Montreal/Berlin, 5 June 2024. The know-how firm Vention has analyzed in a research how firms automate their manufacturing independently. Small companies are trendsetters in do-it-yourself (DIY) automation, however massive firms are catching up. The research relies on anonymized information from over 1,400 company customers of Vention’s Manufacturing Automation Platform (MAP) worldwide.
For the second time, Vention publishes the annual research „The State of DIY Industrial Automation“. The main focus is on do-it-yourself (DIY) automation, which permits producers of various sizes to automate their manufacturing independently utilizing state-of-the-art applied sciences.
For the research, Vention evaluated the consumer conduct of its company clients on the Vention cloud platform MAP from January to December 2023. The goal was to seize the present state of DIY automation in firms and to elucidate how they use the DIY method for the design, integration and operation of automation parts, akin to robotic cells or cobot palletizers.
„The development in direction of DIY automation continues this 12 months,“ says Etienne Lacroix, CEO of Vention. „One driver is the scarcity of expert staff, which is turning into more and more noticeable . The query of how manufacturing may be automated shortly and cost-effectively is at the moment occupying many firms. We see that small firms particularly are automating independently. However in comparison with final 12 months, the variety of massive firms utilizing DIY automation is growing considerably.“
A very powerful findings of the research:
1. Small (< 200 staff (MA)) and medium-sized enterprises („Medium“, < 2,000 staff) had been the main customers of automation methods on MAP in 2023, with a share of 48% and 17%, respectively. Nonetheless, small companies confronted more difficult financial circumstances in 2023. In consequence, there was a decline of 12% on this phase in comparison with the earlier 12 months (see research, p. 8).
Giant firms („Giant“, < 10,000 staff) in addition to the tutorial and authorities analysis sector („Academia & Gov Analysis“) have made vital beneficial properties in the usage of the DIY method on MAP (+10% and +4% respectively). Platform know-how has made vital progress over the previous 12 months, offering extra alternatives for high-throughput initiatives historically related to bigger producers or customers (see research, p. 8).
3. In 2023, very massive firms („Enterprise“, > 10,000 staff) used the DIY method extra typically of their manufacturing unit flooring than another sector. Accordingly, the variety of initiatives applied with MAP on this phase has risen – from a median of 4.1 in 2022 to 4.9 initiatives in 2023 (see research, p. 11).
4. Tasks with machine operation functions had been the quickest applied on MAP in 2023. That is probably resulting from the truth that it’s troublesome for firms to recruit workers given the continuing labor shortages. As latest improvements have made CNC integration extra accessible, producers are extra keen than ever to shortly undertake automated machine operation functions (see research, p. 24).
5. After two years of report gross sales (2021 and 2022), the Affiliation for Advancing Automation (A3) reported a major 30% decline in robotic gross sales in North America in 2023. In distinction, robotic deployments on MAP noticed a notable enhance in each 2022 and 2023. In 2023, robotic deployments on MAP grew by about 40% (see research, p. 26).
The total research may be discovered right here.