Manufacturing operations are beneath fixed stress to ship extra with much less, making cobot options a quick monitor to measurable good points, particularly for multi-site operations. Whether or not you’re overseeing 5 vegetation or fifty, there is a rising physique of proof: cobots can enhance output and speed up ROI with out compromising security or requiring months of disruptive adjustments.
Drawing from real-world expertise in multi-site deployments, here is how producers are making cobots work—and how one can too.
1. Begin with simplicity: Establish low-hanging fruit
In giant operations, not each web site has the identical readiness or constraints. Main producers start with the only, highest-impact initiatives. They stroll the ground, on the lookout for:
Bottlenecks in repetitive duties (like pick-and-place)
Duties the place including a cobot doesn’t require main line redesigns
A former world automation lead from a 20+ web site producer summed it up properly: “We prioritized what could possibly be achieved rapidly with minimal modification—even when ROI wasn’t absolutely the highest—as a result of velocity to deployment mattered.”
Use line walks together with your engineering workforce and construct a shortlist of cobot-ready duties. Rank them by:
Complexity
Estimated integration time
Anticipated manufacturing achieve
2. Simulate the achieve earlier than you automate
One factor decision-makers constantly want is quantifiable, site-specific knowledge. You don’t want superior modeling software program to simulate good points—get scrappy:
Run handbook simulations with operators mimicking cobot velocity and rhythm for a number of hours.
Use cardboard or 3D-printed mockups to recreate workstation layouts.
When you have take a look at cells or labs, simulate full traces with mock cobots and sensors to clock real-world cycle occasions.
This offers you credible estimates of potential manufacturing will increase—usually starting from 5% to 30%, relying on the applying.
3. Measure once more, and see ROI enhance
Right here’s one thing many producers uncover after the very fact: ROI usually seems to be even higher a number of months after set up. Why?
As a result of cobots ship extra constant efficiency than preliminary human-simulated estimates can seize. As soon as deployed, you’ll be able to monitor manufacturing knowledge out of your ERP or QA methods—and plenty of websites report that the precise good points outpace the conservative estimates used within the unique enterprise case.
One multi-site producer famous, “We at all times estimated good points conservatively, however after three months, precise output was 10–15% increased than anticipated. The true ROI blew away our mannequin.”
The takeaway? Don’t cease at estimating ROI—plan to re-measure it after deployment. It strengthens your case for scaling throughout different websites.
4. Construct the enterprise case with Lean Robotics rules
Lean Robotics teaches us to attenuate integration time by clearly separating the phases of design, integration, and operation. In multi-site deployments, this methodology turns into much more highly effective:
Design as soon as, deploy many: Develop modular options you’ll be able to clone throughout websites with minimal changes.
Shorten integration cycles: Favor initiatives the place your integration can occur in weeks, not months.
Monitor efficiency post-deployment: Monitor ROI in real-time utilizing manufacturing metrics pulled from the ERP or QA methods.
One producer achieved sub-1-year ROI on greater than half their deployments by tightly aligning with Lean Robotics strategies—and reinvested these good points into scaling quicker.
5. Get quick approvals with clear ROI projections
Determination-makers aren’t simply on the lookout for value financial savings—they need manufacturing will increase they’ll financial institution on. The tipping level? When ROI falls beneath 12 months, initiatives usually get greenlit with minimal resistance.
Right here’s what to incorporate in your proposal:
Estimated manufacturing enhance (conservative vary, e.g., 5–10%)
Cycle time enhancements
Labor affect (reassignment or discount—not simply headcount financial savings)
Anticipated payback time in months
Desire a shortcut? Attempt Robotiq’s free Cobot ROI Calculator to plug in your personal numbers. You’ll get an instantaneous estimate to validate your case with stakeholders.
6. Assume massive, begin sensible
Once you’re chargeable for a number of factories, a cobot technique cannot be one-size-fits-all. However it may be systematic. Establish repeatable purposes, develop normal kits, and align native web site managers behind easy metrics: productiveness, security, and velocity.
And bear in mind: with the best planning, your first profitable deployment is just the start. A lot of the corporations we see begin with one web site and scale quick—as a result of the outcomes communicate for themselves.
Able to discover your personal ROI?
Use our Cobot ROI Calculator to see how briskly your operation may benefit—whether or not you handle one web site or twenty.
