Global problem needs futuristic solution

Scott Huang, Chief Operating Officer 

Collaborative robots were unthinkable twenty years ago. Today, it has entered just about every industry with companies around the globe increasing their use. With this COVID-19 pandemic spreading across South East Asia and the whole world-- the timing is right for these robots.  If properly utilised, collaborative robots (cobots) can give South East Asia a sustained advantage. 

The growing number of challenges enterprise leaders across South East Asia encounter every day has positioned Techman Robot in the right place and time. Established in 2016, the company is the only cobot manufacturer based in Taiwan.

In an interview with International Metalworking News for Asia, Chief Operating Officer Scott Huang explains how its cobots allow customers to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape and boost their productivity and efficiency.

Techman Robot product demonstration

Truths about competition

Techman Robot has become the world’s second largest vendor of collaborative robots by 2018, according to market research firm Interact Analysis. Its streamlined production process is based in Taiwan, covering product research, development, production and manufacturing.

“To remain competitive in this time of crisis, enterprises must aim to be different,” explains Scott. Techman Robot is the first collaborative robot equipped with a built-in vision system, which integrates into both the hardware and software perfectly, whereas traditional add-on vision solutions to robotics are complicated, time consuming and costly to implement,” he adds.

Scott is positive that Techman Robot provides the most intelligent cobots, as it features an integral visual recognition in the world. He remarks, “Our robots perfectly integrate the hands, eyes and brains into one system, which impressively improve the easiness of using industrial robots and remarkably reduce the cost and deployment time.”

Scott describes the features of its collaborative robots in three points: (1) Smart: With the company’s powerful built-in vision system, Techman Robot can see, think and work unitedly and smartly like human. (2) Simple: Users can use hand-guiding function to teach robot every pose and point in the task. All-graphic flow chart based HMI (human-machine-interface) allows people to use robots as simple as smart phones. (3) Safe: The TM5 collaborative robot complies with the ISO 10218 human-robot safety requirement.

Trends in the factory floor

While companies keep employees and their families’ safe, they must also ensure business continuity. Aside from Techman Robot’s existing collaborative robot, Scott introduces the TMmanager, an intelligent factory management system to help enterprises break away from the bottleneck of automation and narrow the gap with intelligent manufacturing.

According to Scott, the management system is an industrial graphic control software for the intelligent management of factory processes and equipment; with an automatic management system of real time system monitoring and data analysis. The exclusive robotic management system of TMmanager can be connected with Techman Robot to monitor the operation of the robotic arm and has various functional modules of the Shop Floor Control System (SFC System) to effectively manage the automatic machines at the factory.

He adds, “With its user-friendly, high-CP, and highly-flexible applications, TMmanager provides well-rounded intelligent manufacturing management solutions, becoming the best management system for intelligent factories in the era of Industry 4.0.”

High standard

When asked how the company maintains the high-standard of its cobots, Scott mentioned, “We have three major core values for customers: quality, innovation and service. (1) Quality: We strive for excellence as we endeavour to constantly improve ourselves, our products and solutions. (2) Innovation: We develop innovative products and solutions that deliver real solution for businesses and people's lives. (3) Service: We stand side-by-side with our partners and clients to help them achieve their goals.”

Scott affirms that Techman Robot is a leading collaborative robot and vision technologies company, dedicated to improving the world of work for businesses and their people through (robotic) technology applications.

“We believe that when robotic technology is deployed correctly it can make an extremely positive impact to performance, efficiency and productivity, even creating a lasting positive impact on whole industries. We think that every business should have access to beneficial technology to advance their position. We are determined to use our experience, knowledge and skills to break boundaries, solve challenges, meet new industry requirements and continue to bring smart, simple and safe solutions to the international market.  At Techman Robot, we close the gap for every business,” he adds.

Robots future development

In 2019, the overall robot market revenues experienced negative growth for the first time in many years affected by the global manufacturing downturn and reduced demand in major end industries, such as automotive and electronics. However, the collaborative robot market still maintains a high growth rate of more than 30% (32.1% in revenue term and 31.3% in shipment term).

Scott comments, “With the further development of new application scenarios and breakthroughs in technology bottlenecks, the cobot market is projected to reach US$ 5.6 billion in 2027. We are really looking forward the development of collaborative robot.”

South East Asia

Since its establishment, Techman Robot has quickly become one of the largest industrial cooperative robot brands. “We have distributors in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines to provide instant service in the local area. In the future, we plan to put more focus on the automotive and electronics industries,” says Scott.

Although collaborative robot is still a small fraction in South East Asia’s manufacturing industry, by making a move, you can create a change in your manufacturing environment. Every change is always stressful for a business, processes and people involved. 

Robots aren't meant to replace workers but to make work easier. With this global pandemic, workers are an uncertain bet in a world where every human might have to stay home for a few months to avoid transmitting an infectious disease. Whether we like it or not, robots are geared up to take up the slack.


