It seems like ‘the times they are a changing’ in the manufacturing world. With the economic bankruptcy of Detroit and the crash of its economy, as well as the various other financial crises especially in 2008, it seems like the United States is finally recovering and beginning to bringing back manufacturing jobs.
As prices were lower in undeveloped and Asian countries, some enterprises tended to buy stuff overseas in order to chop their prices at home. As time went by, we began to realize that the manufacturing process was a big part of the economy and if we didn't invest in it then our whole economy would go down with it. We can now see a shift in mentality and see companies like ABB establishing plants in North America to manufacture their robots.
ABB is the first of the Big 4 (ABB, Fanuc, KUKA, Yaskawa) to manufacture robots in North America. Most of them will be doing all their operations in their European or Asian plants, ABB decided to go to the States to develop a better coverage of a market that is growing fast. Even if the US robot market is not increasing at the same speed as the one in Asia, it is still pretty interesting for a company to invest into a $7.5 Billion US market. ABB already has research and engineering offices in Sweden, the Czech Republic, Norway, Mexico, Japan, the USA and China. I don’t have any information on which robots will be manufactured in the US plant or any details on how ABB usually works when it's time to export manufacturing processes to other countries, will they begin with a few models or bring in the cavalry right away.
As you probably know, ABB is not the only robot or robotic device manufacturer in North America. The hype around this news is basically the fact that this company is part of the Big 4 and that it is a milestone in terms of robotic development. However, younger companies have been born and raised in North America and have built a solid reputation in the robotic world.
And the list is larger than this. Just thinking about what Google acquired over the last few years and you can add a minimum of 4-5 more companies. It is a very large world but most of the time robotics companies are startups that just keep growing a little bigger every year. Nothing compared to a giant like ABB. It is still pretty cool to have such diverse expertise in the robotic field near home. Notice that North America doesn’t have a background like Switzerland, Germany or Japan in terms of robot manufacturing, but... the first robot was made in the US right? ;-)
It will be interesting to follow how ABB sales will take off in the USA. With Americans known to be very patriotic, it wouldn't surprise me to see an increase in robotic sales in US following this move. Go Robots Go!