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Focus: Manufacturing

Feature Article from Our Supply Chain Trends and Issues Subject Area - See All

From SCDigest's On-Target E-Magazine

Sept. 5, 2012

Supply Chain News: New Age of Extreme Use of Industrial Robotics May be on the Cusp

A Tale of Two Philips Electronics Factories; Start-Up Planning for More People Friendly Robots

SCDigest Editorial Staff

Will increased use of robotics in manufacturing bring more work back on-shore, even if the price is yet again fewer manufacturing jobs, as the robots do more and more of the work.

It seems likely. In both manufacturing and distribution, use of robotics has increased dramatically, and a potential new wave of more skilled robots is coming that may really change the dynamics.

SCDigest Says:

Rodney Brooks, a former MIT professor who was behind the company that developed the Roomba, a popular robotic vacuum cleaner, now has his sights set on industrial robots of a whole new kind.

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Case in point: two weeks ago, the New York Times reported on contrasting factories making electric razors owned by Philips Electronics. One, in eastern China, is a classic offshore move driven by cheap labor. The plant employs several hundred workers per shift, who manually assemble razors from component parts.

The second, newer factory is in Philips' home country of The Netherlands. There, 128 robots do much of the same work, with incredible dexterity. One robot, for example, endlessly forms three perfect bends in two connector wires and slips them into holes almost too small for the eye to see.

Shop floor workers in the robotic factory: about three dozen or so per shift, about one tenth of the number in the Chinese factory.

"This is the future. A new wave of robots, far more adept than those now commonly used by automakers and other heavy manufacturers, are replacing workers around the world in both manufacturing and distribution," the Times notes. "Factories like the one here in the Netherlands are a striking counterpoint to those used by Apple and other consumer electronics giants, which employ hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers."

Of course, even contract manufacturing giant Foxxconn, which makes most of the iPads and iPhones in its sprawling facilities in China, is also moving towards robotics. Earlier this year, in the face of much scrutiny and criticism over its labor practices and then seeing wages rise sharply, Foxconn officials said they planned to accelerate deployment of thousands of robots to replace human workers - and the headaches that accompany them. In fact, Foxconn now says it will install more than 1 million robots across all of its factories in China over the next few years.

It goes without saying that the robots can work round the clock, rarely complain, and are not yet known for unionizing or demanding wage increases.

The good news: as Philips is showing, heavy use of automation can relegate wage costs for manufacturing workers to almost irrelevant status, making offshore moves less attractive. Indeed, economic theory says workers in such automated facilities should in fact make more money than ones in more traditional labor intensive jobs, as they share in some of the overall productivity gains, and must possess more skills than traditional shop floor labor.

The downside: there will be a lot fewer workers per facility, which may (there are competing views here) continue to leave a lot of workers across a nation unemployed.

What may be news to many: we may soon be at an inflection point, where the cost advantages of robotics, as prices fall and capabilities rise, where the adoption of robotics explodes, forever changing manufacturing, supply chains, and our economies.

"At what point does the chain saw replace Paul Bunyan?" the Times quotes Mike Dennison, an executive at contract manufacturer Flextronics, as asking. "There's always a price point, and we're very close to that point," he says.

(Manufacturing article continued below)

CATEGORY SPONSOR: SOFTEON

Flextronics, in fact, has a solar panel factory in San Jose area that is highly automated, and employs very few workers.

"All of the heavy lifting and almost all of the precise work is done by robots that string together solar cells and seal them under glass," the Times says. "The human workers do things like trimming excess material, threading wires and screwing a handful of fasteners into a simple frame for each panel."
There are just a small number of human workers on the shop floor.

Another example comes from electric car manufacturer Telsa's Fremont, CA factory. There, many 10-foot tall "Tesla red" robots, each with a single arm but with multiple joints, do most of the car assembly operations, a far cry from most auto assembly lines.

Most impressive from earlier generation robotics: each robot can do multiple tasks, such as welding, riveting, bonding and installing a component. This is enabled by the robots being able to change their own "hands" or tools on the end of the arms to perform a different task.

New Wave of Robots Coming?

The advances and deployments discussed above use what would be considered traditional robotics of the type that have been around for decades - remember GM's disastrous foray into robotics in the 1980s? Now, these machines just keep getting more skilled and less expensive. The software control systems behind these machines keep getting better and better, driving much of the improvement.

Rodney Brooks, a former MIT professor who was behind the company that developed the Roomba, a popular robotic vacuum cleaner, now has his sights set on industrial robots of a whole new kind. His new company is called Rethink Robotics, which is building a new generation of industrial robots that it believes will change the manufacturing paradigm dramatically.

At an MIT forum on the future of US manufacturing in June, Brooks noted that today, industrial robots are scary things, often literally walled off from workers for safety reasons. He envisions a new generation of robots that operate right alongside other workers - think 3CPO from the Star Wars movies.

At the forum, Brooks shows a video clip of a robot picking up a hammer with a robotic hand and sort of testing its weight and balance, just like a human might. It is expected Rethink will release its first commercial products before the end of the year.

The company's web site says "Robots will change the way we work. They will have intelligence and awareness. They will be teachable, safe and affordable. They will make us productive in ways we never imagined."

The future may be here faster than we realize.

What is your take on the advanced in capabilities and adoption if industrial robotics? Do you see this really taking off in the next few years? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.

Recent Feedback

Technologists have been predicting and anticipating this for a while now. We're quickly approaching (if we're not already there) the point at which the number of new jobs created by new technology are less than the jobs eliminated by that technology. Economists keep thinking that new technology ALWAYS creates enough new jobs to replace those lost. Now, that may have been true for the last 150 years, but we're already seeing that break down.

I think that the thing they fail to understand is that for the last 150 years, there has been only one species in the labor market, and that meant regardless of the job, there were certain limitations imposed - humans need to eat, sleep, eliminate and get sick. Granted, robots need to consume energy, and they occasionally malfunction, but their consumption is simply a part of how they exist, not an actual activity. And a malfunctioning robot can be repaired or replaced far more quickly than a sick human, who may refuse to acknowledge illness and potentially infect other workers.

Look at the Philips factory. Look at Amazon's robot-staffed distribution centers. Now imagine what will happen when Foxconn's 1.2 million factory workers are replaced by Philips- or Tesla- or Amazon-style robots. If the largest assembler of electronic goods in the world completely automates, will the other companies be far behind? Not if they want to remain in business. And speaking of Tesla, with the multi-functional robots, how can anyone read about them and not think of the Cisco commercial where one robot repairs another robot? Looks like Mr. Bucket will be out of work yet again. If not by a Google-driven snowplow, than by Cisco-Tesla toothpaste cap screwing-on robot.

In 1930, Maynard Keynes (an economist who it appears was much more prescient than his modern-day peers give him credit for) predicted that in a century there would only be enough work for for a 15 hour-week. The view among economists is that he was wrong, but by my count, he's still got the best part of two decades left on the clock.

Doug
Not Provided
Not Provided
Sep, 06 2012

My take on this is very negative. If robots are to take over humans' labour and work... how we will survive!!! I do see this taking off in the coming decade. But I am really discouraged by the fact that humans will have to work even harder to get jobs which will create an unemployed economy. I hope we as humans can adapt to this change. I hope we find other means of work for our people. I am very pessimistic about it. Well lets hope for the best in this new endeavor that it doesn't create any chaos in this already chaotic world.

Hema
Student (Bach. Of E-Business)
Algonquin College of Ottawa, ON, CANADA
Sep, 09 2012