Manufacturers continue having trouble filling all their jobs. Packaging World’s 2019 Robotics Report shared the experience of an Illinois food packer. They could fill the ongoing jobs, they said, but ramping up for a seasonal surge was a problem.
Unemployment is so low in much of the United States that workers can pick and choose their jobs. Manufacturing still has a bit of a PR problem. So we can’t be surprised that temporary jobs in manufacturing aren’t wildly popular.
On the other hand, this company worked through a temp agency and found that they had to go through a thousand temps to find 150 people.
“It can be pretty discouraging and disheartening when you have people that leave after an hour of work,” a spokesperson said.
It must be pretty disheartening work if people can’t keep it up for more than an hour.
This insight encourages smart manufacturers to automate the most ergonimically unfriendly, monotonous tasks. The rise of collaborative robots and machinery with greater levels of flexibility and adaptability makes this a reasonable strategy.
In the past, adding automation to a facility might mean choosing and buying a specific machine designed for a specific job. A facility might start with the most important functions, and high up-front costs could mean giving the “good job” to the robot and deploying human workers in other, less desirable jobs.
New versions of automation, especially collaborative robots or cobots, allow automation of certain tasks within a range of jobs. Choosing the less desirable tasks to automate can help keep human workers happy.
No matter how you choose to automate, you will need drive and control technology. You will need motion control systems. Rexroth continues to make some of the best motion control systems on the planet.
We help you keep your Rexroth electric industrial motion control functioning in top form. Call us first. In fact, go ahead and put our number into your phone. If a problem comes up, you’ll have the solution you need, right at your fingertips.