Producing Pole has been making metal hinges, locks and brackets south of Chicago for over 100 years. Some of the company’s metal presses – making amazing machines that can be seen behind a worker – have been around since the 1950s. Last year, in response to soaring demand amid a labor shortage, Polar hired robot Staff.
The robotic arm does a simple, repetitive job: lift a piece of metal into a press, then bend the metal into a new shape. And like a human, robot workers get paid for the hours they work.
Jose Figueroa, Polar’s production line manager, said the robot, was hired from a company called Official, which costs the equivalent of $8 per hour, compared with a minimum wage of $15 per hour for an employee. Figueroa says deploying robots allows humans to do a variety of jobs, helping to increase output.
“Smaller companies sometimes struggle because they can’t set aside capital to invest in new technology,” says Figueroa.
The fact that Polar doesn’t need to pay $100,000 upfront to buy the robot, and then spend extra to get it programmed, is crucial. Figueroa says he wants to see 25 robots on the line within five years. He doesn’t plan to replace any of the company’s 70 employees, but said Polar may not need to hire new workers.
Formic buys standard robotic arms and leases them along with its own software. They are among the few robots that find their way into the workplace on a pay-on-demand basis.
The pandemic has led to shortage of workers in many industries, but many smaller companies hesitate to write large tests for automation.
Steve Chmura, managing director at Georgia Nut, a confectionery company in Skokie, Illinois, is struggling to find employees and also hires robots from Formic.
The employee-robot approach could help automation spread into smaller businesses more quickly by changing the economy. Companies like Formic see an opportunity to build large businesses by serving many small companies. Many are harnessing the data they collect to help refine their products and improve customer operations.
Shahan Farshchi, an investor in Formic, likens the state of robotics today to computers before personal computers took off, when only the wealthy companies could afford to invest in massive computing systems that demanded requires considerable expertise for programming and maintenance. Personal computers have been enabled by companies including Intel and Microsoft, making the technology cheap and easy to use. “We are entering the same moment as robots,” says Farshchi.
In recent years, robots are taking on many new jobs as the technology becomes more capable as well as easier and cheaper to deploy. Some hospitals use robots to deliver supplies, and some offices use robotic security guards. The companies behind these robots often offer them on a rental basis.
Jeff Burnstein, president of Progressive Automation Association, an industry body, says the growing need for automation among smaller companies is driving interest in robotics as a service. Burnstein says this approach has shown particular appeal among warehousing companies.
