Trump wants to bring US manufacturing jobs back. Robot companies see an opportunity
That's why attendees of this week's massive Automate conference in downtown Detroit - North America's largest robotics and automation gathering - see opportunity in Trump's reshoring push, which comes just as factory automation technology rapidly improves with artificial intelligence.
They are quick to point out that the country is already dealing with a shortage of about 450,000 manufacturing workers, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A study last year from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute said that number could surge to 1.9 million by 2033.
"I see us in an acceleration period right now, and I think you can sense that here at the show in terms of the crowds and the type of people that are here," Mike Cicco, CEO of FANUC America, a large robotics firm headquartered in Rochester Hills, said on a Tuesday panel alongside several industry leaders.
Automakers and suppliers are a big focus of the automation industry. About half of North American robot sales go into car manufacturing, and many robot companies have a home base in Metro Detroit.
But several executives said their current sales growth is fueled by other sectors. Across two massive Huntington Place show floors packed with more than 800 vendors, companies showed off robot and automation products catered to streamlining restaurant kitchens, stacking boxes at distribution centers, performing surgery at hospitals, and sanding wood for construction projects.
"You can't think of an industry right now that's not automating," said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Ann Arbor-based Association for Advancing Automation, which hosts the conference. He said Automate has rapidly grown in recent years with registrations for 2025 topping 40,000 people. The event will shift to Chicago next year and Las Vegas in 2027.
North American robot sales slipped in 2023 and 2024 after surging during the pandemic as companies responded to supply chain and labor shortage issues. In the first quarter of 2025, sales were flat compared with a year earlier, with companies buying 9,064 units worth more than $580 million - an average of about $64,000 each - the association said this week. Automakers were a key growth sector in the quarter, snapping up 3,668 robots worth $263 million.
But Burnstein said another run of investment is ahead as labor issues persist, as robots get cheaper, and as companies try to keep pace with rivals in China, where factories are automating faster than anywhere else.
In auto manufacturing, steps along the process like painting and body production already are highly automated. Now executives say they are pushing into more complex areas traditionally reliant on humans, including general assembly.
Paul Stephens, global strategy manager at Ford Motor Co., said the carmaker wants to automate more of its manufacturing processes as the costs of robots and accompanying technology start to come down. Ford also is pushing its smaller suppliers to do the same in a bid to increase the quality of their parts. He said during a panel discussion that U.S. manufacturing is on the cusp of an "automation revolution."
Several companies pitched artificial intelligence tools as a way to spot quality issues with parts or vehicles - a task traditionally done with human eyes. Rajesh Iyengar, CEO of Lincode Labs Inc., said in an interview that a primary reason customers are turning to his AI-powered visual inspection tool is that they are struggling to fill their quality inspection roles, or retain those employees for more than two or three months. About 70% of the company's customers are in automotive.
"There's a lot of interest and a lot of movers in this space," Iyengar said, especially amid the current push to relocate car factories to the United States.
Also driving more automation in manufacturing is the rise of the collaborative robot, or cobot. These smaller-scale robots can be adapted to many types of jobs and have safety features allowing them to be installed alongside human workers. Cobots could be found in nearly every corner of the Automate conference floor, and are in contrast to larger industrial robots that move faster, handle beefy tasks like moving sheet metal, and are often fenced off from workers for safety reasons.
Travis Langford, automotive industry sales manager for cobot maker Universal Robots, said the company's offerings serve as a sweet spot between a human worker and a full industrial robot. They can more easily be retrofitted into factory layouts without costly redesigns and equipment overhauls. He said the company's robots are used for tasks ranging from picking parts out of a bin, to glazing car windows, or dispensing glue.
In more than 15 years, the Danish company with a North American headquarters in Novi has sold more than 100,000 of these smaller-scale robots. Langford said he sees a surge in sales around the corner as large global manufacturers start to catch on: "We haven't really hit the mass-adoption yet."
Brian Breuhan, senior manufacturing engineer with General Motors Co., said during a presentation that cobots could be used more along auto assembly lines, helping workers carry out tasks. He and others also mentioned humanoid robots as gaining early traction in some car factories; there was at least one humanoid robot giving high-fives to attendees on the Automate show floor.
