Movie villains are usually regarded for their ability to earn respect from the viewer, even when they ought to be rooting for their defeat. Automation is frequently viewed as manufacturing’s societal villain, intimidating the jobs of U.S. workers. But, to create new job roles, U.S. manufacturers can not fear the automation uprising.
 
Relatively, U.S. manufacturing isn't in a good position. According to data published by Federal Reserve, U.S. factory production slumped for the second month in February 2019 and reports by the Institute for Supply Management echoed exactly the same sentiment, reporting that U.S. factories had dropped in many areas, including employment, orders, production and deliveries.
 
The prevalent story of the media is that nothing can stop the constant drop of manufacturing. But perhaps the industry’s savior depends in one of its most notorious antagonists – automation.
 
America has an extraordinary relationship with automated technology. While the first six-axis robots were launched to automotive production lines as early as the 1960s, narratives since then have frequently targeted on the threat technology poses to employment, rather than the production benefits and new job roles it can bring.
 
You should not get me wrong, there’s no denying automation has force out some American jobs. But, that’s not to imply the industry is failing, nor does it mean jobs in U.S. manufacturing are impossible to find. Work in the sector certainly still exists, simply not the same positions our grandmothers or grandfathers might have held.
 
Assembly applications are an ideal example of this. Different from factories of the past, manufacturers today use conveyors, machine vision systems and pick and place equipment to do assembly automatically. Thus, the number of assembly jobs has been considerably declining and is expected to fall by 14 percent by 2026 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  However, not all job roles in the factory have so bleak of a future.
 
Software development, for example, was nearly totally missing from manufacturing facilities of the past. Today, however, developers play a critical role in deploying automation, programming machinery and maintaining control software. Unsurprisingly then, vacancies in software are expected to elevate by 24 percent by 2026, exceeding the number of jobs lost in assembly roles and creating totally new opportunities.
 
In the time of the digital transformation of factories, workers with technical skillsets like this will become incredibly valuable. As an instance, if making incremental deployments of automation, facilities will demand regular installation and maintenance of industrial parts – and the staff to do so.
 
Automation will never be the movie villain it is often depicted to be and luckily, most manufacturers can see its advantage and therefore aren't rooting for its defeat. The U.S. continues to be one of the world’s most profitable markets for manufacturing, but the sector needs an injection of optimism about automation and its potential to create jobs.
 
This article is originally posted on tronserve.com