“We recognize that the manufacturing jobs that come back to America might not all look like the ones that left,” a White House official said, “and we are taking steps to ensure that the American workforce is ready for that.”
Making Robots Great Again
In Monster Moto's cavernous warehouse in Ruston, boxes of imported parts that are delivered at one end then become bikes on a short but industrious assembly line of a few dozen workers.
A solitary, long-bearded worker by the name of Billy Mahaffey fires up the bikes to test their engine and brakes before a small group of workers puts them in boxes declaring: "Assembled in the USA."
Helped by that label, Monster Moto has experienced a recent boom in demand from major customers that include Wal-Mart. The company expects to double production to 80,000 units and increase its assembly workers - who make $13 to $15 an hour - to 100 from around 40 in 2017.
The most likely components Monster Moto could produce in America first are black, welded-metal frames for bikes and go-karts, but they would have to automate production because human welders would be too expensive.
"We can't just blow up our cost structure," said Monster Moto President Rick Sukkar. "The only way to make it work in America is with robotics."
The same principle applies for much larger manufacturers, such as automotive supplier Delphi Automotive PLC’s. Chief Financial Officer Joe Massaro told analysts in February that 90 percent of the company’s hourly workforce is in “best-cost countries.”
When asked about shifting production to the United States from Mexico, Massaro said depending on what happens to trade rules “it would have to be much more of the sort of the automated type manufacturing operations just given… the labor differential there.”
That trend is already showing up in data compiled by Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think-tank. According to senior economist Rob Scott, not only did America lose 85,000 factories, or 23.5 percent of the total, from 1997 to 2014, but the average number of workers in a U.S. factory declined 14 percent to 44 in 2014 from 1997. According to Scott, much of the decline in workers was due to automation.
"We're going to see more automation in this country because it makes good sense economically for every company," said Hal Sirkin, a managing director at the Boston Consulting Group. "You can spend a lot of time bemoaning it, but that's not going to change."
Manufacturers say automated production requires fewer, but more skilled workers such as robot programmers and operators. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) estimates because of the "skills gap" there are 350,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs today in a sector that employs over 12 million people.
In Ruston, Mayor Ronny Walker bet on Monster Moto by guaranteeing the company's lease because he wants to diversify the city's economy, and envisions suppliers setting up alongside Monster Moto's assembly plant.
"Could it take a long time to bring manufacturing back here? Sure," he says. "But you have to start somewhere."
This article was provided by Reuters.