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TechNews - USA - Can these robots save Michigan jobs?
Wixom firm says its machines help keep employers from going abroadWIXOM,Oakland County,Mich,USA -The Detroit News, by Nick Bunkley -4 Nov 2005: -- The high-tech behemoths sold by Methods Machine Tools Inc. let manufacturers increase production with fewer workers... Yet the company bills its products as potential job savers... In an era of global competition, factory workers are finding that the robots they once feared would put them out on the street might actually help preserve their jobs by keeping employers from heading overseas to cut costs. Sure, automation often means a company needs fewer workers, but these days the alternative can be far worse... In the past six years, Michigan has lost 1,400 small and medium-sized manufacturing plants, most employing about 60 or 70 people, as many companies moved operations overseas, according o the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center in Plymouth... Automation is one way that U.S. factories can compete against the low-cost labor readily available in China, India, Mexico and other countries, said the technology center's president, Mike Coast... Automation has been critical for manufacturers that are being pushed to expand their output while slashing prices. Many customers of Kentwood-based Autocam Corp., which makes brake and fuel-injection components, now want finished parts instead of just the rough forms the company used to produce... "The goal," said Walter Lord, an Autocam manufacturing engineer, "is always to do more with less"...
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