It's not about reducing positions; it's about becoming more efficient and competitive."
Mi Rancho utilized Formic, a full-service robotic automation company specializing in palletizing and case packing. Since working with Formic, Mi Rancho has gone from 0 to 12 robotic systems on its production lines and expects to add even more in the future.
“Formic committed to maintain the equipment, to service the equipment, and do all the technical support and programming,” Santana said, making it easy for him and his team to increase their productivity by 20 million pounds annually.
Robots can also work around the clock and fill in hard-to-find 2nd and 3rd shifts. According to an International Data Corporation (IDC) study, facilities implementing robotic solutions experience a 25-30% uptick in operational efficiency within the first year of adoption.
Whether manufacturers are interested in transitioning employees to robotic operators with industrial robots or collaborative robots working alongside employees, robots are the gift that keeps on giving this holiday season.
2. Speeding Up Production Throughput
One of the primary benefits of integrating robotic automation into manufacturing processes is improved efficiency and accuracy. Robots are programmed to be precise and consistent, ensuring all snacks, gifts, and stocking stuffers look and feel the same. This leads to reduced errors and reduced wasted product that can come with the manual manufacturing process.
Additionally, robots generally perform tasks much faster than humans. With greater lifting capacity, robots can palletize or pack multiple cases at a time — keeping up with potentially unexpected increases in demand around the holidays.
Because of their programmable nature, robots can also perform multiple tasks and switch between tasks quickly without errors or retraining. By moving products with speed and accuracy, the time required for essential material handling processes is reduced.
Manufacturers that incorporate robots into their production systems achieve higher productivity with shorter cycle times, making it clear that higher output demand is achievable this holiday season and throughout the year.
3. Keeping Up with the Competition and Lowering Costs
During the holiday season and beyond, manufacturers that produce a similar product to other companies are battling it out for business — especially if you’re an SMB with a less familiar brand name.
One way to edge out the competition in 2024 is by offering quick and efficient delivery options at a lower cost. Automating facility processes can speed up production and reduce operational costs.
Additionally, robots can reduce costs by eliminating wasteful production downtime, lowering energy consumption, and limiting product waste.
Overall, automation can shorten the process of manual manufacturing tasks, ensuring manufacturers deliver on holiday demands with ease.
4. Real-Time Data Helps Keep the Ball Moving
One of the benefits of implementing automation in a facility is the real-time data that comes with it. Unlike human employees, automation software makes it possible to track productivity and allows for continuous improvement.
This type of real-time data can identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas for optimization within overall supply chain processes. Production tracking software can if one of our systems could run more efficiently. This makes it easy for us to identify necessary changes and offer remote monitoring and quick fixes.
Are There Naughty-List Qualities of Automation?
Traditionally, the barrier to automation adoption was the initial cost, human capital, and an overall need to “get it right” the first time. In fear of the “tarp of shame” covering attempts at automation that failed, companies might want to automate, but either don’t know how to get started or don’t have the CapEx to pull the trigger.
But manufacturers know they need to do something differently because the way “they’ve always done it” isn’t cutting it anymore, especially this time of year when demand is even greater. More and more manufacturing leaders are turning to automation to simplify scale and growth as it checks all of the boxes to eliminate the challenges they are facing: labor availability, safety, quality, and overall productivity.
To speed up production, keep ahead of the competition, safeguard supply chains, build a resilient workforce, and boost company perception, U.S. supply chain leaders should explore automation to understand how much more accessible it has become over the last few years.
The need for a stronger and more resilient supply chain is more important than ever post-COVID-19, and automation could be the key to unlocking the U.S.’ full manufacturing potential.