We typically understand the labor shortage in terms of production employees (line workers, machinists, welders, etc.). But the labor shortage in manufacturing should also be understood as a lack of qualified industrial roboticists. There simply aren’t enough of them for smaller manufacturers to staff. 90% of American manufacturers don’t have a robot yet. That doesn’t need to be the case. Manufacturers just need a better way to adopt automation. Great line from Julian Fried at last week's Reindustrialize conference: "We don't have a labor shortage, we have a robot shortage"
Very interesting insight. Perhaps new avenues need to be opened to educate and train roboticists, because I can't imagine lack of interest is the problem!
Robotic Software Product Manager at Formic | Industrial Robotics | Former RoboDK | Lecturer at ÉTS Montreal Robotics & Automation Department | MASc, Ing
1moI couldn't agree with this more. Every time I hear politicians or whatnot throwing around numbers of robots they promise to help install/finance and all, I am always looking around asking myself: "Installed by whom? Program by whom? Clearly, not by you. I don't know any robot programmers looking for a job. And all the ones I know are fully booked." If they want to put money somewhere, they should open a ton of industrial robotics training centers. That might not bring results in the short term, but there is no way around it in the long term. (That would also require experienced people to be willing to train the next generation and train them in a good way using somewhat modern techniques... Looking at you 100% point-by-point programmers!)