In Breuhan's presentation - which explained how to develop the "factory of the future" - he acknowledged there would be fear and resistance among workers. But he said those concerns could be minimized through clear communication from leadership of the automation plan and by offering retraining programs, where workers might be shifted to new tasks in the plant if their current jobs were phased out - like servicing the robots themselves.
"Reutilize those people doing something fun, or that's useful, problem-solving or whatever it might be, to try and calm that fear," Breuhan said.
Cicco, the FANUC leader, said in an interview he hears a few reasons why potential customers want to automate, like a desire to increase quality, or up their production rate. But the most common response is: "I can't find people, or I've had to shut down my factory because of absenteeism, and things like that," the executive said.
Yet FANUC and the larger robotics industry is dealing with its own staffing challenges, Cicco said, which can't be solved with more automation. He said his company is tackling the problem by funding robotics training down to the high school level and putting several thousand robots out into schools to facilitate teaching.
"We need to bring more people into the workplace that know how to program robots, and maintenance robots, and fix robots, and install robots," Cicco said.
That recruiting effort becomes especially critical if demand for robotics accelerates as Cicco expects - including as the Trump administration uses tariffs to try to force more manufacturers to relocate domestically.
"Long term, there's a huge benefit," the CEO said. "I think we do need to make more things in America, and I do see that as a benefit to us long-term in the (robotics) industry."
Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
23 minutes ago
- New York Post
Is a toxic boss ruining your life? Here's what to do about it, before things get worse
If you're feeling overwhelmed and diminished at work, a toxic manager could be to blame. A bad boss can define the work experience. Someone who casts down on the people who report to them and ignores their needs can end up demolishing their sense of belonging, determination and purpose, experts warn. 'A bad boss can make or break your employment,' Vicki Salemi, a New York City-based career expert for Monster, told USA Today. Advertisement 'You may love your job and enjoy time with your colleagues and the company you work for, but at the end of the day, if your boss is toxic, this often surpasses cumulative positive reasons to stay.' Not only does having a bad boss decrease morale, it can also affect one's mental health. A 2024 survey by Monster found that 54% of those surveyed said they had poor mental health as a result of a toxic, controlling manager. But how can you tell if your manager is toxic, and what can you do about it? Signs that your manager is toxic They don't have your back Advertisement One telltale sign of a manager that doesn't support their employees is when they try to make a lower-level worker look bad and throw them under the bus. 'They dim your light to protect their ego,' Steven Claes, who writes about leadership, human resources and culture, recently shared on LinkedIn. 'Your success threatens their fragile self-esteem… Your confidence is the price of their power trip.' 'Your manager should be someone you think of as trustworthy. They should always have your back,' Salemi told USA Today. 'Whether you're in the room or not, they sing your praises.' 4 'A bad boss can make or break your employment,' Vicki Salemi, a career expert for Monster, told USA Today. Nattakorn – They play favorites Advertisement Playing favorites and pitting employees against one another also creates a hostile work environment. 'Say you're in a team meeting. You and four colleagues worked collaboratively on a project, but your boss only gives accolades and shines a spotlight on one person, their go-to favorite,' Salemi told the outlet. 'That's a sign of toxic leadership.' Encouraging cliques or rivalries within the office, as well as withholding praise from certain employees and not others can take away any source of trust and collaboration. They lack empathy and self-awareness Toxic bosses often lack the ability to recognize their emotions, according to the American Association for Physician Leadership. They tend to think they're right about everything, which can lead to animosity on the team. Advertisement 'Toxic bosses don't invest time or energy in building relationships to understand how their communication approach may impact others,' the AAPL said. 'They struggle to relate to team members' challenges, perspectives, and emotions, and this in turn leads to low trust.' 