North American companies struggling to hire workers in the tightest labor market in decades brought on more robots last year than ever before, with many earmarked for new electric vehicle and battery factories under construction.
The"labor shortage doesn't seem to be letting up," said Jeff Burnstein, president of A3. Many companies, scrambling to find workers amid the lowest U.S. unemployment rate since 1969, see automation as a quick fix. Supply chain problems may also have distorted last year's results. Burnstein said robot makers saw some customers place extra orders during the COVID-19 health crisis - just to ensure they would get part of what they needed.More than half of last year's orders came from automakers and their suppliers - a group that has long led the way in automation of U.S. factories.
Closure Systems International Inc's sprawling plant in Crawfordsville, Indiana, for instance, recently automated the job of packing and sealing boxes at the end of the assembly line. The company produces closures used for things like soda bottles and food packages.