Newsletter Enero 2024:
By: Piotr Banaszek
Robotization in the Global Industry and Supplier Selection by the Sourcing and Purchasing Department at bdp Mechanical Components
We travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometres in search of the best solutions for our regular partners and new customers. We are present at specialist trade fairs throughout Europe and beyond. We visit production facilities and hold numerous meetings to find new and improved suppliers to meet our customers’ requirements for quality, on-time delivery, and cost reduction.
For several decades, there has been a worldwide trend towards the automation of production through the modernisation of production lines. For the last decade or so, there has been a significant increase in the use of robots or “cobots” (Collaborative Robot) in production plants. These devices are intended to replace or assist human labour in heavy physical work, often performed under very difficult conditions or in highly complex production operations in machining companies, welding work, forges, foundries, production of stamped parts or assembly lines.
What does the “robotization of manufacturing in the world” look like today?
For a long time, the automotive industry held the lead in the rapid deployment of new robots in production. However, it has now lost its leading position to the electronics industry. It is estimated that in 2021, companies in the automotive sector deployed 119,000 new robots and the electronics sector 137,000, followed by the metalworking and machine manufacturing sector with 64,000, the plastics sector with 24,000 and the food sector with 15,000 new robots.
A new report by World Robotic has recorded 553,000 installations of new industrial robots in factories around the world, an increase of 5% from 2021 and a further 7% growth in the industrial robot market in 2023.
Robotization density is calculated in terms of robots per 10,000 employees.
The largest robotics market in the world is, of course, China, where annual robot installations in 2022 reached 290,258 units. The second-largest market is the European Union, with over 70,000 units installed. Germany leads the way with a 36% share of the European market, followed by Italy with 16%, and France with 10%. In third place globally is Japan, with 50,400 units, followed by the United States of America, which installed 39,600 units.
The robotization of manufacturing is intended as an answer to the world’s ageing population, the lack of skilled workers willing to do hard physical work sometimes in difficult conditions. This problem particularly affects the European and North American markets.
Thanks to the robotization of production, it is possible to schedule work in three shifts with high efficiency and high-quality production of often very complex parts for various industries with lower human material involvement. Manufacturing companies can fulfil medium- and high-volume orders, offer products at lower, more attractive prices to the mutual benefit of the customer and the supplier. Many suppliers of pressed parts made of steel and aluminium, plastics, welded, machined, forged or cast parts are modernising their machinery or equipping it with new computerised equipment, robots or cobots.
It is the task of the Purchasing and Procurement Departmentat bdp Mechanical Components to identify suppliers with modern machinery and automated production lines. This allows us to offer our customers the best products at the best prices. Suppliers equipped with modern machinery and production-supporting robots serve as a guarantee of success when realising projects with the highest technical requirements.
Feel free to contact us at purchase@bdp-mc.com with any further questions you may have regarding outsourcing of mechanical components.
Our bdp Mechanical Components team will be happy to advise and support you.
