“Robots are coming,” John Touhy of Fanuc America declared in a Fastener Fair USA presentation entitled “Automate or Evaporate.”

Since 2012, robots have been increasing 20% to 30% annually, Touhy said.

“Fear mongers” have been claiming robots “eliminate jobs,” Touhy acknowledged. But those are “dirty, dangerous jobs.”

Touhy countered that robots “create careers” and robots “turned Chrysler around.”

Fanuc is a group of global companies providing automation products and services, including robotics and computer numerical control wireless systems. Web: FanucAmerica.com

  • Robots offer a “predictive future,” such as giving 663 issues to avoid with a machine. Robots can “calculate failures three or four months out,” Touhy said. “We got an alert to check the grease, resulting in no lost production time.”
  • Could you produce more work if you had more skilled employees? Touhy asked. “How much work do you get done when a machine operator is on break or absent?”

Robots can have zero down time and just one robot can operate multiple machines, Touhy pointed out.

  • Robots are “consistently repeatable and reliable” as long as maintained, Touhy said.  
  • Robots “simplify access to information.”
  • South Korea, Japan and Germany lead in use of robots. Italy, Sweden and Denmark are next – ahead of the U.S. which is #7 and Taiwan #10.

Touhy finished his list of advantages of robots by observing that “robots never talk back.”