Collaboration equals teamwork, alliances and partnerships

Collaboration is about teamwork, alliances and partnerships. Innovative robotic solutions are the direct result of 40-years of experience and collaboration

Working in marketing I am really good at identifying buzzwords. They ring in my ears like that tune someone idly hums. You know the one. It is the one you just cannot get out of your head. I am as guilty of using these fashionable “jargon” words as everyone else. There is nothing wrong with these words; that is so long as they do not become so overused and cliché that they become meaningless.

These days a buzzword which rattles around in my head is collaboration. In my world, Marketing Communications for ABB Robotics, collaboration is slowly becoming reserved to describe robotic solutions which allow people and robots to work safely side-by-side. Collaborative robotics is about unlocking new applications to provide maximum flexibility for manufacturers to grow by efficiently adapting to increasingly diverse consumer needs and more sporadic automation demands. Most everyone has heard about YuMi^®, the world’s first truly collaborative robot. Introduced in April of 2015, YuMi allows people and robots to share tasks such as small parts assembly without the need of safety barriers on the factory floor. This is especially beneficial in industries such as consumer electronics, which must produce a high mix of products in smaller batches with precision, quality and productivity.

While all true, this is where I become concerned that collaboration is in danger of becoming just another buzzword. Collaboration is about teamwork, alliances and partnerships. Innovative robotic solutions like YuMi are the direct result of the feedback ABB Robotics has received from customers. For more than four decades ABB Robotics has been pushing the boundaries to deliver the most innovative robotics solutions on the market. Without collaboration with our customers and partners we would be unable to do this.

Collaboration with customers and partners has changed the robot industry for the better. It has resulted in safer robotic solutions, lowered risk and offered factory workers career opportunities that their parents and grandparents only dreamed possible. It is my sincere hope that a word like collaboration, which can lead to such positive opportunities, does not become a mere buzzword.