2021_1q_omron_e

21/37 - Post-COVID-19: Emerging Social Issues

COVID-19 has led to restrictions for shop floors. It is not possible to have large numbers of people in the same space. If people are gathered in a contained space, measures to avoid the 3 C's must be implemented. Unlike the automation investments undertaken up to now, which were aimed at reducing costs, we are now seeing new automation needs emerge for the purpose of reducing manufacturing's reliance on a workforce, in order to protect employees' health. Specifically, this new demand for automation is coming from back-end processes that have remained labor-intensive to date, such as assembly, inspection and handling. To date, there had been significant barriers to the automation of such processes. Separate controllers were required for production lines and robots; moreover, these controllers used completely different programming languages. Integration to a level that replicates the delicate skill of human workers requires a high level of technological skill and substantial investments. As a result, relative to other parts of the manufacturing process, back-end processes have been the slowest to automate. OMRON has developed the world's first controller that integrates robot control to provide a solution to such issues.