Interview Role of Technology in Robotics

By Saksit Suetrong, CEO/Robotics Engineer, iA-ROBOTICS

Saksit Suetrong, CEO/Robotics Engineer, iA-ROBOTICS

Technology Initiatives at iA-Robotics

Technology was always part of iA-Robotics’ normal operating procedure. As an industrial robot automation provider, iA-Robotics relies on technology to solve its customers’ problems and make sure their expectations are exceeded. Technology as a general term includes many branches which can be very different, but still able to work together. In a robot system, for example there are the software components with the embedded technology and software languages which have to work together with mechanical components relying on metallurgy, chemistry, and physics laws.

“Being part of the “hi-tech” manufacturing industry, iA-Robotics has to stay in touch with the ever evolving technological innovations”

Being part of the “hi-tech” manufacturing industry, iA-Robotics has to stay in touch with the ever evolving technological innovations. In order to keep up with these innovations, iA-Robotics has to keep its employees up to date by requiring certain amount of training hours depending on their specific field of operation. Another way of satisfying iA-Robotics’ business needs is to look for technological innovations to solve known issues or improve the quality and productivity of places where old technology is still used by our customers.

Current Technological Challenges

iA-Robotics relies and welcomes all technological news and innovations. However, technology could become a challenge when the latest technological news are not published or shared by the manufacturers in a timely manner. It is true that iA-Robotics has to keep up with the new technology as it becomes available, but most of the time the burden of publishing and advertising new technology falls on the technology vendors. Many times the ongoing projects do not leave a lot of time for keeping up with the technological news.

The technology vendors should regularly transfer the technological news to their customers. Even if there is not always a positive response to a new technological product, being aware of the new products could save time and money to a company like iA-Robotics.

Significant Trends

Transferring large amount of data, social media, mobile communications, cloud data storage have become more main stream in almost all business environments. This is also true for iA-Robotics. Because of its global customer base, mobile communications and the ability to transfer large amount of data is crucial to iA-Robotics daily business.

Mobile communications help to keep everybody in touch regardless of the geographical location.In addition, having access to emails and text messages helps the communications among employees and between employees and customers.

Being able to transfer large amount of data through the Internet decreases the time needed for the customers to receive important documents. In addition, many problems can be solved by being able to send upgraded files to the customer directly.

Advice to vendors providing technology solutions to "Robotics”

As mentioned before one very important thing the technology vendors have to do is to keep their customers informed of any new developments and technological innovations. Another thing that needs to be improved is the delivery time for the new and even the existing technology. In many occasions, the lead time to receive certain equipment or software can make or break a deal leading to an order. One other thing the vendors can improve is training their sales force to be more familiar with the new technological solutions. It would save time if the specifications and advantages of using the new solutions or equipment are presented at the time when the vendors’ sales person first presents the new technology and there is no need for a second appointment with a second person to learn the new solutions’ specs.

Competitive Advantage

There are a many things iA-Robotics learned in order to keep a competitive edge. Following are a few of them:

- Keep all employees trained and updated with the latest technological innovations, which will help provide the best service to the customers and always be prepared for any new technology to improve the reliability and quality of the service provided.

- Require that all technology vendors will publish and make known all new technological solutions and innovations as soon as they are released. This will keep the company at the cutting edge of technology, which will enable it to transfer these new technologies to the customer.

- Take advantage of the new developments and innovations in social media, mobile communications, and large data transfer options. This will enable the employees to communicate quicker among themselves and also solve customers’ problems faster and more efficiently.