DRIVES | INVESTMENT
I5M WPARYOSV TEO R OI Bosch Rexroth’s industry sector manager, Paul Streat eld, gives his
top ve ways to improve ROI on industrial drive technology.
Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing,
factory of the future - call it
what you will, the evolution of
manufacturing is underway, at
least for some UK manufacturers.
Across the country, businesses vary
drastically in their adoption of these
smart technologies. Some have been
embracing digitalisation for years,
with forward-thinking factories
harnessing technology to automate
processes or gather and analyse data
to improve production, while others
are watching from the side lines, yet
to take the leap.
Yet if you read about smart
manufacturing or factories of
the future, promises of greater
productivity, quality and ef ciency
are commonplace. So, why are
manufacturers yet to fully embrace
the new dawn of connected
manufacturing? For many, the answer
lies in the cost – or the perceived cost
– of digitalisation. The initial investment
in smart technology can be enough to
put many manufacturers off making
the move to a smarter way of working,
but the bene ts of real-time quality
check, continuous improvement
and equipment maintenance will
undoubtedly lead to cost savings and
productivity improvements.
Let’s explore some of the bene ts
of investing in smart drive
technology.
1 MANUFACTURING
AGILITY: GET
PRODUCTS TO
MARKET, FAST
In the past,
An additional
‘Smart Energy Mode’
on the power supply evens
out the surges in power
demand reducing the peak
loads of the machine.
This added energy
e ciency helps to
realise energy savings
improvements to any
manufacturing facility
were carried out on
the basis that they would
improve the ef ciency, quality
and effectiveness of either the
manufacturing process or the
product itself. However, customer
demands are changing, and
the manufacturing industry and
technology is being forced to adapt
to keep up. More and more often,
products need to be produced in
small, highly customised batches,
putting pressure on businesses to
reduce their time-to-market and
adapt to changes in demand. To
do so, businesses need to invest
in technology that gives them the
exibility to adapt quickly to ful l
demand.
In older, less agile
manufacturing environments,
changes in production processes
required an investment in new
technology and resulted
in signi cant downtime
while a changeover was
implemented. In today’s
world, critical drive
and control technology
can be con gured at a
digital level rather than
a physical one, enabling
manufacturing facilities
to support customisation of
products and meet customer
demand in a far quicker and
more cost-effective way without
signi cant downtime.
2 AN INVESTMENT IN
ENERGY EFFICIENT
TECHNOLOGY
Reducing carbon footprint,
saving the world or making costsavings
by reducing energy
bills? Whatever your motivation,
investing in systems that reduce
energy usage is a win-win
situation.
By moving to cabinet-free drive
technology, users can actively
reduce energy consumption in
several ways. Until recently drive
technology has been designed in
such a way that drives and
of up to 50%
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