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In the United States, The Need for Automated Test Equipment is Propelling the Growth of Rising Sales of Electric Vehicles and Connected Devices

test equiptment market
Global Trade Daily, Technology

In the United States, The Need for Automated Test Equipment is Propelling the Growth of Rising Sales of Electric Vehicles and Connected Devices

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The automated test equipment market is anticipated to thrive at a CAGR of 9.8% between 2023 and 2033. The market is anticipated to cross a market share of US$ 23.76 billion by 2033 while it is valued at US$ 9.33 billion in 2023.

The growing manufacturing and corporate spaces adopting ioT systems are thriving the demand for automated test equipment. The demand for cost and time-reducing elements in the market is expected to play a vital role in the growth of the automated test equipment market.

Advanced machinery that works on high-speed networks and is autonomous is also adopting faster testing measures such as automated test equipment. The growth is attributed to the expanding component markets like cloud computing, AI, and machine learning

The growth of new connected devices along with higher penetration of 5G networks are fueling people to adopt IoT services. Hence, it fuels the demand for automated test equipment.

Advanced device manufacturing units functioning with high-end research have flourished in the automated test equipment market.

Lower cost and time-saving prospects delivered by these ATE units are helping the manufacturing units.

Expanding automotive industry fuels the demand for vehicle testing systems that automate machinery systems. The growth of healthcare wearables has also fueled the demand for ATE units as it freshly trends in the market.

Key Points

  • The United States market is attributed to the flourishing industrial growth along with the rapid digitization and addition of IoT devices in the manufacturing hubs. The extended research and development programs have also fueled the growth of the regional market.
  • China automated test equipment market is also a crucial market. The regional growth is attributed to the higher sales of connected devices across the verticals such as healthcare, automotive, and education.
  • Europe with hyper-digitized cities is adopting IoT and implementing it in almost every sector that fuels the demand for automated test equipment for better deployment.
  • The linear and discrete segment is likely to thrive in the type of category due to faster and better testing. It is expected to hold a value of US$ 2.5 billion by 2032.
  • The ICT industry segment tops the application category it holds a 25% share of the global market in 2023. The growth of this is fueled by the extra consumption and higher penetration of computing devices.

Competitive Landscape

The key competitors focus on building reliable, faster, cost-reducing technology for the end-users. Key competitors also merge, acquire, and collaborate with other companies to increase the network range, connectivity, supply chain, and distribution channel. The key players in the market are: Teradyne, National Instruments, Chroma ATE, Astronics Corporation, Star Technologies, Roos Instruments, Marvin Test Solutions, Cohu, Advantest Corporation, and OMRON Corporation.

Recent Market Developments

  • Advantest Corporation has added a new E5620 DR-SEM for the review and classification of ultra-small photomask defects. The product comes with high accuracy, high-throughput defect sensing, etc.
  • OMRON Corporation has introduced its IC test system and handler, semiconductor wafer test system, and general and in-circuit tester.
IA SUN labor Automation Group Highlights Innovative Corrugated Converting Solutions at CCE International beckhoff
Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily, International Trade, Technology

How Can Automation Help Alleviate Labor Shortages?

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Labor shortages are often discussed in fields such as logistics and trucking, but a growing number of industries have more job openings than people to fill them. Manufacturing, education, health services and retail are many industries struggling to bring in new hires and retain existing employees.

Automation and robotics may have a negative reputation for stealing people’s jobs, but in almost every case, it supplements floundering workforces. Here’s how it can help alleviate labor
shortages in various industries and help bolster the economy.

Labor Shortage Statistics

Looking at any industry from the outside, it might seem like everything is working as it’s meant to. However, behind the scenes, the problem becomes glaringly apparent. Foodservice and hospitality-related businesses experienced a 6.6% quit rate in September 2021. Durable goods manufacturing is seeing even worse resignation levels. Companies are struggling to hire enough workers to fill vacant positions and stay ahead of the competition.

