The longstanding industrial practice of outsourcing manufacturing operations to low-cost parts of the world to keep manufacturing costs down has recently taken a dramatic turn. With rapidly rising labour costs in countries such a China, the financial advantages of manufacturing overseas are being seriously eroded.
When manufacturers also realise that offshoring also usually involves complex logistics, added shipping times and difficulties in reacting quickly and nimbly to changes in customer requirements, there are clear reasons why many companies are looking for new ways to reduce costs and increase productivity. And for many, automation using cost-effective, advanced robotics technologies is the answer.
In a new white paper, Universal Robots outlines some of the key ways collaborative robots are contributing to this trend. It considers the key drivers in the process and outlines some of the mechanisms involved in which cobots play a crucial role. Finally, the paper sketches some of the ‘big picture’ opportunities already emerging from reshoring and how the use of cobots can serve as a catalyst in this process.
To download the complete white paper go to: https://info.universal-robots.com/cobots-as-a-catalyst-for-reshoring
