Taking automation to the next level

MachineBuilding.net managed to catch up recently with Peter Williamson, MD of R.A. Rodriguez and RARUK Automation, to find out what the future may hold for machine builders and the role automation is likely to play in their success.

MachineBuilding.net: How do you see your position in the marketplace at the moment, compared to 10 years ago?

Peter Williamson: The company has grown by over 400%  and diversified into a number of product ranges and industries. We now sell automation solutions, which we weren’t selling 10 years ago, because we saw that the UK market was particularly under-automated and we felt that there was good potential to sell more automation into the UK industry. A lot of it was driven by flexible, low-cost, easy-to-install automation, because there has been a historic lack of willingness to automate. The simpler, more cost-effective we make it. the more likely people would be to buy into it.

MB: Can you give us an outline of the current business portfolio and where you see it in 10 years’ time?

PW: The current business portfolio with R.A. Rodriguez hasn’t changed dramatically over the last 10 years and we don’t expect it to change dramatically over the next 10 years. We obviously continue to look for new opportunities, but, because a lot of it is based around engineering components and bearings and gears, the technology doesn’t evolve hugely from year to year. Whereas, on the automation side of the business, it’s rapidly evolving and, whilst we continue to still expect it to be based around low-cost, easy-to-install automation, we’re already starting to see that expanding into more complex solutions as the UK becomes more ready to be automated.

MB: How do you intend to get there?

PW: Keeping close to market trends, new technologies that are being generated elsewhere in the world that we can bring into the UK and make available to UK manufacturing. That’s where we’ve been successful in the past and that’s what we expect to continue to do to be successful in the future.

MB: What are your views on the overall future for machine builders?

PW: We expect to see that special-purpose machinery and automation are likely to continue to develop and grow within the UK market, due to a lack of willing and qualified labour, and also due to the need to compete globally and be more efficient – who knows also what impact covid will have on that? The likelihood is that people are going to be relying less on manpower and more on automated machinery for their production. But the machine builders have to be flexible; they have to be reacting to the needs of the customer, they have to be able to provide equipment and machinery that could be rapidly redeployed and can be repurposed. Due to the way things are changing so quickly at the moment, special-purpose machines might not get the same length of time to operate and pay back as they may have done historically, because market trends change so much quicker now.

MB: If I was a machine builder, what is it that R.A. Rodriguez and/or RARUK Automation can do for me, that I will either be unable or unlikely to find anywhere else?

PW: We work very closely with the customer to work out exactly what the application is – what they need. We have a wide range of solutions that fit a wide variety of issues, so we’re not trying to sell a product, we’re trying to find out what the customers’ needs and concerns are, and we’d be looking to sell to them based on what they need. We’ve got very experienced and qualified staff – it’s providing that sort of knowledge, expertise and application understanding. That is where we really stand apart from other companies that operate or offer a similar sort of product range.

MB: Are there any significant changes or developments in automation intelligence and data that you foresee?

PW: We definitely need to consider the much greater availability of data and market data, and market intelligence, to be able to design and build machinery that will be able to be flexible to meet changing demands of consumers moving forward, to build the same sort of level of really fixed machinery. To churn out standard products, day in, day out, is something that is becoming far less desirable to the manufacturer. In certain industries, it will always be the case, if you make a certain product: if you make Bic pens, you’re going to need the same equipment to make Bic pens. However, with the way consumers are now, they want everything bespoke, quickly designed for what they want and yet not to spend a huge amount of money on it, so they want mass production prices, but with their own design. Machine building and automation production has to be able to allow for that moving forward.

MB: Who will win the battles yet to come in the quest to influence the way that machines are designed and built – the suppliers with the better technologies at their disposal or those with the better application engineers?

PW: I would always back application engineers: it doesn’t matter how good the technology is, if you haven’t got the application engineer to fit it into the application. It’s not going to work – yes, you need great technology, but if you don’t have the right application engineers to design the right solution and make sure that the technology is used to the best of its abilities, it’s a waste of time. I would always want to be much more influenced by an application engineer listening to what the customer wants and delivering on that, rather than a supplier forcing their technology upon someone else, because it’s perceived to be the better technology.

MB: thank you, Peter, and we look forward to speaking with you again in the not-too-distant future.