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Market survey in machinery industry about robots' use

Increasing use of robots until 2014 based on experienced users

At the end of 2011 Quest TechnoMarketing interviewed more than 200 machine-builders in 11 sectors of the German machinery industry. Out of the many results we focus on the main direction of the development until 2014. That may be of interest for machine-builders as well as for suppliers of robots and automation technology.

Use of robots is intensifying

April 19th, 2012 - With 45% nearly each second of the investigated machine-builder is already applying for robots at the machines. So robots are not at all any longer an application for niches and no longer limited to machines and plants e.g. for the automobile industry.

 

None of the investigated machine-builders with robots in use stated in regard to 2014: „Robots? No, not any more, they did not work out successfully”.

 

In fact, new first users will join during the next three years in such a way that by 2014 50% of the machine-builders are to be expected using robots at the machines. So the number of machine-builders with robots will increase until 2014 by 13%.

 

In this context robots are defined as programmable machines with several motion axes etc. according to the VDI-Guideline 2860.

Experienced users will drive growth

Let us turn now to the machines, at which robots are implemented. Generally the machine-builders equip only a part of their machinery portfolio with robots. The number of these machines equipped with robots will increase by 31% until 2014.

 

Who will be the driving force of this growth? Will it be the new first users implementing robots at big scale? No, on the contrary. The dynamic growth of robots at the machines will base to 99% on machine-builders already using robots. The new first users will contribute only 1% to this growth.

 

Two results are derived from this:

  • the machine-builders are satisfied with robot applications to such an extent that they will stick to them.
  • growing experiences and extended applications will result in more and more differentiated requirements of the machine-builders.

 

The suppliers of robots and automation technology should adjust themselves in time to this ever more differentiating use of robots.

Robots in the German machinery industry from 2012 to 2014.
Source: Market survey by Quest TechnoMarketing "The future of the use of robots in the German mechanical engineering industry until 2014".

Two thirds of the machine-builders make the engineering by their own

Even for the machine-builders the engineering of the robot application will become more and more challenging. Nearly two thirds (63%) of them make the engineering of the robot application completely in-house. One quarter (26%) of these machine-builders buy only some robot components or even build the robot in-house. One well third (37%) buys the complete robot and realizes the engineering by their own.

 

With ever more differentiated requirements not only the engineering is becoming more ambitious but there will open up new possibilites to create customer benefits and more competitive advantages.


The detailed results about the use of robots at the machines contains the Quest study „The future of the use of robots until 2014 in the German machinery industry“. 32% of the machine-builders in 10 sectors with 100 and more employees provided their feedback.