Business 4.0
Made in America: Automating for Growth
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anufacturing jobs have increased by 36,000 since President Trump’s election — that is according to figures released by the White House. As a focal point for several political campaigns, ‘Made in America’ has become a recurring strapline, promoting the use of American products to protect jobs in manufacturing. However, the nation’s reluctance to embrace industrial technologies could be damaging its potential for growth. Despite deploying six-axis robots in automotive production as early as the 1960s, America has an unusual relationship with automation. The technology is still largely seen as a threat to American jobs, with countless media stories, reports and industry studies damning the use of automation as the end of human employment.
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In fact, according to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, over 73 million American jobs could be at risk of automation before 2030. This may sound threatening, but this statistic doesn’t quite tell the full story and this mis-informed idea is holding back the ‘Made in America’ drive. Automation has long been used to displace intensive labor. As recently as the 19th century, over 80 percent of American jobs were based on agricultural farming. Today, just two per cent of Americans work in this field. Modernization of agriculture certainly didn’t destroy the US economy, nor did it leave the nation jobless. Looking to modern manufacturing, the situation is similar. Increasing use of robots and automation will admittedly displace
