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Companies are adopting automation to mitigate labor shortages and enhance productiveness, discovered HowToRobot. Supply: Adobe Inventory
Companies are adopting automation to not exchange employees however to reinforce scarce labor, in line with knowledge that HowToRobot launched yesterday. It discovered that 80% of respondents mentioned their tasks are supposed to free staff from guide duties and transfer them to different extra value-adding actions.
The Denmark-based supplier of a worldwide automation market platform mentioned its findings verify that companies are seeing robotics and automation as a complement to human labor, not as a alternative.
“From our day by day conversations with producers worldwide, it’s clear that the shortage of labor has been the driving issue behind enterprise selections to automate in 2023,” mentioned Søren Peters, CEO of HowToRobot, in a launch.
“By automating essentially the most cumbersome duties, companies have been liberating staff to tackle different duties wanted to take care of manufacturing ranges and fulfill buyer orders,” he mentioned. “Not one we requested did this as a result of they wished to put off folks.”
Labor shortages peaked in North America and Europe within the spring of 2022 because the COVID-19 pandemic eased, mentioned HowToRobot. These labor shortages continued at elevated ranges in 2023.
Within the U.S., manufacturing job opening charges averaged 4.5% in 2023, nearly twice the pre-pandemic common of two.8% from 2013 to 2019, in line with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
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Labor shortages forestall productiveness progress
The second largest motivation for automating in 2023 was to extend productiveness. HowToRobot reported that 70.9% of respondents’ tasks had this purpose.
Robots can enhance productiveness by decreasing the labor hours wanted to create the identical output, it mentioned. This permits firms to extend wages, cut back costs, and develop their income, resulting in stronger financial progress.
With excessive inflation ranges over the previous three years, productiveness has been notably vital for companies, mentioned Peters.
Labor shortages have additionally constrained companies’ potential to increase manufacturing capability with guide labor, additional growing demand for automation, mentioned HowToRobot. In 2023, 60.6% of automation tasks sought to extend capability, making it the third-largest motivation to automate, the firm famous.
Hourly compensation in U.S. manufacturing alone grew by 18% between 2019 and 2023, in line with BLS knowledge.
“When prices are rising quickly, what do you do as a enterprise?” mentioned Peters. “Both you narrow down or put money into areas that enhance your productiveness.”
“We’re seeing that lots of those that had the foresight – and funds – to put money into automation are actually popping out on prime,” he added. “They’re extra aggressive and may afford to pay their staff higher.”
Shifting employees to extra value-added duties, productiveness, and capability have been prime causes for adopting automation.. | Supply: HowToRobot
Product high quality, working situations matter, finds HowToRobot
A couple of third — 36.2% — of automation tasks final 12 months sought to enhance product high quality and uniformity with automation, making it a reasonably vital enterprise purpose, mentioned HowToRobot.
Handbook operations throughout sure components of the manufacturing course of can lead to various product high quality and uniformity, which may result in extra buyer claims and useful resource waste. Peters mentioned that companies are more and more specializing in offsetting excessive enter prices.
“We additionally see a rising consciousness in regards to the environmental influence of wasteful processes and the way robots and automation can assist cut back the ecological footprint of producing operations,” Peters mentioned.
Many companies additionally seemed for automation to enhance their working environments. Final 12 months, 31.5% of automation tasks had this purpose, mentioned HowToRobot.
For instance, companies can automate demanding duties that contain repetitive movement, heavy lifting, or hazardous environments. This will release staff to tackle much less backbreaking and extra significant duties, HowToRobot mentioned.
“It’s turning into clear for a rising variety of companies that investing in worker well-being additionally includes automation,” Peters mentioned.
Peters has mentioned that companies shouldn’t wait to plan future robotics investments. Based on HowToRobot, the time from beginning an automation undertaking to signing an settlement with a vendor can range from a number of weeks to greater than a 12 months.
The sooner a enterprise begins the method, the earlier it may reap the advantages of automation, the corporate mentioned.