The Impact of Autonomous Systems on Efficiency

Impact of Autonomous Systems on Productivity The transition to autonomous systems in industry is increasing productivity and delivering significant added value to companies. The pandemic period became a major trigger for significant changes, particularly in the industrial sector. While rapid technological developments over the past 20 years were beginning to have an impact on manufacturing, the pandemic pushed this effect beyond expectations. The coronavirus outbreak, which became a global crisis, clearly demonstrated that without human involvement, production and supply chains come to a halt. Without production, acquisition costs rise, and as costs increase, many products face stock shortages. All these challenges showed the world that industrial digital transformation is an unavoidable reality.

Representing Efficiency and Prestige

Özgün Yabalak, CEO of ZGN Otonom & Robotik, a domestic venture providing industrial autonomous solutions to numerous companies in Turkey and worldwide, described the advantages of autonomization for companies and customers as follows: "We can now say with confidence that autonomous vehicles and system automation represent efficiency and prestige firsthand for both the company and customer. With autonomous vehicles, transportation, transfer and stacking operations in the field become scalable, calculable and trackable in terms of cost, time, capacity and productivity. It minimizes dependence on human operations and enables companies to appear more prestigious, technological, quality-focused and orderly to the outside world. From many of our customers, we receive feedback that after autonomous vehicles are deployed in their field operations, the positive completion rate of potential customers and business meetings that come to them increases noticeably. It is clear that autonomous vehicles have the characteristic of creating a positive impression on each customer's target customer base, regardless of the sector."

Autonomy Means Stability

Emphasizing that autonomous systems are far more advantageous than traditional methods, Özgün Yabalak stated, "Autonomy means stabilization, continuity and, more accurately, stability. It means eliminating all lapses that occur with traditional manned methods—momentary loss of attention, unplanned breaks, and similar downtime. With autonomous systems, you free yourself from all losses and surprises in traditional methods. At the end of the day, you can calculate in advance how many operations will be performed. You can keep your operational costs at a stable and regular level. Your personnel needs are reduced, and you only need them for control and management. Working 24/7 becomes truly possible. The amount of valuable work performed per unit time increases. Most often, by the end of the day you will have completed higher-capacity operations. Financially, temporally and in terms of safety, autonomization is a very strong aid to productivity," he said.

Usable Across All Sectors

Yabalak concluded his remarks as follows: "Autonomous systems are currently being used across all sectors in numerous operational areas such as transportation, transfer, stacking and inter-line transfers at medium and high-capacity production sites. They are actively working in many areas including removing outputs from conveyor lines and transferring them to a machine or different processing area, stacking operations in warehouses, transporting finished products to warehouses, and supplying intermediate materials such as spare parts and auxiliary materials in the field."