The 5 Biggest Challenges of Lights-Out Manufacturing (And How to Tackle Them)
The modern manufacturing landscape is constantly changing, with new advances in technologies such as automation and Industry 4.0 being introduced at breakneck speeds. One of the most talked-about trends in the manufacturing industry, especially considering the safety precautions manufacturers put in place to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, is the move to "lights-out manufacturing”. This concept means that factories continue operating after hours with automated production and few or no human workers. Done correctly, this is a game-changing combination of automated equipment and digital infrastructure that increases efficiency and throughput while offsetting the impact of the current skilled labor shortage.
At its core, lights out manufacturing is a simple concept—an automated environment that continues producing parts without human interaction. And thanks to the increased use of sophisticated digital production and project management software, lights-out manufacturing is becoming more accessible to companies of all sizes.
While lights-out manufacturing has many potential benefits, any company looking to implement this sophisticated technology is bound to encounter a few hiccups. This article will explore some of the common challenges of lights-out manufacturing and how you can overcome them.
So, What is Lights-out Manufacturing?
Lights-out manufacturing refers to automating the manufacturing processes so the shop floor can run unattended. This often requires various robots and other automation technology to perform tasks that human workers would otherwise do, such as loading machines and moving finished products to a staging area.
Overcoming lights-out manufacturing challenges for manufacturers
Lights-out manufacturing improves your productivity, efficiency, and lead times. It also allows manufacturers to run 24 hours a day to better meet customer demand or make a tight deadline for a major client.
Originally, lights-out manufacturing was reserved for the largest manufacturers with huge capital investment budgets. But this is changing, and now manufacturers of all sizes can take part in the lights-out revolution. Although the initial implementation process can be intimidating in terms of cost and the required digital infrastructure, implementing the technology in phases makes it a very attainable goal for most small and medium-sized manufacturers.
With lights-out manufacturing and automation, you don't need to automate your entire factory, instead choosing to automate the production lines and processes that will have the largest benefit for your company.
Challenges of Lights-out Manufacturing
For all its obvious benefits, there are still challenges for any company trying to launch a lights-out manufacturing process, just like any other significant process integration. Each company will experience slightly different challenges depending on many factors, such as existing equipment and digital infrastructure, the skill set of its workers, and the footprint of the shop floor. With that in mind, here are a few common roadblocks to consider before going down the path of lights-out integration or unattended manufacturing.
1. Lack of Required Skill Sets
One of the challenges of lights-out manufacturing is that much of the required technology is relatively new. While suppliers have made huge improvements in ease of use, you may still need a highly skilled team to install and monitor the process. If you have an engineer on the payroll who has the experience to lead this project, you’re off to a good start. If no one at your company can do this, your supplier can help. Most suppliers and automation integrators provide a very hands-on level of service because they want to make sure you experience success with your new project; however, this will increase the total implementation costs.
2. Dreaded Downtime
Downtime is one of the biggest challenges for a manufacturer, and it’s certainly not limited to those who run lights out manufacturing. With standard manufacturing, if your production line suffers a tooling break or starts producing poor quality parts, the machine operator will see this issue and stop the process before it chews up raw materials and wastes time. However, in a lights-out environment, a machine tool that has deflected off its path could continue to produce bad parts for an entire shift, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost time and materials. Having a monitoring system in place is then very important.
3. Cost of implementation
While lights-out manufacturing can offer significant long-term cost savings, the initial investment in capital equipment and infrastructure can be substantial. Implementing such a system is complex and requires careful planning and execution. As a manufacturer, you must consider the ROI on the cost of implementation. You can always implement this technique in stages instead of the entire plant, guaranteeing a return on investment for the automation process.
4. Technology bottlenecks
A technology bottleneck occurs when new technology doesn’t communicate properly with the existing infrastructure. Most manufacturing plants have invested in new technology but still use older equipment which may use different communication protocols. This isn’t a problem if you are building a lights-out manufacturing cell from the ground up. However, most companies want to use lights out to augment the value of the machines in place, so addressing the compatibility concerns from the outset is a good idea.
5. Maintaining and repairing equipment
Since there is little to no human intervention during the lights-out manufacturing process, maintenance and repair can be challenging. To overcome this, manufacturers must have a robust sensor array to remotely monitor and control their equipment.
Solutions Are On The Way
Despite these challenges in lights-out manufacturing, there are solutions to ensure a smoother implementation and successful commissioning.
Flexible Production Is The Goal
Most small and medium-sized manufacturers need the flexibility to change their production runs frequently to serve new customers and win new contracts. Traditional automation equipment and robots may lack this flexibility, but new technologies like collaborative robots democratize automation and allow manufacturers to automate their operations in steps. In addition, these robots enable High-Mix, Low-Volume (HMLV) manufacturers to successfully start their automation with project-based workflows. It all adds to an increasing amount of flexibility for any manufacturer willing to take the plunge.
When operating unattended, those collaborative robots or automated workstations need localized remote monitoring and control that can follow the same flexibility of production. Remote access solutions that are made for specific systems like the robots themselves will offer the flexibility a smaller manufacturer need in its effort to produce unattended and evolve towards lights-out manufacturing.
Offsetting Implementation Costs
In a manufacturing environment, every change made comes with costs. And it’s not just the initial investment in equipment and services. Downtime associated with the change, training on the new technology, and stocking up on spare parts are just a few of the hidden costs associated with an investment in a new manufacturing process. But the modularity of lights out manufacturing can play a key role in mitigating these costs to make the new investment more achievable.
Taking baby steps by automating parts of the process instead of your entire manufacturing plant can help reduce many of the costs associated with implementation. If you are already using robots or collaborative robots in your production, simple addons could get them up to speed and monitoring production. Once you gain the experience of the initial setup, automating the remainder of the production line will be much smoother.
Remote Access Is The Key
Maintaining visibility and control over automated operations is necessary for continued success in lights-out manufacturing processes, where there is no one on-site to monitor and troubleshoot issues.
That’s why a huge part of unattended manufacturing is to monitor the operations remotely and then if something happens, be able to notify the appropriate person at your company. Of course, being able to notify if the production has stopped is the first step, but the true challenge is to be able to restart the production when nobody qualified is around.
For example, systems like Olis Connect made for Universal Robots allow users to see the entire scenario from their smartphone and then allow them to remote access and control the robot —known as “jogging” the robot—to free it from a jam and restart the process from its initial position to correct any errors and resume production. That is what we call “Remote Error Recovery” at Olis Robotics. Being notified that the production is down is only one part of the solution; you need to remotely put the robot back in production as quickly as possible.
Bottom line
Lights-out manufacturing presents some unique challenges to manufacturers. However, you can avoid many of them by taking baby steps towards full unattended production and using remote monitoring and control solutions to make the lights-out manufacturing trend affordable even to small and medium-sized manufacturers.
If you’re using Universal Robots cobots, Olis Connect can help you stay on top of your machines' performance, get real-time alerts, and keep your process running smoothly, which any manufacturer wants from their investments.