Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms vendors assume you know.
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The glossary defines the terms that vendors and integrators tend to assume you already know, and that assumption is not always innocent — a buyer who cannot separate a cobot from an industrial robot, or read an OEE figure, is easier to steer. Each definition is written in plain English, tied to the numbers that make the term matter in a purchase decision, and cross-linked to the cost and comparison pages where the concept does real work in a business case.
We keep these entries deliberately practical rather than academic. It is not enough to know that OEE stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness; you need to know why a plant that looks fine on each factor can still lose a third of its capacity, and what that means for whether automation is even the right fix. Wherever a definition touches money, we point to the sourced figures on the relevant guide so the term connects to a decision rather than sitting as trivia.
In this section
- What Is OEE? Overall Equipment Effectiveness ExplainedOEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) = Availability x Performance x Quality. World-class is 85%; most discrete plants run 60-75%.
- What Is a System Integrator? Role, Cost & CertificationA system integrator designs, builds, programs, and commissions robot cells, charging roughly $125-$200/hr and 150-400 hours per cell (2026 data).
- What Is a Cobot? Collaborative Robot DefinitionA cobot is a robot arm built to work near people at reduced power. Bare arms run about $15,000-$60,000; deployed cells $40,000-$150,000.