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Companies are adopting automation to mitigate labor shortages and improve productiveness, discovered HowToRobot. Supply: Adobe Inventory

Companies are adopting automation to not exchange employees however to enhance scarce labor, based on information that HowToRobot launched yesterday. It discovered that 80% of respondents stated their tasks are meant to free staff from handbook duties and transfer them to different extra value-adding actions.

The Denmark-based supplier of a world automation market platform stated its findings affirm that companies are seeing robotics and automation as a complement to human labor, not as a alternative.

“From our each day conversations with producers worldwide, it’s clear that the dearth of labor has been the driving issue behind enterprise selections to automate in 2023,” stated Søren Peters, CEO of HowToRobot, in a launch.

“By automating essentially the most cumbersome duties, companies have been releasing staff to tackle different duties wanted to keep up manufacturing ranges and fulfill buyer orders,” he stated. “Not one we requested did this as a result of they needed to put off individuals.”

Labor shortages peaked in North America and Europe within the spring of 2022 because the COVID-19 pandemic eased, stated HowToRobot. These labor shortages continued at elevated ranges in 2023.

Within the U.S., manufacturing job opening charges averaged 4.5% in 2023, nearly twice the pre-pandemic common of two.8% from 2013 to 2019, based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

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Labor shortages stop productiveness progress

The second greatest motivation for automating in 2023 was to extend productiveness. HowToRobot reported that 70.9% of respondents’ tasks had this purpose.

Robots can enhance productiveness by lowering the labor hours wanted to create the identical output, it stated. This allows corporations to extend wages, scale back costs, and develop their earnings, resulting in stronger financial progress.

With excessive inflation ranges over the previous three years, productiveness has been notably necessary for companies, stated Peters.

Labor shortages have additionally constrained companies’ potential to develop manufacturing capability with handbook labor, additional growing demand for automation, stated HowToRobot. In 2023, 60.6% of automation tasks sought to extend capability, making it the third-largest motivation to automate, the firm famous.

Hourly compensation in U.S. manufacturing alone grew by 18% between 2019 and 2023, based on BLS information.

“When prices are rising quickly, what do you do as a enterprise?” stated Peters. “Both you chop down or spend money on areas that improve your productiveness.”

“We’re seeing that a lot of those that had the foresight – and funds – to spend money on automation at the moment are popping out on high,” he added. “They’re extra aggressive and might afford to pay their staff higher.”

Transferring employees to extra value-added duties, productiveness, and capability have been high causes for adopting automation.. | Supply: HowToRobot

Product high quality, working circumstances matter, finds HowToRobot

A couple of third — 36.2% — of automation tasks final yr sought to enhance product high quality and uniformity with automation, making it a reasonably necessary enterprise purpose, stated HowToRobot.

Handbook operations throughout sure elements of the manufacturing course of can lead to various product high quality and uniformity, which might result in extra buyer claims and useful resource waste. Peters stated that companies are more and more specializing in offsetting excessive enter prices.

“We additionally see a rising consciousness in regards to the environmental impression of wasteful processes and the way robots and automation can assist scale back the ecological footprint of producing operations,” Peters stated.

Many companies additionally seemed for automation to enhance their working environments. Final yr, 31.5% of automation tasks had this purpose, stated HowToRobot.

For instance, companies can automate demanding duties that contain repetitive movement, heavy lifting, or hazardous environments. This may liberate staff to tackle much less backbreaking and extra significant duties, HowToRobot stated.

“It’s turning into clear for a rising variety of companies that investing in worker well-being additionally entails automation,” Peters stated.

Peters has stated that companies shouldn’t wait to plan future robotics investments. Based on HowToRobot, the time from beginning an automation undertaking to signing an settlement with a vendor can range from just a few weeks to greater than a yr.

The sooner a enterprise begins the method, the earlier it could possibly reap the advantages of automation, the corporate stated.