This is part 2 of a 4-part blog series where we look at how OEMs can transform their business at each stage of the machine lifecycle.
OEMs are under pressure to deliver machines that are easier to deploy, operate and maintain, without sacrificing performance or reliability. Yet integrating complex designs can often introduce delays, increase costs and consume a significant amount of skilled labor. These challenges are amplified when multiple machine variants and individual customization are required – increasing the likelihood of build cycles and launch timelines being slowed further.
Complexity is Getting in the Way of Progress
Complexity during the machine build can quietly erode both efficiency and profitability. When a machine design includes an increasing list of components, cable runs and siloed control systems, it increases the possibility of assembly errors and rework. Each additional layer of complexity also introduces more potential points of failure and makes troubleshooting slower and more difficult. As the size of the bill of materials grows, so does management time and the coordination of efforts while waiting for all components to arrive.
All of this adds up to longer build cycles, higher costs and greater project risk. But what if achieving complex outcomes didn’t require all that complexity? The latest advanced technology is enabling OEMs like you to simplify and standardize their machines to create a smoother build process that can strengthen the reliability and profitability of your solutions.
A simple, yet revolutionary place to start
OEMs often allocate considerable amounts of time and money to wiring large, centralized enclosures, and thus must allocate key resources to calculating enclosure fill, cable lengths and tray sizing - and then spend the effort to connect individual cables throughout the machine. This process adds risk into the project. When an enclosure is overfilled or missed connection is made, there can be costly reordering and rework. And the more complex the machine, the higher these costs can go. But now with On-Machine™ solutions, you can decentralize your machine architecture and field-mount your control components in locations that are better optimized for your applications. This decreases the size of your electrical enclosures considerably – allowing you to drive out the cost of large enclosures and cooling fans while shrinking the machine footprint to provide higher productivity per square foot for your customers.
It’s more cost-effective and reliable too. Instead of doing long individualized cable runs out to each device and then manually wiring them back in the cabinet, our On-Machine technology allows you to use quick-connections at each device and daisy-chain connections together to drastically reduce the amount of cabling needed. These factors together enable machine builders to simplify systems, lower overall system costs and increase profitability with a faster, more reliable build process.
Move beyond hard-wiring your essential components
There’s opportunity for a better build process by innovating within your electrical panels too. Building a control panel can be burdened with tedious point-to-point wiring, lengthy configuration time and difficulties with scalability and troubleshooting. Using the EtherNet/IP In-cabinet solution can break down these barriers to productivity while bringing smarter machines to life. Simply snap connect a supported component such as a circuit breaker or relay to the ribbon cable to create a true plug and play system that provides both network and switched power, Single-pair Ethernet (SPE), and device positioning in one cable that can be used throughout the panel.
This leads to a smarter machine that can be built faster and more reliably – and the impact can be significant. This timing study showed it took ~20 hours to manually wire the controls circuits of a traditional panel, while an identical panel using the EtherNet/IP In-cabinet solution was completed ~1 hour.
A faster, more intuitive way to integrate robots
The inherent speed and flexibility of industrial robots have made them a core component in a growing number of machines. Mounting a robot in the correct place has a relatively low impact on the build process, but working to align and coordinate separate robot and machine control systems is often a significant portion of the effort. Both systems need to be programmed individually. And trying to align their performance can be cumbersome and involve a lot of trial and error. With unified robot control these silos no longer exist.
This technology removes the need for a dedicated robot controller and software, and instead uses a Logix controller and Kinetix® motion technology to directly control one or multiple robots. The Studio 5000® environment is used to configure, program and deploy the solution – meaning you don’t have to worry about training and maintaining your team’s skills in third-party software, and instead extend robotics capabilities to those already proficient in using the Studio 5000 environment. Beyond simplifying integration, unified robot control enables greater reuse of code, motion profiles and engineering standards, further reducing build and commissioning time across machine variants.
Bring it all together for a better build process
Using advanced technology to rethink machines - from decentralizing control architectures, to optimized panel design, to unified robot control - OEMs can break free from the hidden costs of complexity and move into a faster, more profitable build process. These technologies do more than just speed delivery. They also help you form more scalable, reliable machines that empower your teams with the freedom to focus on innovation instead of just integration.
For OEMs willing to rethink how machines are built, the opportunity is clear: less time integrating, more time innovating, and a build process that becomes a competitive advantage, not a constraint.
