Robotics-as-a-Service Lets Manufacturers 'Hire' Robots at Low Hourly Rate

<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/ueditor/php/upload/image/20210902/1630517250341371.png" title="1630517250341371.png" alt="3.png"/></p><p>Robotics-as-a-service company Formic Technologies recently launched a simple value proposition: hire fully customized robots from top vendors at a low hourly rate and no upfront cost. To help small and medium-size manufacturers benefit from automation, Formic handles every aspect of a financing and deployment—from scoping, engineering, purchasing, implementation, and maintenance. The company also guarantees uptime, with customers paying nothing for system downtime.&nbsp;</p><p><br/></p><p>Traditionally, manufacturers buy robots, which is a lengthy, complex, inflexible, and expensive process. These barriers to entry are so high for smaller manufacturers that they often refrain from deploying automation altogether.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>“We started Formic because we saw all that automation can do, and we wanted to provide a way for any manufacturer to easily adopt automation in a simple, risk-free, and on-demand way,” said Saman Farid, CEO and co-founder. “With Formic’s fundamentally different approach to financing and deployment, manufacturers can do more with automation without high costs or a lengthy and complicated purchasing and deployment process.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Formic’s model was designed to systematically remove every barrier to entry, allowing manufacturers to deploy automation efficiently and cost effectively. Testing shows that Formic’s deployments are 50% faster than traditional approaches and save customers 42% on their operating expenses from the first day.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>According to Farid, an engineer and robotics start-up investor who founded Formic with former Universal Robots salesperson Misa Ikhechi, a unique combination of products and services make Formic’s model possible:&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>?Systematized deployment processes&nbsp;</p><p>?In-house equipment financing&nbsp;</p><p>?Formic-designed solutions featuring products from leading robotic vendors such as Universal Robots, Fanuc and ABB&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>“We came to the conclusion that what manufacturers needed was not any specific new technology, but a better way to access the technology that would best meet their needs,” Farid said. “Formic offers that access at a fraction of the cost or energy, as Formic takes on the heavy lifting.”</p><p><br/></p>