The key to making automation work is partnering with someone that will just be honest with you.
Getting mixed up with someone who will just say yes to everything can be a death sentence for any project. There is no way it will be all flowers and rainbows and having sunshine piped up your skirt is no way to be. Knowing what you are faced with and the realities you are going to encounter make it possible to plan. Getting hooked up with a "Yes" man leaves all the heart break for one big surprise dose at the end. Wow this person is so easy to deal with and he can do everything is a giant clue here. Someone has to be the bearer of bad news and getting it upfront is the way to go.
The reality is that there are some things that just will not make sense for any number of reasons. If you tell me I want a machine to sand all these welds and make me a ham sandwich I will tell you no. I am just going to be honest and we all know roast beef is better anyway. Could I do it? Yes I could but then how do I keep the sanding dust out of the sandwich? Do you manually load the bread or do I need a set of optical sensors to track the bread and a gripper to move it. How much bread will be lost and where is it likely to go? Then the mouse issue needs faced and do I need a food license in that area? I know this is far fetched but its to my point. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. I would rather be the bad guy up front and tell you no rather than have to explain why you have mice and there is sanding dust in your sandwich at the end.
People have issues and they need to automate for a long list of reasons. They start the basic process only to meet mister flowers and rainbows. At some point things go sideways and you either end up back at zero or you have some contraption that cant do what you need. Find someone who will just be honest with you its that simple. No one has all the answers and no one knows your parts as well as you do. If you are not getting asked questions or prodded for your input be weary. If they are willing to add the sandwich functions be sure to find out how they plan to keep the dust out of your sandwich.
Take it easy and as always ask any questions you have, Just not about sandwich machines.
