British robots still doing well!

The annual sales of industrial robots for 2013 have beaten are almost as strong as the record year in 2012 reports the British Automation and Robot Association (BARA). Once again the automotive and automotive components sectors have been the main source.

2012 was a record year for Robot sales with 2,476 industrial robots being sold from the major suppliers, but 2013 has almost matched this figure at 95% of last year’s sales with 2,305 units being sold. Mike Wilson Chairman of BARA said ‘whilst this is good news and the automotive sector has unsurprisingly generated most of these sales, we are witnessing only a modest upward trend over the last few years in the uptake of automation and robotics across other sectors. The Pharmaceutical industry being the strongest with growth of 116% over last year’s result and food and drink rising by 28%.”

Grant Collier Head of Marketing for BARA, and responsible for the Automating Manufacturing programme – a government initiative to persuade UK companies to automate and remain competitive, said “we have seen a tremendous level of interest from all sectors for the use of automation but in particular 37% of the total 367 applications received came from the food sector. However, when surveyed there is a great deal of reticence to automate the food sector due to the pressure that the major supermarkets apply to supplier margins. The Groceries Code Adjudicator has been appointed to try to sort these issues out which in turn should help when it comes to investment in robotics and automation equipment. The Adjudicator will explain at the PPMA show at the N.E.C in September just how she is tackling this supply chain blockage’.  

Other sector variances include the plastics sector with robot sales up by 58% but Aerospace is down by 46%.

British robot sales much improved in half year to date.

Despite slower sales of robots in quarter one compared to an outstanding record year last year, robot sales for quarter two of 2013 have accelerated and almost matched the level for the entire year of 2011. David Manby, Managing Director of Aylesbury Automation commented ‘we are pleased to see that the sales of non-automotive sector robots are double what they were in 2009’.

In the first quarter of 2013, robot sales of 374 units were recorded compared to 912 in the second. The half year figures were 1286 robots sold compared with a phenomenal 2000 robots in the record year of 2012. However, automotive and automotive component orders contributed 79% of the orders compared with 87% for the first two quarters of the year in 2012. Whilst in most other sectors robot sales are increasing, the growth still remains much more conservative and in some sectors even declining.

Mike Wilson, British Automation and Robot Association Chairman said "whilst we welcome the level of robot orders from the automotive sector largely driven by product demand in global emerging markets, it is an on-going concern that some sectors are still not understanding the potential implications of not automating. Other countries such as China, Germany and most of the major European manufacturing nations, even countries that are not original equipment manufacturers, are investing heavily in automation to create competitive advantage.
“Part of the problem in the UK is a short term approach and the perception that the pay back period is considerably longer than it often is”.

Automating British manufacturing:
The government’s recent drive to automate British manufacturing under the automating manufacturing programme is nearing completion. According to Grant Collier, Head of Marketing for the PPMA Group of Associations, managing the programme "this has been a tremendous success with over 360 manufacturers around the UK taking up the Government funded Automating Manufacturing Programme which shows manufacturers how they can benefit from automation. Applications to date have come from a wide range of industries, including over one third from the food sector which is surprising since this has traditionally been an area very slow to adopt automation". He added, “it is frustrating to hear time and again, that many of the food sector companies are reluctant to automate due to the shortness of contracts and the ability to withdraw them with little notice from the major supermarkets. Hopefully this will improve with the recent appointment of the groceries code of conduct adjudicator – a regulator that will monitor relationships and practices within the grocery supply chain”.