Techman Robot introducing the TM Palletizing Operator

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Website: http://www.industrysourcing.com/article/global-problem-needs-futuristic-solution

Moving forward in a world of unknowns

Chong Chee Ter, Managing Director, TRUMPF Asia Pacific

COVID-19 has just begun to bring massive disruption to many businesses, cities and municipal governments across South East Asia. Manufacturing-industry businesses of all sizes are seeing their revenue fall to virtually zero due to nations self-isolating.

Kathryn Gerardino-Elagio of International Metalworking News for Asia interviewed Mr. Chong Chee Ter, Managing Director of TRUMPF Asia Pacific to see how the company is acting to protect their employees and customers, and prepare for the world beyond coronavirus.

Mr. Chong said that businesses are forced to re-think and adapt strategic decisions in these challenging times. Businesses are implementing staggered working hours, splitting the employees into different teams for minimal contact measure, and to even adopt working from home. “All of which would entail some extend of inconveniences to our customers, an unfortunate albeit necessary measure,” he added.

How technology bridges the gap

He explained, “Technology has always been proven to be a pivotal role not only in our industry, but to the society as a whole as well. Manufacturers have always used technology not only to further enhance the production process, but to also use it as a bridge to be closer to the customers. For instance the usage of Social Media to reach out to our customers as well as complimentary trainings via webinars that allow us to be closer to the market.”

Given the current situation, Mr. Chong described technology has undoubtedly proven itself once again. “With several countries across South East Asia implementing lockdowns, curfews etc. Courtesy visits or sending an engineer to our customer premises is not possible at the moment, that’s where technology comes into play again. Our “Remote Support” function plays a critical role in these challenging times where social distancing and minimal human to human contact is the new norm,” he declared.

Mr. Chong shared, “The existing “remote support or TeleService” function in our machines enable the customer to get in touch with our service experts should they experience any technical issues with the machine. The customer just would have to initiate the connection from their user interface, and a virtual PC is generated for the session. Once it’s done and our service expert has been given the permission to access the user interface, we can begin the troubleshooting. Our customers thus still can benefit from a quick fault diagnosis and solution remotely within the transmission, all data is completely secured with a firewall and confidentiality of data is ensured at each point in time.”

At the same time, he also shared about MyTRUMPF, a customer portal, which remains open to users 24/7. “Our customers have access to their orders and their delivery status, can file and follow up on service cases via the ServiceApp on their mobile phones, download software and tool data as well as access all information about their TRUMPF machines such as warranty periods, service contracts, etc.,” Mr. Chong said.

In-house exhibition

It is also exactly during these difficult times where companies are being tested on their flexibility to adapt to the situation and the willingness to adopt new technologies, Mr. Chong remarked.

“For instance, our annual in-house exhibition “INTECH” has traditionally been a physical trade show, but has since developed into a virtual event where participants can visit the exhibition at the comfort and more importantly, the safety of their own home,” he specified.

Undoubtedly these are challenging times, and it’s not possible to tell when the situation would improve at the moment, Mr. Chong stated. “What we are doing internally now is to continuously serve our customers via digital means, enriching their knowledge on technologies, software and current developments in view of digitalisation and smart lean manufacturing, etc. All of which would definitely be helpful when the situation improves and come out of this crisis stronger and well prepared for future challenges awaiting the manufacturing industry, especially in terms of digital solutions,” he concluded.

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http://edms.industrysourcing.com/ezine/20/06/imna.html?pagenum=16

http://www.industrysourcing.com/article/moving-forward-world-unknowns

Sometimes what you need is a little flexibility!

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Showroom link: http://www.industrysourcing.com/supplier/ann-way-machine-tools-co-ltd

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Greenway - The lathe that last

Global manufacturing industries current goal is to be faster, more efficient, and customer-centric, thus implementing Industry 4.0 to their production operations. 

To fulfill these automation processing demands, Greenway HC-30N Special PurposeLathe, is equipped with customized single workpiece auto feeding system. It can assist you to proceed to non-stop auto operation that increases machine processing efficiency when dealing with labour shortage. HC-30N CNC Lathe is the best option for high C/P ratio machines in the market. 

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International Metalworking News for Asia June 2020 issue now LIVE!

When the virus pushed South East Asia’s manufacturing chain into pandemonium, enterprises in all sizes struggle to support production capabilities. Bringing production back is a persisting matter, but this pandemic could serve to make it a priority. International Metalworking News for Asia’s June issue features technical boosters in the form of articles poised to enter into an innovation phase that will help develop new approaches to combat the disruptions in manufacturing and business caused by coronavirus.

READ more: 

Website: http://www.industrysourcing.com/magazine/imna/2020/06

E-zine: http://edms.industrysourcing.com/ezine/20/06/imna.html