Industries worldwide have lost millions of workers due to COVID-19 and the Great Resignation that followed. Many of those who left the workforce during the pandemic decided that taking early retirement was a better option than returning to work once things returned to normal. The best choice for employers would be to make the necessary changes to bring in new workers and retain those already employed. However, automation may be able to help fill in some of the gaps.

Freeing up Skilled Workers for Critical Tasks

Most industries have many mundane or repetitive tasks that are necessary to complete the job. They are all necessary, but thanks to automation, they do not need to take up the time or skills of an employee better suited to more complex or critical work. It can also be a valuable tool for helping people get ahead, allowing them to expand their skills and build a career that they will genuinely enjoy.

Relegating these mundane or repetitive tasks to robotics or automation services can also help reduce the number of repetitive stress injuries in the workplace. Poor posture, repeated motions, bad lifting techniques and other repetitive movements can cause injuries which, in turn, can lead to missed work and workers’ compensation claims. Widespread use of automation and material handling solutions could help reduce those numbers dramatically.

Capturing and Using Data Efficiently

The human race generates enormous amounts of data. In 2020, that amounted to 1.7 megabytes a second for each person or 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. Much of this information languishes in digital limbo in its raw form. By using automation specifically, machine learning and artificial intelligence — companies can take these sheaves of raw data and turn them into actionable points that can improve workplace efficiency. It can also offset some of the problems caused by labor shortages. An example of a tool that can easily sort and collect data with just one click is using Sheets Genie, a Google Sheets add-on.

In the past, sorting through these databases required human analysts. Today, all it takes is a skilled programmer to create a machine learning algorithm that can sort through raw data while
eliminating human error and turn it into actionable insights that companies can use to improve their business. It’s not a perfect solution — at least not yet. There are still some limitations to the
technology that could potentially hold companies back. Still, as it continues to progress and evolve, it will likely become an invaluable tool to help offset the lack of new employees.

Fewer Injuries and Less Downtime

Many industries utilize production methods that, while necessary, can be hazardous to human life. Safety precautions can help keep employees safe, but they are not accident-proof, no matter how hard they try. More than 155,500 manufacturing workers and 17,000 warehouses workers missed time in 2018 due to a workplace injury. In 2017, those injuries cost businesses upwards of $161 billion.

Automation can help reduce workplace injuries and associated downtime by taking over many hazardous jobs. Even skilled positions that can’t be automated can be made safer through robotics that distance the worker from the action. It does require some new training and significant investment initially, but it can help reduce some of the growing costs associated with workplace injuries. Many tasks, such as cleaning tank interiors in a low-oxygen environment, would be better served by automation than by a human in protective gear.

Bringing in More Young Employees

The Great Resignation and the COVID-19 pandemic aren’t the only things causing these massive labor shortages. Millions of people retired in the United States during the pandemic, most of them choosing to permanently leave the workforce rather than taking an extended pandemic-related sabbatical. There aren’t enough new workers to replace them, especially not among the younger generation.

One of the most significant benefits of bringing in automation is that it requires new technology and teaches employees how to utilize it. This is the perfect environment for workers from younger generations who have grown up in a world steeped in technology. Young millennials and members of Gen Z often avoid the traditionally blue-collar careers because they are some of the slowest to adopt new technologies. Bringing in automation is the perfect way to entice these new workers into an industry that might otherwise be lacking tech.

Utilizing Automation to Alleviate Labor Shortages

There is no simple solution to overcome these labor shortages. So many people have left the workforce throughout the pandemic for various reasons that it will take some time to recoup those losses. Companies have the option to make all the necessary changes to overcome these labor shortages without spending too much time and money trying to bring in new workers.

Adopting automation is just one piece of the puzzle for adopting new technologies as tools to overcome labor shortages. Things like data management and machine learning algorithms can help turn existing databases into actionable insights that can make all the difference. Business owners need to take the time to analyze their current labor statistics and demographics to see where problems lie and where new technologies like automation can help fill in the gaps.

