Why smarter machine control can unlock efficiency gains beyond hardware upgrade
EDITOR’ S CHOICE CONTROL DRIVES EFFICIENCY
BECKHOFF
Why smarter machine control can unlock efficiency gains beyond hardware upgrade
Increasingly, manufacturers must improve productivity while minimising operating costs and energy consumption. Therefore, many focus their investments on visible hardware upgrades, whether it’ s replacing motors with higherefficiency alternatives, upgrading drives or redesigning mechanical systems. These improvements can make a difference, but often the greatest gains don’ t come from replacing physical components, they come from improving how machines are controlled, explains Beth Ragdale, product manager at industrial control and automation specialist Beckhoff UK & Ireland.
While a narrative of industrial decline persists, UK manufacturing has quietly become more productive. According to analysis by FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics, real manufacturing output has increased by six per cent since 2020, while output per worker has risen by ten per cent over the same period. Meanwhile, the UK manufacturing workforce has fallen by four per cent, suggesting this progress has been at least partly driven by greater adoption of automation, robotics and data-driven manufacturing.
Today, machines are expected to produce more with fewer resources, adapt quickly to changing production requirements and generate the operational data needed to support continuous improvement. Replacing motors and upgrading mechanical components is important here but is unlikely to unlock the next step change in efficiency alone. Achieving this requires intelligent control of the machines on the shop floor.
Control as the foundation of efficiency
Machine control plays a key role in determining how effectively a system operates. Even the most efficient hardware can underperform if control logic results in unnecessary movements, excessive cycle times or machines running when not adding value.
Inefficient sequences, poorly optimised motion profiles and excessive machine idle time can all introduce hidden costs for manufacturers. For example, a robotic arm used in a pick-andplace application may complete thousands of movements a day. However, if the robot travels further than necessary between operations or waits unnecessarily for other processes to complete, even those small inefficiencies can snowball into significant losses in cycle time and energy consumption.
By introducing more intelligent control architectures, manufacturers can optimise these processes at source. Integrated automation platforms allow motion, logic, safety, measurement and data acquisition to work together, resulting in a more coordinated approach to machine operation.
Rather than simply instructing a production machine or robot to complete a task, modern control systems can analyse how that task is performed and identify opportunities to improve performance. This may include reducing unnecessary axis movement, adjusting machine parameters dynamically or coordinating different parts of a production cell more effectively.
Continuously optimising with data As more machine data becomes available, this creates fresh opportunities for manufacturers to optimise performance beyond traditional automation approaches, which often prioritise programming machines to complete predefined tasks efficiently. By capturing
22 PECM Issue 83