A walk through Ford Motor Co.’s new production facility for the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck at the historic Rouge Complex in Dearborn is startling for its lack of workers, activity, and noise.
Welcome to the future of automation, often referred to as Industry 4.0, where factories are run by a mechanized symphony, directed remotely, and are so clean you can skip eating eggs off the floor and settle in for a nice picnic.
With EVs requiring 10 percent of the parts of a comparable vehicle with an internal combustion engine, there are far fewer steps needed on the assembly line. Nary a sound can be heard in the F-150 Lightning plant as robotic trollies silently ferry 1,500-pound battery packs around the facility, and the few workers on the production line use DC hand tools rather than the noisy pneumatic tools utilized in traditional factories.
What it means for future jobs can be summed up in one word: robots. The Big Three of economic instability these days — a lack of skilled talent, inflation, and supply chain delays — is driving more CEOs to embrace automation.
From the latest figures available, North American companies purchased the most robots ever during the first quarter of 2022 — 11,595 robots sold at a value of $646 million — according to the Association for Advancing Automation, or A3, in Ann Arbor. Industry projections make a reasonable case that robot sales will reach a high water mark this year, which will be exceeded on an annual basis for decades to come.
“Every industry, including agriculture, construction, retail, and hospitality, is now looking at how they can take advantage of robotics to make their companies more successful,” says Alex Shikany, vice president of membership and business intelligence at A3. “Robots can not only take over the dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs that are so hard to fill, but they can save and create jobs as automation helps them grow their business.”
What that means for parents and students eyeing college degree programs and future career opportunities is that the automation revolution is a safe investment. Colleges, universities, and vocational schools have been offering more classes and coursework in robotics. At the end of the day, that may not fill all the positions lost to traditional manufacturing, but the expert knowledge base in automation will provide safer, more fulfilling careers that pay better.
As for the auto industry, EVs will, over time, bring about a monumental shift in production systems and consolidation. Jim Farley, Ford’s president and CEO, recently stated that legacy automakers, EV startups, and traditional suppliers “absolutely will get consolidated.”
During Bernstein’s annual Strategic Decisions Conference in June, Farley said the political push for EVs, as mandated by government regulations, means “There will be some big winners, some people who transition, some who won’t. Many of the small players cannot afford to make this transition.”
With a shakeout on the horizon, Farley believes EV manufacturers in China like Hongguang, XPeng, Li Auto, and Nio will become formidable competitors. Whether Americans, Europeans, and others around the world will buy Chinese cars and trucks remains to be seen.
But what we do know is that automakers that can afford to invest billions of dollars in the future of electric mobility will come out on the other side with much higher profit margins that will propel the next generation of mobility — autonomy.
