Automation refers to the usage of expertise to finish duties and processes with minimal human intervention. The time period encompasses a variety of applied sciences from robotic palletizing cells to AI product administration instruments. Automation is remodeling industries and there are large advantages to automating elements of your corporation.
The case for automation is getting stronger yearly. Whereas 10 years in the past, we have been nonetheless introducing firms to the essential advantages of automating even one course of, now individuals usually come to us already realizing that they wish to automate. And so they wish to do it rapidly and effectively.
There are various advantages to including automation, notably with robotics. Whereas quite a lot of discussions give attention to the “easy advantages” of automation — like elevated effectivity, productiveness, and efficiency — there are various extra nuanced advantages to automation.
If you would like your corporation to thrive this yr, it is necessary to grasp the precise advantages which might be most necessary proper now. It is also necessary to know what it is best to keep away from when automating, to flee widespread pitfalls.
Let’s discover 9 of the highest advantages of automation in 2025.
9 Advantages of Automation in 2025 (and What to Keep away from)
1. Flexibility and agility
With robotic automation, we regularly discuss flexibility and agility. These are each advantages that include automation however one is more and more extra related in 2025…
Versatile automation refers to techniques that may meet deliberate modifications to activity or product calls for. For instance, your organization would possibly expertise seasonal manufacturing spikes. A versatile automation course of can adapt to those predictable modifications.
As Robotiq R&D Undertaking Supervisor, Nicolas Lauzier highlights, this agility and related good expertise may give your organization a aggressive edge:
“There may be an urgency for adopting automated options within the present financial local weather. Based on stories, good manufacturing facility options would be the main drivers of competitiveness within the subsequent 5 years.”
A pitfall to keep away from right here is investing too closely in inflexible automation options. These are sometimes designed for mass manufacturing and might fall quick in right this moment’s fast-evolving markets.
2. Scale simply and adapt to alter
A standout advantage of automation is scalability. Not solely can the proper automation make it easier to ramp up manufacturing to fulfill your strategic progress targets, agile automation may make it easier to pivot manufacturing to deal with sudden market shifts.
Through the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, we noticed that many firms that succeeded in adapting to the altering world state of affairs had invested in the proper automation earlier than the pandemic.
One technique that may be very helpful is to deploy “copy-paste” robotic cells. This entails deploying a specific utility as soon as after which replicating that very same cell to scale manufacturing.
An instance of copy-paste automation is in decentralized palletizing. This modular strategy entails including a palletizing cell to the top of every new manufacturing line. By incorporating this core end-of-line course of into the road itself, you keep away from needing a drastic reconfiguration of your facility each time you scale manufacturing.
A pitfall to keep away from right here is assuming that you already know what the market will need sooner or later or relying an excessive amount of on predictions. As an alternative, spend money on automation that may will let you adapt to modifications rapidly after they occur.
3. Scale manufacturing domestically
Native manufacturing, empowered by collaborative robotic automation, is more and more thought of a strategic selection for producers.
For a few years, offshoring manufacturing was seen as the best way to scale manufacturing. Nevertheless, in recent times, reshoring manufacturing has develop into fashionable. This shift is not only a pattern however is changing into a necessity within the quickly altering financial and geopolitical panorama.
By bringing manufacturing nearer to dwelling, producers can expertise many advantages, together with decreased delivery prices, shorter lead instances, and the power to customise merchandise for native markets.
Reshoring with robotic automation additionally builds resilience into an organization’s operations by decreasing reliance on advanced international provide modifications.
A pitfall to keep away from with reshoring is to check solely the preliminary prices relatively than calculating the return on funding of automation in the long run. Offshored operations usually depend on low-cost labor, which might make automated options look extra pricey to start with. Nevertheless, financial savings usually develop into clear while you undertaking into the medium to long run.
4. Make higher choices with knowledge
Automation would not simply carry out key duties in your corporation, it additionally generates invaluable knowledge. This knowledge can feed into your wider enterprise analytics and make it easier to make higher, extra strategic selections.
Within the trendy world, knowledge is important for making good enterprise choices. With a robotic system, for instance, you possibly can generate knowledge that means that you can preserve optimizing your robotic deployment and enhance efficiency.
Our eBook Analytics for Cobots highlights how collaborative robots can simplify capturing this important knowledge. By monitoring solely the proper metrics, you possibly can give attention to those who immediately align along with your operational wants for the automated answer.
Amassing this knowledge may make it easier to justify your previous choices, reminiscent of investing in automation within the first place. For instance, the information you gather from a collaborative robotic will help you calculate the ROI and make choices about future automation initiatives.
A pitfall to keep away from right here is monitoring pointless knowledge. Solely monitor and analyze knowledge that’s related to your wants and utility.
5. Solves workforce shortages
Labor scarcity is a rising problem in trendy manufacturing and is an issue now we have been monitoring for a number of years. With an getting older workforce and fewer expert employees in key jobs (reminiscent of finish of line palletizing), automation is more and more the one possibility for some firms.
Robotiq’s Nicholas Lauzier emphasizes the urgency of this example in 2024, stating:
“Research present that the labor scarcity producers at present face just isn’t more likely to diminish; in reality, it’s anticipated to worsen. As individuals retire, youthful employees more and more go for jobs with higher working circumstances and compensation, steering clear of producing positions.”
