Supply chain and manufacturing are under tremendous pressure.
Back-to-back-to-back supply chain shocks have made the steady state of manufacturing and supply chain very stressful for industry.
Those shocks are COVID supply chain shocks, inflation and now tariffs. Costs for supply chain continue to be a problem via workforce, energy and raw material inputs.
The good news for manufacturers is there is an emergence of ready-to-buy and affordable technology.
Autonomous robots and collaborative robots are changing the landscape for legacy factories seeking to modernize and enabling workers to produce more while expending less effort.
E-commerce-style inventory systems are adding precision to the supply chain and reducing waste.
Energy systems in the form of low voltage power, microgrids and renewable energy are adding resiliency and reducing costs.
Targeted industrial AI is creating new opportunities to analyze workflows, increase transparency/traceability and unlock hidden capacity by removing bottlenecks.
These four technologies, when taken together – robotics, inventory, energy and industrial AI – are potent enough to flatten the cost curve for the U.S. supply chain.
This will enable a pivot to local sourcing and further enable two meaningful changes:
⎯ The U.S. supply chain costs will become more predictable, allowing supply chain operators to serve more customers and plan strategic expansion and investments.
⎯ Manufacturers will lower their cost basis, enabling them to recover market share and expand their exports to foreign markets.
The shocks we are seeing today require a lot of focus to navigate, but they are not new. We have been continuously overcoming challenges for the last five years.
With the emergence of these new technologies, companies have a clear path to stabilizing and expanding their business.
That’s good for all of us consumers and citizens who want our goods when we order them and want our dollars to buy the same amount of goods year over year.
Chang Robotics customizes engineering, technology and robotics for manufacturing, health care, government and other customers.