Business leaders in Germany and around the world are currently facing one challenge after another: In addition to the exploding costs caused by the energy crisis, there are supply chain problems, a shortage of skilled workers, sustainability requirements and advancing digitalization, all of which demand coherent approaches. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular must quickly find ways to overcome these hurdles. Automation provides a remedy - this includes robotics such as cobots and AMR (autonomous mobile robots) as well as sensor, vision and AI technology. Although companies are well aware of the advantages of such technologies, studies also show that many are still skeptical about their actual use.

According to Deutsches Robotik Spiegel, 48.3% of respondents without application experience fear that the use of robots would be associated with high costs. However, an IDC study also found that 70% of the companies surveyed are planning to use intelligent automation. If you are currently wondering whether the purchase of a collaborative or mobile robot is worthwhile for your company, Omron's new return on investment (ROI) calculator can help. It provides a quick overview of the return on investment and shows when a robotics investment will cover its costs.

Classification: Automation in the SME sector

There are currently around 23.1 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union. They are an integral part of the economy, even if there are differences from country to country. In Germany, for example, 82% of the country's value added comes from SMEs. In the EU as a whole, the figure is around 56%. The importance of SMEs as employers is also extremely important: almost 84 million EU citizens work in an SME. In Germany, around 18.5 million people are employed in an SME. The problem: in many places, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find employees. In the EU, around 2.9% of vacancies were unfilled in the first quarter of 2022, almost 50% more than in the same period last year. As a result, companies urgently need to find new ways to find and retain suitable employees. Technologies that take over manual and repetitive tasks can increase employee safety and efficiency. Other measures include training initiatives, incentives for new starters, employee programs and more. Cobots are ideal for SMEs due to their flexibility and many different possible applications. Studies such as MarketsandMarkets show that this segment has enormous potential: according to them, the market for collaborative robots is expected to grow from 1.2 billion US dollars in 2021 to 10.5 billion US dollars in 2027. An annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.4% is forecast until 2027.

However, anyone dealing with this topic for the first time is faced with a mountain of questions and considerations. Omron has compiled four key aspects that should be considered at the start of automation projects in order to drive projects forward, reduce skepticism and get stakeholders on board.

1. focus on application scenarios and scale slowly

The first question that companies thinking about automation and cobots should focus on is not: should they invest in robotics? Instead: Which processes can be made more efficient and how? Some tasks that are very intricate and individual can be automated, but they involve immense effort - both in terms of time and resources. When getting started with automation, it is advisable to start with small projects and then gradually scale up, add new workflows, expand the fleet, etc. Take a large bakery, for example: company managers are not primarily asking how a robot can be used, but how bread can be transferred from the conveyor belt to the containers intended for the bakery branches without the need for an employee.

2. use robots to support employees

Robots score points for flexibility. They can be adjusted and adapted, used in fleets and more. Depending on the product and area of application, different positions and

They can also be expanded so that they can be adapted to new or changed tasks. However, this does not mean that they replace employees. Instead, it is about a well-orchestrated interaction between man and machine. Medium-sized companies in particular should initially focus on individual tasks and not think and plan too complexly. Expanding the cobot, for example with a camera and image processing system (vision technology), is also possible at a later stage, provided that a robotics partner is chosen who can cover various areas from a single source and offer a good partner network. The focus is on: How can robotics help employees? Which manual tasks can be handed over to a robot so that human employees can concentrate on more value-adding tasks? Loading and unloading machines as well as palletizing and depalletizing are processes that can be automated relatively quickly and easily. Welding is also a good example of the use of robots in SMEs.

3. get employees on board and specialize