America Is Hiring A Record Number Of Robots
America is hiring a record number of robots
As companies scrambled to speed up assembly lines and struggled to hire more human workers, companies in North America invested a record amount of money in robots in the first nine months of this calendar year.
In the first half of this year, factories and other industrial users placed orders for 29,000 robots, a 37 percent increase over the same period the previous year and worth $1.48 billion. The data was compiled by the industry group the Association for Advancing Automation. The previous record, set in the same time period in 2017, prior to the global pandemic's economic upheaval, was surpassed by this achievement.
It is part of a larger increase in investment as businesses seek to keep up with strong demand, which has resulted in shortages of critical goods in some cases. At the same time, many businesses have struggled to rehire workers who have been laid off as a result of the pandemic and have turned to robots as a more cost-effective alternative to adding human muscle to production lines.
A3 President Jeff Burnstein says businesses are scrambling to automate because they can't find the people they need. "Businesses are scrambling to automate because they can't find the people they need," he says.
Furthermore, robots are continuing to make inroads into new sectors of the economy. Manufacturers of automobiles have long been the primary purchasers of industrial robotic systems. For the first time ever in 2020, combined sales to non-auto businesses surpassed sales to the auto sector. This trend has continued into this year. The Association of Robotics (A3) reports that orders for robots from automotive companies increased by 20% to 12,544 units in the first nine months of the year, while orders from non-automotive companies increased by 53% to 16,355.
In his words, "it is not that the automotive industry is slowing; rather, it is accelerating." Other industries, ranging from metals to food producers, are growing at a faster rate than the overall economy.
One of them is John Newman's company, which is another. For Athena Manufacturing, which is based in Austin, Texas, seven robots are now in operation, with four of them having been installed this year. It made its first purchase of a machine in 2016. Newman stated that Athena has been able to meet increased demand thanks to the use of robots, which has resulted in a 50 percent increase in orders for components used by semiconductor equipment manufacturers.
According to him, the machines also enabled Athena to become the first company to operate 24 hours a day for the first time last year. He claims that even though the company employs 250 people, it would have struggled to fill unpopular overnight shifts.
