Growing up in the “City of Firsts,” the manufacturing roots run deep in my family. Essentially every relative, coach, and adult I knew as a child worked in one of Kokomo, IN large factories on an assembly line or in skilled trades dating back to Haynes-Apperson, the first profitable American automobile manufacturer. From an early age, my plan was to get a degree (that my parents never had the opportunity at) and then follow them both into the factories for the next 30 years.  That was until the 2008 Recession hit and changed those manufacturing sites completely. Needing to pivot directions, I spent the majority of the next 10 years in industrial project management working inside some of the Midwest’s largest manufacturing and distribution centers.

Automation, whether robots or co-bots, are drawing a lot of attention these days with the 43.7% growth of e-commerce and the increasing fulfillment needs across a number of industries and consumer categories.  We’ve all heard the familiar refrain that automation is taking over in manufacturing and logistics, but that has not been the case due to offshoring versus automation.  

The idea of automation in manufacturing has caused many people to sound the alarm about potential job elimination, and for others it sounds like a necessary step toward more efficient production and less labor-intensive processes. There are strong opinions about automation that differ depending on who you ask. But one thing is clear: automation is already picking up speed.

Even though automation has come a long way, its deployment on the shop floor must be executed within the framework of the entire production process. As The Goal (1) highlighted in 1984, automation is not always the right answer since the installation of those robots resulted in: 1) no increase to sales throughput, 2) no reduction in the workforce, and 3) a steady increase in inventories. This certainly highlights a worst case automation installation.