Robotics and automation integration
One accountable integrator, from payback analysis to a running cell.
Built for high-mix work, where the cell has to handle variation rather than repeat one motion, and integrated with the production data and ERP the rest of the plant already runs on.
What the engagement covers.
End to end. You deal with one firm, one project manager and one acceptance test.
- Feasibility and payback analysis
Cycle times, labor content, changeover, scrap and the roles you cannot fill, measured on the floor rather than estimated in a meeting. You get a payback figure you can take to a CFO before anything is designed.
- Task selection
Which operations are worth automating first, which are not, and why. High-mix operations usually have one or two tasks where a cell pays for itself quickly and several where it never would.
- Cell design
Layout, tooling, fixturing, part presentation and material flow, designed around the variation in your parts rather than an idealized one.
- Vision and AI
Cameras and models that let the cell locate, identify and inspect parts that are not always in the same place or the same condition, which is what makes high-mix automation work at all.
- Programming
Robot, PLC and HMI programming, written so your maintenance team can read it, with recipes for new parts that do not require a service call.
- Procurement
Robots, end effectors, conveyance, guarding and controls specified and sourced from established vendors, with the quotes shown to you.
- Offsite build and testing
The cell is assembled and run against your parts before it arrives, so installation is days rather than weeks and production is not interrupted while problems get found.
- Installation
Rigging, placement, connection to utilities and to your production systems, commissioning and acceptance against the criteria agreed at the start.
- Operator training
Operators, setup staff and maintenance trained on the cell, with documentation written for the plant floor rather than for engineers.
- Ongoing support
A person to call, scheduled reviews, and changes as your parts and volumes change.
Safety and electrical work.
Done by the people licensed and certified to do it, under our project management.
What is done by licensed and certified partners
Licensed electrical work, and formal safety risk assessments to ISO 10218 and ANSI/RIA standards, are performed by licensed and certified partners under Rhode Island Intelligence project management. We do not do this work in-house and we do not pretend to.
What that means for you
One accountable integrator and a properly certified cell. You do not manage a second contractor, and you do not accept a cell whose safety assessment was done by the same people who wanted to ship it.
What you receive at acceptance
The risk assessment, the electrical documentation, the program source, the drawings, and a cell that has been run against your parts and your criteria.
Why the data matters here too.
A cell that knows which part is coming, from the ERP, and reports what it did, back to the ERP, is a different thing from a cell that runs one program until somebody stops it. The same production history and job data that make a private model useful are what let a cell handle variation, schedule itself around real orders and report throughput without a clipboard. Organizations that start with automation or a private model tend to end up with robotics as well, for that reason.
Where to start
The assessment. Two to four weeks on the floor, a payback figure for each candidate task, and a recommendation you can defend to the people who sign for it, before a single robot is quoted.