Far from being the clunky evil-tempered machines found in many science fiction stories, modern industrial robots are sophisticated and versatile machines that are helping companies reach their goals for reliable high-quality products and consistent manufacturing processes.

Contrary to the widespread concern when manufacturing companies first adopted advanced robotics, the use of robots in industrial processes has actually increased the number of manufacturing jobs while reducing the need for people to spend their days on mindlessly repetitive tasks.

Robots vs. Jobs

In fact, a recent (2011) study sponsored by the International Federation of Robotics and conducted by U.K. based research firm Metra Martech, every robot installed results in the creation of 2 to 3 additional manufacturing jobs. At the time of the study, there were 1 million industrial robots in operation, directly credited with creating more than 3 million jobs. The study goes on to predict that continued robotics adoption will create an additional 1 million high quality manufacturing jobs by 2015.

Many of these jobs will be in the robotics industry itself, but many more will be in other areas of manufacturing. The robotics industry accounted for fewer than 50,000 jobs to the overall jobs increase, while other industries enjoyed the majority of the job growth.

Robots don’t replace manufacturing workers, they supplement their abilities by performing mundane tasks, executing operations in areas that are difficult or unsafe for people and performing precision tasks with a consistency that people cannot match or sustain. Rather than spend their days on repetitive jobs with low wages, manufacturing workers now earn a higher hourly rate by setting up and monitoring one or more robots that perform these tasks.

Economic Impact

Robots are also good for the economy. By helping to reduce product costs while ensuring a consistent quality that human-driven production methods can never attain, robots enable high wage regions such as the U.S. to compete successfully against low wage offshore companies that continue to use traditional manufacturing methods.

As miniaturization and nanotechnology become more ubiquitous, robots will play an increasing role in the precision placement of the thousands of incredibly tiny components that humans would find difficult or impossible to work with.

The robotics industry growth rate is 4 percent per year. In 2012, slightly more than 159,000 industrial robots were sold in 2012, and more than 28,000 of them went to North American countries. The primary industries that benefited from the adoption of robots include high-tech, automotive, food and beverage and chemicals and plastics.

Is there a place for advanced robotics in SMBs?

Many manufacturers believe that only large enterprises have the resources to take advantage of the benefits of advanced robotics, but more and more SMBs are finding that robots are affordable. The increased demand for robots has reduced the costs of manufacturing, and advances in safety and programming have reduced the ongoing costs. The current generation of robots are also more flexible and mobile than they were in the past, which allows companies to use them for multiple tasks or across multiple product lines. The result is that SMBs can now compete more effectively than ever with larger enterprises, who have always had the cost advantages of scale in their favor, and competitors from low cost regions who rely on traditional manufacturing methods that cannot match the consistency and reliability that robotics brings.

Every manufacturer, regardless of size or industry, should investigate the use of advanced robotics to help ensure they gain or retain market share by providing high-quality products at a competitive cost.