automation training Archives - AUTOMATION INSIGHTS

As we wrap up the old and begin to open up the new, let’s take a moment to reflect on what this past year has brought us. Apart from the triumphs and the hard lost battles, we want to bring you some of our top posts from 2015. These posts are as follows:

#5: 5 Tips on Making End-of-Arm Tooling Smarter

Everyone wants their robot to work faster, smarter, and more efficiently. In this post we review five easy tips to help you improve the efficiency of your end-of-arm tooling.

Example of discrete sensors used to detect tank level

#4: Liquid Level Sensing: Detect or Monitor

Who doesn’t like complicated concepts broken down into easy to understand terminology? In this post we break down the differences between point level detection and continuous position sensing as well as provide you with technologies to put into practice.

#3: How Can I Convince My Boss to Send Me to Training?

As Aristotle once said “All men (and women) by nature desire knowledge.” Here we are giving you the tools needed to break down the barriers your boss (or you) might have against investing in training.

#2: Back to the Basics: How Do I Wire a 2-Wire Sensor?

So you just got a brand spanking new 2-wire sensor for the holidays but you realize you don’t know exactly what wire goes where. In this post we make wiring that bad boy easy and even break down what polarized and non-polarized mean.

So we have covered four of the top posts from 2015, are you ready for the number one post from the past year? So are we! And we will have it for you right after a quick message from our sponsors! (just kidding!)

#1: Inductive Coupling – Simple Concept for Complex Automation

Through the use of magnetic induction, we are able to reduce the downtime of a machine due to the failure of a slip ring. Inductive couplers pass power and data over an air gap creating a maintenance free, non-contact environment to operate a variety of machinery.

We want to thank you for the wonderful year that is behind us and be sure to be on the look-out for even more exciting news to come this year!

With responsibilities expanding, resources declining, and margins narrowing, companies today must scrutinize every dollar spent. Bad decisions are often based on bad data. An informed decision, on the other hand, can be defended in the light of the facts. In this article, we examine three misconceptions – misconceptions which too often lead to poor decisions about training.

If I train my people, they will leave.

In today’s companies where people change positions frequently, training is seen as a risky investment. The correct perspective is seeing the risk involved in NOT training your people. Do you really want your people making costly mistakes by the trial-and-error method of on-the-job training? Lack of training does not just affect the untrained person. Those that have been trained and are doing the job correctly often get pulled aside to explain procedures to the untrained. The bottom line is that people are going to be trained one way or another. What is the most efficient way to do this?

I can’t afford the downtime to send my people to training.

Tools need to be sharpened. This means they can’t be “productive” 100% of the time. “Productivity” needs to be seen as a totally different thing from being “busy.” Once a tool is sharpened, it is far more productive. A dull tool can be “busy” 100 % of the time accomplishing nothing of value. The correct perspective then is that you can’t afford the loss of productivity caused by a lack of training.

All training offered out there is basically the same, so just take the cheapest one.

Training is not a one-way dump of information. Training means that a change has taken place in a cognitive domain, an affective domain, or a psychomotor domain. For automation companies, these three domains are intricately linked. For example, it is not enough to just sit through a safety presentation: you need to know the safety regulations (cognitive), you need to be passionate about why these are important (affective), and you need the skill necessary to implement these regulations by specifying, configuring, and integrating systems (psychomotor).

The best way to train in the psychomotor domain is through hands-on training. Students learn skills best by practicing those skills. For many companies who offer training, training is just a presentation of ideas without the necessary opportunity for participants to try anything for themselves. At Balluff, we have made a substantial investment in equipment, an investment in writing courseware properly, and an investment in training those who conduct the training with platform skills, adult learning skills, and teaching skills. These investments make world-class, performance-based training available to our customers.

To see all that Balluff has to offer in Automation Training, click on our training web page link: http://www.balluff.com/local/us/workshops/training/