Twelve micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Batangas province had the chance to understand the idea of automation and its advantages on their manufacturing processes after the on-site visit of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Metals Industry Research and Development Center’s (MIRDC) team of experts working for the Advanced Mechatronics, Robotics and Industrial Automation Laboratory (AMERIAL) project, November 10-12. 

The AMERIAL project intends to establish a technology laboratory where experts from different industries, business owners, academe and others may practice automation for their production process.  To expand the coverage of their project, AMERIAL team conducts visitation to the firms with potential to adopt automation in their operation. In Batangas province, firms visited were all cooperators for projects under the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SETUP).

These include Quinlan Enterprises, C and H Cosmetic Industry, Fleet Maintenance and Consultancy Services, Inc., Eggciting Products Manufacturing, Batangas Egg Producers Multipurpose Cooperative, Qualimeal Feedmills, Inc., Mira’s Turmeric Products, Macky Industrial and General Services, Marvon Drying Services, Mikolas Corporation, Biofarm and Natural Health Ingredients Co., Raitech Industrial Supply and General Services, and CAA Sweets Enterprises. 

The automation plan is designed to use smart machines in performing production processes without the need for human intervention. Through this, the technological competitiveness of local enterprises would be improved and attuned with the global market thereby improving economic productivity at the national level. Hence, to encourage the visited firms to adopt automation, the AMERIAL team will prepare recommendations on all the possible automation that can be done to specific manufacturing processes using proper equipment that can analyze and diagnose issues without human involvement and have the capacity to remove all inefficiencies at all levels for more cost-effective operations. According to the team, even the technical details on the automation process and costing of technology will also be included in the report.