America Hires A Record Number of Robots

By Al Mayadeen
Source: Agencies
12 Nov 2021 23:25

Companies in North America chose to hire robots after struggling to recruit human workers following the coronavirus pandemic.

Many businesses have struggled to rehire workers who have been displaced by the pandemic.

In the first nine months of this year, companies in North America added a record number of robots as they pushed to speed up assembly lines and struggled to hire human employees.

According to figures provided by the Association for Advancing Automation, factories and other industrial users ordered 29,000 robots for $1.48 billion, a 37 percent increase over the same period the previous year.

That was higher than the previous peak of the same period in 2017 when the global pandemic threw economies into chaos.

The rush to add robots is part of a bigger upsurge in investment as businesses try to keep up with robust demand, which has resulted in shortages of key goods in some cases.

Struggle to rehire workers after pandemic

At the same time, many businesses have struggled to rehire workers who have been displaced by the pandemic, and many see robots as a viable option to adding human muscle to their production lines.

"Businesses just can't find the people they need - that's why they're racing to automate," said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation, known as A3.

Robots are also making inroads into additional sectors of the economy. The majority of industrial robots have long been purchased by automakers. However, for the first time in 2020, combined sales to other types of businesses overtook those to the auto sector, and the trend continued this year.

According to A3, auto-related orders for robots increased 20% to 12,544 units in the first nine months of the year, while non-automotive orders increased 53% to 16,355.

"It's not that automotive is slowing down - auto is up," said Burnstein, but other sectors - from metals to food manufacturers - are growing even faster; one of them is John Newman's firm. Athena Manufacturing, a metal production company in Austin, Texas, now has seven robots, four of which were added this year. In 2016, it purchased its first machine.

Newman claims that robots have aided Athena in meeting increased demand, citing a 50% increase in orders for parts used by semiconductor equipment makers as an example.

Last year, the machines also enabled Athena to transition to an around-the-clock operation for the first time, he said. The company employs 250 people, but he claims that filling unpopular overnight shifts would have been difficult.