In 2021, business spent more than $2 billion to produce about 40,000 new robots to use in an expanding number of industries. This is 28% more robots than the prior year. In the mid 1960’s, automotive manufacturing companies used robots primarily for welding component parts. Now, robots are being introduced into e-commerce fulfillment lines, advanced metal fabrication, food preparation, consumer goods production, construction, healthcare and personal services. And there is a new word to learn: COBOTS.
Cobots or collaborative robots are automated solutions designed to work with and alongside the human workforce by completing monotonous or physically demanding tasks. Robots work together with humans, resulting in increased output and improved efficiency.
During the pandemic, robots have filled in where workers were in short supply or where robots assisted the work process with employee-directed activity. Robots are dependable, fast and don’t take coffee breaks. Three of the fastest growth sectors using robots are the food and consumer goods industries, along with e-commerce centers providing order fulfillment alongside employees, albeit fewer of them. The combination has produced 200% greater output then before. With more than 1.7 open jobs for each person reporting as unemployed, robots and cobots are changing the way in which work is done. How can you take advantage of these transformations?
The labor shortage is one of the major factors in driving the need for robots. Older, experienced workers in manufacturing are retiring at the rate of about 2,000 a day, without younger employees to replace them. Add that to the need to improve the rate of productivity, along with foreign competition, and the need for robots and cobots intensifies. Innovation is also driving robotic solutions, like in construction. Robotic arms are being used by their human partners to install drywall in large building projects. The electric car is proving to be one of the growing uses of robots since the number of moving parts is dramatically less than gas driven cars.
What does all this have to do with you?
- If you’re in one of the jobs listed above, you’ll be directly affected within a few years
- Put a short-term and long-term plan together as soon as possible
- Short-term: Get certified in a basic technology or skill that is in higher demand
- Longer-term: Continue with progressive training and develop a strategy to advance
- Network expanded contacts of people in your industry to assist your efforts
- Research and seek other companies looking for the skills that you now possess
- Continue to expand your results, experiences, skills and credentials.
The future is bright or dark depending upon what you do within the next six or twelve months. Procrastinate and you’ll fall behind the curve. Act with determination and you’ll beat the stampede of others like you, looking for a better tomorrow. It all starts today. Whether robots, cobots, business consolidation, the economy or a pandemic, you need to understand the trends and be ahead of the changes that are coming. Don’t be behind trying to catch up.
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