Are you robot ready?

See where you land on the robotic readiness scale.

This worksheet will help give you a general idea of the feasibility of implementing robots in your abrasive operation. After answering all seven questions, you will be given a star rating. The more stars you have, the easier it may be to achieve a return on your robotics investment. Complete this worksheet and discuss the results with your system integrator or reach out to a 3M abrasives expert.

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Question 1 of 7: How well-defined and understood are your process input and output needs?

	A.	Not defined

	B.	Somewhat defined

	C.	Very well-defined

Question 2 of 7: What is the main abrasive application you would like to automate?

	A.	Cutting

	B.	Grinding

	C.	Deburring

	D.	Cleaning

	E.	Finishing

Question 3 of 7: How significant to your operation is the production time of the main process you would like to automate?

	A.	Not significant

	B.	Somewhat significant

	C.	Significant

	D.	Very significant

Question 4 of 7: How many abrasive steps do you perform on each part?

	A.	1

	B.	2

	C.	3+

Question 5 of 7: How complex is the shape of your parts? The more complex the part, the more difficult it will be for a robot to work with. Technologies like force control and vision systems make it possible to automate complex parts, but they will increase your upfront costs and make it more difficult to achieve your desired ROI.

	A.	Not complex (mostly flat surfaces)

	B.	Somewhat complex (mix of flat and curved surfaces)

	C.	Very complex (multiple curved and/or varied surfaces)

Question 6 of 7: How tight are the dimensional tolerances of your current incoming parts? Robots operate best on incoming parts with very tight dimensional tolerances. If the dimensional tolerances of your similar incoming parts have a wide range, your robotic cell may require more costly force control and vision technologies to operate correctly.

	A.	Wide range

	B.	Moderate range

	C.	Narrow range

Question 7 of 7: How varied is your part mix? In general, the more variety in your part mix, the more difficult it will be to achieve your automation productivity target. Plus, it can increase costs related to programming. The most difficult part mix to automate is a small quantity of many parts, and the easiest is a large quantity of the same part.

	A.	Large quantities of the same part

	B.	Small quantities of the same part

	C.	Large quantities of many parts

	D.	Small quantities of many parts

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