One of the most common questions I hear from my customers is: How do we solve our employee shortfalls, while increasing production and safety, so we can increase our market share?
How efficiently a company can leverage its assets to generate a profit is what keeps a business successful and growing. Each market is different and staying ahead of your market must be considered. Automation on Truss Lines, Wall Lines, and the Saws that support those lines is vital. Being able to capture the market share in your area by safely producing quality trusses to exceed customers lead-time expectations is the key advantage of increasing market share. And speaking honestly, it is a calculated guess. Your return on investment (ROI) is dependent on both the rate of net profit on sales and the amount of investment required to support the volume of sales. Material expense and payroll will dominate the budget. So, it is equipment that utilizes the material efficiently with the right people that will make Automation and Robotics relatively affordable.
Spida USA currently manufactures Automated and Robotic Machinery for a few companies. How long before the entire market moves in that direction? You’ll notice, that question is a matter of “when” not “if” – the adoption of automation and robotics will continue even though the pace is TBD. At some point, those companies that have it now will have a market share advantage because they are investing in their future.
Going Automated or Robotic on as much equipment as possible at the right time is one of the most important decisions that you can make. As much as we don’t like to hear it, the workforce in our industry continues to decline. Much of the decline is due to education curriculum. It has evolved from teaching trades and skills to more of a technology aspect. We need to close that gap smartly.
A good example of that would be automated Jigging on our Roof Truss Systems. We build Manual Jigging Tables that have bolt-on Manual rails that can quickly be switched to automated Jigging rails without having to cut apart the table and weld them in place. That flexibility is huge moving forward. This allows for less down-time during that transition. When training on automated equipment, it will always seem like production slows down initially because the new equipment must be taught to the operator. Although this can seem overwhelming, keep in mind that once it becomes routine that operator or supervisor will be able to use a variety of employees to fill in relatively easily without much loss in productivity. After all, Manual Truss lines that require frequent puck set ups are a production killer, especially when not properly staffed for the day, which proves that down-time losses are not unique to learning new automation.
As the old saying goes: “You can do something for your employees or to your employees.” Utilizing the labor of our employees efficiently is what keeps most of us up at night. In our drive to keep the experience in our company, Automation and Robotics can help significantly. Remember, employee motivation can’t be measured directly but it is a crucial intangible that contributes to ROI and market share. Team Building events may have become a lost art, but their lessons are clear: companies that team-build well excel, while those that don’t struggle.