Companies in North America are utilizing robots in record numbers.
Businesses in North America have used robots more frequently than ever before as a result of the labor shortage brought on by the tightest labor market in decades. The new robots were mostly for facilities making batteries and electric vehicles that were being built.
Robot Demand Declining, Questions for 2023
But as 2022 comes to a close, the demand for robots seems to have slowed down, which raises concerns about the strength of 2023 in light of shifting consumer trends and rising interest rates intended to rein in inflation.
Robotic Orders Breaking Records
Companies primarily based in the United States, but also in Canada and Mexico, ordered just over 44,100 robots in 2022, an 11% rise from the previous year and a new record, according to data published by the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). These devices were worth $2.38 billion, an increase of 18% over the previous year.
Companies are forced to turn to automation due to a lack of labor.
According to Jeff Burnstein, President of A3, the labor issue does not appear to be getting any better and many businesses view automation as a fix. The fourth quarter was boosted by the resilience of the car sector, notwithstanding a decrease in orders at the close of the year.
Robot orders are impacted by pandemic era shifts.
The decline in orders in some categories may have been caused by a change in customer behavior from the epidemic era. For instance, businesses like Amazon halted the construction of additional warehouses, which may have caused the cancellation or postponement of automation acquisitions.
Automation is pioneered by the auto industry
Automakers and their suppliers, a group that has traditionally been at the forefront of automation in US industries, placed more than half of the orders for robots last year.
Ordered robots’ purpose
The majority of the robots purchased last year will be utilized for material handling, a wide term that includes all manners of moving and handling things inside of warehouses and factories.
Automating a Process
The task of packing and sealing boxes at the end of the production line was recently automated at the Crawfordsville, Indiana, facility of Closure Systems International. Small robots will soon be deployed in auditors’ booths to perform the inspection task, allowing the firm to avoid a situation similar to the pandemic, when they were operating at 30% capacity due to a lack of people. Currently, auditors verify that standards are satisfied.