4 Empathy and compassion allows a boss to lead and connect with their direct reports, and those who lack this trait tend to be toxic managers. Dragana Gordic – They micromanage and make unrealistic demands Another example of toxic behavior in a manager is someone who nitpicks every detail and checks in too much, or someone who asks for a detailed list of how you spent every minute of your workday. This demonstrates a lack of trust and a need for control, insecurity as a manager, or the inability to delegate tasks. And the demands can be unrealistic, such as expecting you to do the work of multiple people without proper compensation, which can ultimately lead to burnout, resentment and lower productivity. Regardless, those who are micromanaged at work have reported nearly double the stress and tension at work compared to those who aren't micromanaged, according to a 2023 American Psychological Association survey. 'Toxic bosses will weaponize their authority, expecting employees to carry out their instructions obediently and without questioning their authority or the value of the work being undertaken,' the AAPL wrote. 'They seek to control how you complete your work.' They reject feedback If a boss is given constructive feedback and responds by getting defensive or dismissive, or even by retaliating, this is a sign of poor emotional intelligence and an inflexible mindset — which is an obstacle to successful leadership. Advertisement 'Accountability is for everyone else, not them,' Claes noted. Along with rejecting feedback, toxic managers reject ideas from employees as well. 'They shut down new ideas faster than you can blink,' Claes wrote. ''We've always done it this way' is their mantra.' 4 Playing favorites and pitting employees against one another also creates a hostile work environment. Sathaporn – How to deal with a toxic manager 'A good boss lifts you up. They don't tear you down. You deserve to feel valued at work,' Claes said on LinkedIn. Advertisement When dealing with a toxic manager, Claes suggests making sure you know your worth, set clear boundaries, documenting everything, build a support network and if needed, look for a different job. There are also direct steps you can take to potentially improve the situation and protect your well-being. Talk to your boss directly If you feel comfortable, you can approach the toxic manager directly and let them know how their behavior is affecting you. 'First, prepare what you're going to say with specific examples,' Salemi told USA Today. 'It's OK to go into the meeting with notes in your hand or on your phone.' Advertisement She suggested taking the following steps: State the facts of the situation. Let your boss know you felt unsupportive and share what you would hope for instead. Read their body language and allow for silence, even if it's uncomfortable. 'It's important to be factual. State specific examples, link them to your feelings, and talk about how it undermined your ability to do the work asked of you. Don't be accusatory or apportion blame,' the AAPL advised. With a toxic boss, it's possible they may not respond well, perhaps deflecting or trying to gaslight you — but it's important to keep calm. And like Claes suggested, document the conversation in case you need to take it to to a higher up. Advertisement 4 There are direct steps you can take to potentially improve the situation and protect your well-being. YURII MASLAK – Go to HR If necessary, you can go to human resources for help with a toxic manager — but be cautious and only do it under certain circumstances. 'If it's a discrimination issue, then absolutely go to HR,' Salemi told USA Today. 'But if it's something like your boss playing favorites, that can be viewed as more subjective.' Manage up Managing up is more of a 'wild card' approach and is for certain situations. For example, if your manager is going on vacation and delegated tasks to you, you can schedule a time to meet with their boss to check in and provide updates on your end. 'It's not a one-size-fits-all approach, but it's more to get onto your boss's boss's radar screen so they can interact with you and see your hard work firsthand,' Salemi said.
Fox News
37 minutes ago
- Fox News
SCOTT BESSENT: President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' will unleash parallel prosperity
The same issues that drove the Founders to declare independence from the Crown in 1776 drove 77 million Americans to the polls in 2024: heavy taxes, weak leadership, and an overreaching government numb to the needs of its citizens. President Trump won in a landslide victory by offering powerful solutions to each of these problems. He is the American people's declaration of independence from business as usual in Washington. The president seeks to serve "the forgotten men and women of America." And the One Big, Beautiful Bill, which he signs into law today, is central to that mission. This historic legislation will make life more affordable for all Americans by unleashing parallel prosperity—the idea that Main Street and Wall Street can grow together. The One Big, Beautiful Bill represents the priorities of the new Republican Party, which includes millions of working-class Americans who once called themselves Democrats. This bill builds on the blue-collar renaissance started by President Trump. Since President Trump took office in January, blue-collar wages have increased 1.7%. This represents the largest increase in working-class wages to start a presidency in more than 50 years. For comparison, working-class wages