Factory & Process Automation Trends For 2025
What's New For Automation In 2025?
The New Year will see the consolidation and refinement of the recent developments in the automation sphere. Devices and processes which were considered out of reach for many organisations and businesses will start to enter the mainstream.
Robotics And Cobots
The potential for robots to perform repetitive and risky tasks will see them continue to replace people in many environments. Once the business case has been established more and more companies will install robots. With the rising cost of employing people we could finally see the UK catching up with other developed countries in the deployment of robots.
The end game here is the autonomous factory with minimal human intervention, perhaps with just some level of remote oversight. While this is theoretically possible we are a long way off it becoming ubiquitous. Robots however are an important part of the transition.
Data Driven Processes
While many factories now collect and analyse production data any improvements largely require manual intervention. In 2025 we expect to see the continuing quest for more data and IT/OT convergence. The natural development of this would be to automate feedback from the back office to the production environment. Machine Learning (ML) and real time data will be central to this. Instead of waiting for daily or weekly reports adjustments to the process will be increasingly made by computers. Humans are not well suited to the job of processing the sheer volume of data now available in advanced manufacturing.
Small modifications of individual machines are already feasible. For example, adaptive inspection systems. But with the wealth of data now available we should see more automatic adjustments to the wider process.
Augmented Reality / AI Driven Maintenance
Many bottlenecks in production can be alleviated automatically as the factory of the future becomes more cohesive, with decision making outsourced by humans to increasingly 'intelligent' computers. However the potentional for a breakdown will remain. Regardless of the developments in predictive maintenance parts will still wear and fail. In the future we will see humans working with cobots in installation and maintenance roles. However before this becomes commonplace the main trend will be in the availability of data to aid repairs.
We already have augmented reality technology which can provide instant component data and process diagrams. Simply by pointing a camera at a suspect part we can see it's role in the overall system, how to go about safely repairing it and much more.
Despite the trend for more complex machines we can use similar technology to help us diagnose and repair it faster than ever. Offsetting some of the concerns in it's adoption.
Conclusion - Advanced Manufacturing For SMEs
While many of the scientific breakthroughs have been made we are yet to see the technology trickle down into Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In 2025 we anticipate more widespread adoption of the technologies above. Humans will still play an important role but we expect this to become largely in oversight and managerial as we move towards the 2030s.
Security of data and well designed networks are essential to the fabric of the smart factory. Consider the implications of a key network component failing or perhaps a small fire in a server room. People are still an important part of the development of resilient systems, particularly at the design stage.
One of the most important questions to pose in our increasingly connected world is still: 'What Happens When The Connection Is Lost?'.
View Our Data Gathering Products