Owning a small business that is in a seasonal market comes with a host of challenges. For starters, you won’t have a consistent stream of revenue because of the lows of demand. There is also the fact that during peak seasons, you can run into trouble trying to hire temporary workers, creating more space to keep up with the sudden spike in demand, and trying to ensure that your employees don’t get overwhelmed with the pressure of peak seasons.
The good news is that if you are in the manufacturing sector, most of the problems that come with seasonal businesses can be solved with automation. And since collaborative robots offer small businesses a great balance between affordability and productivity, they are the perfect solution for businesses who are tired of dealing with the headaches that come with seasonality. The following are the different ways in which a collaborative robot can make life easier for both you and your employees.
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Works around the clock
A robot can work on 24-hour shifts without needing to take any work breaks. They can even work overnight. And when you combine this with the fact that they typically work faster than humans when it comes to executing tasks, this is something that translates to higher productivity.
During peak seasons, keeping up with demand is something that most small businesses struggle with. They rarely have enough manpower to deal with sudden demand spikes, and this normally leads to delivery delays, unsatisfied customers,and even cancelled orders. As a result, shopping for, and acquiring industrial robots for sale is an easy way of easing the burden that a small business has to shoulder. It can reduce cases of cancelled deliveries, increase customer satisfaction, and lead to an overall healthier business.
Easy to install and deploy
During the peak season, a business usually needs all the help that it can get instantly. Unfortunately, when it comes to using human workers, instant availability is not something that is usually available. This is because human workers have to be recruited, passed through orientation, and then trained before they can competently handle their duties. This takes time, and as a result, a small business will normally have to suffer the strain of not having enough manpower to deliver on their promises, at least in the initial stages of the ramping up process.
With robots, you don’t have to worry about allocating time to extensive recruiting, orientation and training. This is so especially when dealing with advanced robotic systems like collaborative robots. This is so mainly because they can be installed, programmed and deployed in even less than a day. As a result, a small business can get instant results and this can help with limiting the chaos of the adjustment period.
Easy to reprogram and redeploy
The seasonality of demand presents a risk that sometimes makes it necessary to pivot from one sector to the next. It may also present unexpected production needs that are hard to anticipate. This uncertainty can therefore lead a small business to sometimes get it wrong when it comes to anticipating their production needs or resource allocation.
Since collaborative robots are easy to reprogram and redeploy, they can easily chip in where they are needed. They can be made to handle tasks on an as-needed basis, something that will allow the business to comfortably pivot or change direction without a lot of interruptions in their processes. This flexibility is a feature that helps to improve the ability of a small business to easily adapt to a changing environment, and sometimes, this is usually enough to make the difference between success and failure.
If you are a small business and are looking for a way to minimize the risks that come with the seasonal nature of your business, then automating your processes by using a cobot is a great idea. This is because doing so will afford you a reliable way to ease the pressure of sudden demand spikes without necessarily increasing your overheads to a point where they drag your business down.
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