PROFILE OF SUCCESS
The benefits of robotics
from Design Energy
Design Energy describes itself
as New Zealand's leading
robotic automation specialist.
“We sell and service industrial robots
across the country, and we build
robotic turnkey production machines
that make things, pack things
and stack things, from Auckland
to Invercargill but our skills and
experience with robotics are not all
we offer,” says founder, managing
director and automation engineer of
20 years, Mike Shatford.
“Our consultative process ensures
that we really know your business,
your product and your automation
opportunity. This discovery work is
normally free of charge and always
valuable – the gathering of detailed
requirements means no surprises.
“Our combined 100-plus-years’
experience with the engineering and
analysis of automation, manufacturing,
and industrial processes means
we often identify where further gains
can be made in and around the
factory, and often in the design of the
product itself."
Why Design Energy supplies
more than just a robot
Historically, robotics as a tool for
production automation has not
made sense for the majority of New
Zealand producers. Consequently,
there is a knowledge gap in robot
know-how within businesses – how
to operate them, how to maintain
them and critically, where robots can
be used to best effect.
For example, most New Zealand
producers are comfortable using
conveyors, pneumatics and
electric motors because they are
widely used, well supported and
understood. Robots however have
had the reputation of being extremely
complex to program, hard to successfully
deploy and very expensive.
This was true of last century
products but with huge upscaling of
worldwide robot use driving down
cost, ever increasing performance,
collaborative robots and better
programming environments this
reputation is no longer deserved.
Since 2007, Design Energy has
focussed specifically on robots:
how and where to use them, where
they can offer cost and productivity
benefits, their shortcomings, and
how they can work for SMEs. All
the aspects of their use that allows
Design Energy to offer robotic
solutions to its customers with
confidence, so they in turn can be
confident of getting the right advice
and solutions.
Design Energy vs other robot
resellers
“We differentiate ourselves from our
competition not only by our focus
on robotics, but by being experts
in manufacturing process. As
experienced designers of machines
and technology products we have
years of practical experience of
how things are made – machining,
moulding, welding, casting, gluing –
you name it, we’ve done it.
“What this means for our customers
is we can quickly grasp the key
requirements and constraints of
the process to be automated and
ensure our solution delivers. We
often bring gems of manufacturing
knowledge to the table which
augment our customers’ understanding
of their own processes
– within the automation project
or in the surrounding production
environment.”
Understanding the economic
benefits
Design Energy’s customers are
often surprised when it works with
the numbers to demonstrate the
real value of automation. Often
the financial case for automation
is calculated on labour or wage
savings, which alone may not justify
Robotic solutions for productivity, profitability and reliability
Turnkey production systems
Process engineering & machine design
Robot sales & service