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Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily

How to Overcome the Struggle of Multiple Account Reconciliations

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How does a company end up with dozens, or even hundreds of
bank accounts? It’s not an uncommon situation for a large
enterprise, especially in industries such as hospitality, construction, or healthcare, where there are multiple locations and business entities under one umbrella. Or, maybe the company has grown by acquiring other companies, as is common in high tech, and they centralize accounts payable but retain the separate bank accounts. According to the 2019 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey, 83% of companies with over a billion dollars in revenue have more than five payment accounts, and 46% have more than
25 accounts.

No matter what the reason, making payments from multiple bank
accounts creates a lot of complexity in AP. It makes cash management difficult, increases the risk of errors and fraud, and
creates an ongoing nightmare when it comes to reconciliation.
Fortunately, new payments automation technology can help
address the challenges of making payments from multiple
accounts.

Multiplying by Four

Most companies are contending with four different payment
workflows—check, card, ACH and wire, or five if you’re doing
international payments. Basically, you can multiply the number of bank accounts by four or five, and that’s how many processes you
have to manage.

But at least those processes are pretty standard. A check is a
check; a card is a card; NACHA sets the standard for an ACH file;
and a wire is a form fill on a bank portal. With payments
automation technology, you can wrap all of those workflows
together in a single dashboard. Payment is intelligently routed
from each account by the most advantageous means—you no
longer have to care what type of payment the vendor accepts. It’s
all taken care of for you.

Exponentially More Convoluted

The big win though, is on the back end, when it comes time to true
up the payments leaving each account with the general ledger. The
dirty little secret, known only to accounts payable professionals, is
that there is no standard for a reconciliation file—or even a
requirement to send one.

Each bank and card provider can send it in a different format, with
different information, or not at all. That makes reconciling
payments data with the accounting or ERP system—or multiple
accounting or ERP systems—exponentially more convoluted. It’s no longer X number of payment types times Y number of bank
accounts. It’s a different procedure for almost every type of
payment and/or bank or payment provider.

That amount of complexity and manual work inevitably leads to a
higher error rate. And, it opens you up to more instances of fraud.
According to the AFP survey, 72% of organizations with $1 billion or more in revenues and more than 100 payment accounts
experienced attempted or actual payment fraud.

Since daily reconciliation is cited the top defense against fraud at
companies of all sizes, consistently receiving standardized, easy-to-
digest reconciliation reports would help mitigate the fraud risk
associated with multiple payment accounts.

Filling the Data Gaps

Now there’s an opportunity to partner with Fintech companies in
order to help with that transfer of data. Up until recently, the only
way to reconcile multiple accounts was by throwing a lot of people
at the problem, or by bringing in a shared services provider.
Fintech business payments providers are leveraging the cloud,
APIs and online supplier networks to fill the gaps in workflow
automation and data transfer that have been left by banks and
traditional financial services firms.

You can easily make payments—including international
payments—from multiple bank accounts, and push a standardized
reconciliation report back to each, all in one easy process. Some
payment platforms can even push card rebates back into the right
accounts.

This is all possible when your payment provider stores payment,
bank, and vendor data in one cloud platform, and can use
technology to automatically match all the data up, pour it into a
uniform report, and push it back out to the payee. That’s
impossible when you’re working directly with lots of different
banks and payment providers, because no one entity has visibility
into all of the data.

There are a lot of reasons why it makes sense for a company to
have multiple payment accounts, but nobody thinks much about
the pain it’s going to cause in accounts payable. It’s one of those
hidden back office problems banks and traditional financial service
providers have never been able to solve, so accounts payable
professionals have found a way to live with it. Nowadays though,
there are ways to live without it.

_______________________________________________

Mike Fortmann is the Vice President of Sales, Southwest Region at
Nvoicepay. He is an accomplished payment industry expert with more than five years experience in delivering scalable payment solutions.