Automation gives a strategic response to this subject, enabling you to maximise the potential of your current groups. By permitting automated techniques to take over the extra repetitive, mundane duties, you unlock your expert professionals for higher-value, extra intellectually stimulating actions.
A pitfall to keep away from just isn’t speaking the labor shortages to groups earlier than including automation. When individuals perceive why you’re including this new expertise, they’ll extra simply get on board.
6. Construct safer, higher workplaces
Some of the understated advantages of automation is its skill to create higher workplaces. By addressing the “4 D’s of robotics” you take away the least interesting points of individuals’s jobs.
These 4 D’s consult with duties which might be uninteresting, harmful, soiled, or expensive. They’re often jobs that result in low morale, greater accident charges, decrease job high quality, and elevated operational prices. By automating them, you possibly can take away the burden on human employees and make their jobs extra rewarding.
Robots usually excel on the duties that people do not take pleasure in doing. For instance, a uninteresting job may be a repetitive meeting activity. When human employees do the identical activity for hours on finish, they’ll develop into demotivated, and the duty high quality is decreased. However a robotic will simply and persistently carry out the identical activity for hours on finish.
A pitfall to keep away from right here just isn’t involving your crew members within the deployment. Whenever you contain individuals from the beginning, they usually take possession of the robotic deployment, main to higher outcomes.
7. Minimize waste and enhance sustainability
Sustainability has develop into a central focus throughout many industries. As many firms look to align their operations with extra sustainable practices, automation can present a robust software to information this transformation.
Robotic automation, for instance, has been proven to make packaging processes extra sustainable. Packaging could be a notoriously wasteful manufacturing stage, each in supplies and power utilization. With the proper automation answer, you possibly can sort out this drawback and contribute to enhancing your organization’s general sustainability.
By including collaborative robotic packaging, you possibly can optimize your workflow and lower materials use to a minimal. For instance, by monitoring your robotic, you possibly can tweak and alter the quantity of fabric utilized in packaging to chop it to a minimal. This isn’t a one-off exercise however relatively a step it is best to revisit once in a while to see how one can additional scale back waste.
A pitfall to keep away from at this stage is taking a look at your automated processes in isolation. Generally, you possibly can scale back waste considerably throughout robotic deployment by noticing different inefficiencies in the remainder of your operations.
8. Guarantee constant operations
Whereas robotic automation is usually most celebrated for enhancing effectivity and productiveness, maybe its most transformational profit is consistency.
Not like handbook processes, automation is very constant. That is essential in enterprise processes because it ensures your organization is dependable and maintains a excessive degree of product high quality. Including a robotic to your manufacturing workflow not solely makes its particular activity extra constant, it additionally improves the consistency of your total manufacturing circulation.
In Eli Goldratt’s seminal e book “The Purpose”, the creator highlights how a specific robotic workstation units the work cadence for the remainder of the manufacturing, serving to to take away a problematic bottleneck. Individuals working in manufacturing usually discuss how the robotic makes them extra constant as a result of they wish to “beat the robotic” or sustain with its constant throughput.
Lean Robotics offers a targeted pathway that may assist obtain this consistency in your corporation. The primary stage, mapping your current handbook course of, can usually make it easier to establish wasteful or inconsistent steps earlier than you automate with a robotic.
A pitfall to keep away from right here is attempting to suit your automation into your course of with out contemplating the remainder of your manufacturing levels.
9. Automation is simpler than ever
Maybe the largest profit to utilizing automation in 2025 is how simple it’s now to automate in comparison with the way it was up to now.
After we first began serving to firms to automate their processes, they nonetheless wanted to place in various work throughout deployment. Nowadays, including a robotic to your manufacturing is simpler than ever earlier than.
Robotiq’s CEO Samuel Bouchard highlighted this at a Automatica commerce honest, saying:
“With plug-and-play elements, you continue to must do a little bit of the combination. Our early adopters have been keen to try this. Now we’re working with individuals who do not even know what a cobot is. It permits extra individuals to undertake robots into their factories.”
With options like utility kits you possibly can add robotics to your course of rapidly and simply, serving to you to realize the outcomes you need to make.
By eradicating uninteresting, harmful, soiled, and expensive duties from the fingers of people, you should use automation to make the mark you wish to make on the world.
As Samuel says, that is a part of our core driver at Robotiq:
“Our mission for the previous 14 years has been to free human fingers from repetitive duties. That is nonetheless our mission. We see quite a lot of cobots, however I nonetheless suppose we’re at a very early stage. There may be nonetheless quite a lot of potential.”
How will you automate in 2025?
Automation in 2025 guarantees a world past simply effectivity or productiveness.
From enhanced labor dynamics to sustainability, consistency, and usefulness, its advantages ripple throughout each facet of enterprise. Nevertheless, the important thing to reaping these rewards lies in making use of that automation thoughtfully and avoiding key pitfalls.
What’s going to the way forward for automation appear to be in your organization?
Try our utility kits to see how simply you possibly can apply automation this yr.
What profit most speaks to your wants proper now? Inform us within the feedback beneath or be a part of the dialogue on LinkedIn or Fb.