decreased during the same period under every single president since Richard Nixon with only one exception—President Trump in his first term. Key to sparking the president's second blue-collar boom has been his efforts to end illegal immigration. The open-border policy of previous administrations accelerated our nation's affordability crisis. The influx of millions of illegal aliens put an unsustainable strain on healthcare, housing, education and welfare. It also supported a black market in labor that artificially suppressed working-class wages for decades. But that ends with the One Big Beautiful Bill. The One Big Beautiful Bill is more than just a tax bill. It works to ensure that illegal immigrants are not taking advantage of the safety net created for Americans. The bill also funds the completion of the border wall and provides resources to hire thousands of additional federal agents to protect our country against future illegal immigration. The goal is to redirect the estimated $249 billion in annual wages paid to illegal workers to lawful workers and American citizens. Ending the black market of undocumented labor by funding enforcement of our existing immigration laws will result in a massive pay raise for the working class. We have seen American workers benefit from the president's economic approach before. Under President Trump's 2017 tax cuts, the net worth of the bottom 50% of households increased faster than the net worth of the top 10% of households. That will happen again under the One Big Beautiful Bill. The bill prevents a $4.5 trillion tax hike on the American people. This will allow the average worker to keep an additional $4,000 to $7,200 in annual real wages and allow the average family of four to keep an additional $7,600 to $10,900 in take-home pay. Add to this the president's ambitious deregulation agenda, which could save the average family of four an additional $10,000. For millions of Americans, these savings are the difference between being able to make a mortgage payment, buy a car, or send a child to college. The president is delivering on his promise to seniors as well. The bill provides an additional $6,000 deduction for seniors, which will mean that 88% of seniors receiving Social Security income will pay no tax on their Social Security benefits. The One Big Beautiful Bill also codifies no tax on tips and no tax on overtime pay—both policies designed to provide financial relief to America's working class. These tax breaks will ensure Main Street workers keep more of their hard-earned income. And they will bolster productivity by rewarding Americans who work extra hours. All Americans can learn how President Trump's tax cuts will impact their lives for the better with a new White House calculator. These productivity-enhancing measures dovetail with the second booster in the blue-collar boom: providing 100% expensing for new factories and existing factories that expand operations, plus car loan interest deductibility to support Made-in-America. Economic security is national security. This became especially clear during COVID, which exposed glaring vulnerabilities in our critical supply chains. By providing 100% expensing for factories—in addition to rebalancing trade to encourage greater domestic production—President Trump is fortifying our supply chains and reawakening the might of America's industrial base. To help fuel this effort, the president is unleashing American energy by removing onerous regulations, increasing oil and gas lease sales, eliminating the perverse subsidies of the Green New Scam, and refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. These measures will make life more affordable for American families by bringing down the costs of gas and electricity across the country. Through the One Big Beautiful Bill, President Trump is taking a bottom-up approach to restoring the economy. To that end, the bill makes the 2017 tax cuts permanent to give businesses of all sizes the certainty they need to grow, hire, and plan for the long term. It also provides targeted relief for small businesses by more than doubling the cap on overall small business expensing. These tax provisions will put billions of dollars back in the hands of America's small business owners, which they can then use to expand their workforce and reinvigorate Main Street. The intent of all these policies—be it tax cuts for the working class, full expensing for manufacturers, or new deductions for small businesses—is the same: to improve the lives of Americans on every rung of the economic ladder. With visionary leadership, President Trump is laying the foundation for the Golden Age he promised through tax deals, trade deals, peace deals, and deregulation. The One Big Beautiful Bill will Make America Affordable Again. It will cement the blue-collar boom, reignite U.S. manufacturing, and unleash the commercial potential of the greatest economy in the world. Today marks the passage of the largest tax cut in history for our nation's workers. It is a tribute to the Founders who demanded lower taxes themselves and is the perfect way to begin America's 250th anniversary celebration.
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
BRICS Aspires to Occupy Ground Vacated by US Under Trump
(Bloomberg) -- Ever since BRICS was founded more than a decade ago, the group of emerging-market nations has struggled to identify a common purpose. President Donald Trump's tariffs may have solved that problem. Foreign Buyers Swoop on Cape Town Homes, Pricing Out Locals Massachusetts to Follow NYC in Making Landlords Pay Broker Fees NYC Commutes Resume After Midtown Bus Terminal Crash Chaos Struggling Downtowns Are Looking to Lure New Crowds What Gothenburg Got Out of Congestion Pricing BRICS leaders meeting in Rio de Janeiro this weekend for a summit hosted by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are expected to sign up to a joint statement decrying 'the rise of unjustified unilateral protectionist measures' and the 'indiscriminate raising' of tariffs. That's what foreign ministers from the bloc named for oldest members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa agreed to in April, and several officials said the text would remain in the communique. The concluding language is unlikely to directly cite the US. But the group is sending an unmistakable signal to the Trump administration on the eve of the July 9 deadline for his levies to take effect. BRICS members all agree that 'these tariffs are not productive,' Ambassador Xolisa Mabhongo, South Africa's lead negotiator, or sherpa, said in an interview. 'They are not good for the world economy. They are not good for development.' As Trump alienates traditional allies and pursues his America First agenda, BRICS is seeking to occupy the ground the US leader has ceded. The upshot is that the group long presumed to be forging an alternative to the US-led world order is now projecting itself as defender of those same core values, including free trade and multilateralism. 'Multilateralism is going through its worst moment since the World War II,' Lula said Friday during a meeting of the New Development Bank, the financing arm of the BRICS. China will work with member states to 'strengthen the BRICS strategic partnership and safeguard multilateralism,' Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in a briefing in Beijing on Wednesday. Even with Trump providing some elements of a unity of purpose, the BRICS grouping is still likely to fall far short of wielding the global influence its members have long sought. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who held a state visit to Brasilia in November and is expected to attend the COP30 climate summit in Brazil later this year, is skipping the BRICS meeting. Vladimir Putin of Russia will stay away to avoid putting Brazil's government in the uncomfortable position of having to arrest a president wanted for war crimes in Ukraine. Founded in 2009, the original BRICS group has long suffered from a lack of shared values among members who have little in common beyond their status as large, emerging economies that wanted a voice in global affairs dominated by Washington and the West. Its rapid expansion to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates bolstered its representation — the new BRICS accounts for about 40% of global GDP and roughly half the planet's population — but threatens to make it even less coherent. What Bloomberg Economics Says The group is held together primarily by a shared sense that emerging markets should have a louder voice in the global order and a desire to build a multipolar world. In the absence of a clearer shared agenda, though, the group's geopolitical gravitas will probably continue to increase only gradually, in line with its economic heft or, potentially, its further expansion. —Jimena Zuniga, Latin America geoeconomics analyst Read the full report here. Notably, the bloc is divided on references to war, with Russia and China against any significant mention, according to several delegations. Egypt is pushing for a mention of peace and security in the Middle East, by which it mainly means resolving the war on its border in Gaza, according to a person familiar with the matter. Trump's aggression offers the bloc something of a dilemma. While his tariffs push gives it a degree of shared resolve, some members are keen to maintain balanced relations with both the US and China. Paradoxically, Trump's threat to slap 100% levies on the bloc if it ditches the dollar in bilateral trade has spurred interest in developing local payment systems and other instruments that can facilitate commerce and investment between the nations. The idea of abandoning the dollar isn't under discussion, according to Brazilian officials. Trade among the five original BRICS nations grew 40% between 2021 and 2024 to $740 billion a year, according to International Monetary Fund data. Lula's government is optimistic that leaders will make progress on collective alternatives, in part because Trump's trade threats have given countries incentives to forge consensus and new partnerships, according to two Brazilian officials familiar with the discussions. The BRICS group is also discussing mechanisms to boost climate finance among members for the first time, the officials said, an issue that has taken on greater importance after Trump pulled the US out of the Paris agreement. China continues to engage with other BRICS nations on climate, also as a way to show it is a friendlier and more reliable ally than the US. Along with Indonesia, Beijing has held discussions with Brazil about the agenda for the UN's annual climate summit. For its part, India sees no major hurdles to a joint declaration from the summit, according to a government official familiar with the preparations, who asked not to be named discussing ongoing diplomacy. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is undertaking a state visit in Brazil after the Rio gathering ends. Lula will also welcome Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in back to back pageantry. Yet divisions among BRICS members — and especially between its old guard and new arrivals — could still surface. Egypt and Ethiopia had balked at supporting South Africa for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, something that had been one of the bloc's few unifying themes. There are also simmering tensions between the group's two largest economies. China and India both vie to lead the BRICS and the Global South as a whole. Modi will stake his claim as leader when he takes over the BRICS presidency for 2026, just three years after Xi skipped India's G-20 summit. At a time when BRICS is trying to prove it's more than just a catchy acronym, another snub from Xi wouldn't be a good look. --With assistance from Mirette Magdy, Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Jing Li. (Updates with comment from Lula in sixth paragraph.) SNAP Cuts in Big Tax Bill Will Hit a Lot of Trump Voters Too America's Top Consumer-Sentiment Economist Is Worried For Brazil's Criminals, Coffee Beans Are the Target How to Steal a House Sperm Freezing Is a New Hot Market for Startups ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
