Manufacturing Crisis

Skilled operators are becoming scarce, production demands are high, and empty workstations represent lost opportunity. Here's how forward-thinking manufacturers are solving the throughput puzzle and how Allied Automation can help find a solution. 

The Perfect Storm: When Demand Meets Reality 

Manufacturing leaders across North America are facing an uncomfortable truth. Their production capacity isn't limited by their machines anymore; it's limited by their workforce. While product orders remain full and demand continues to grow, production floors are struggling with a combination of challenges that traditional solutions can't address. 

The Numbers Behind the Crisis 

  • The manufacturing industry only met 36% of its hiring goals in 2024. Down 44% from the past 2 years. 1

  • Approximately 500,000 manufacturing jobs remain unfilled; this number could rise to 2.1 million by 2030. 2

  • 65% of manufacturing firms indicated that recruiting and retaining workers was their top business challenge. 3

But beyond these industry-wide numbers lies a more immediate problem, the daily reality of trying to meet production targets with an increasingly strained or unsteady workforce. 

When Your Best People Hit Their Limits

The operators you do have are working harder than ever. Extended shifts have become a normality rather than an exception, your overtime budget is slimming, and productivity from employees is continuing down the path of decline. Fatigue is setting in as the repetitive nature of many manufacturing tasks start to take their toll. 

 A vicious loop is created as a result, with operators growing weary, cycle times slowing down, quality problems growing, and pressure to put in even more hours is increasing. In the meantime, it is even more difficult to recruit new employees to replace departing ones due to the mental and physical strain of the job at hand. 

The True Cost of Low Throughput

Many manufacturers focus on the obvious costs like overtime premiums, recruitment expenses, and delayed deliveries. But the hidden costs run much deeper: 

  • Lost revenue opportunities from orders you can't fulfill 

  • Customer relationship strain as delivery times extend and reliability decreases 

  • Competitive disadvantage as more agile competitors capture market share 

  • Declining employee morale among your remaining workforce 

  • Hours of production lost due to a small workforce 

A Strategic Solution: Amplifying Human Capability with Cobots 

The answer isn't simply hiring more people or fully automating your workforce, it's reimagining how work gets done. Forward-thinking firms are finding that Cobots provide a solution that simultaneously tackles workforce constraints and throughput issues. Cobots are intended to complement human operators, boosting their capabilities rather than completely replacing them.

Immediate Cobot Benefits:

Consistent performance: Cobots eliminate fatigue-related production losses by maintaining the same cycle throughout each shift. 

24/7 operation capability: Run precise production for repetitive tasks while operators focus on higher-value, more skilled activities during regular hours. 

Scalable capacity: Increase throughput without having to deal with the hassle of recruiting, onboarding, and training more operators. They can also be adapted to operate different tasks within your operation. 

Learn more about Universal Robots: Cobots Offer Game Changing Benefits 

The Cobot Competitive Advantage  

Cobots are perfect for facilities that require flexibility, scalability, and quick deployment because, in contrast to traditional automation, they are made to securely operate alongside human operators. They don't need elaborate programming, cages, or significant infrastructure modifications. Instead, they take on the duties that slow down production and exhaust your personnel by integrating directly into existing workflows.

Jobs Cobots Are Automating:

Machine Tending: Cobots can load and unload CNC machines, injection molders, and presses with consistent speed and precision. 

Pick-and-Place: Ideal for packaging, sorting, and assembly lines where repetitive motion leads to operator fatigue. 

Welding: Cobots deliver consistent welds and reduce the need for highly skilled manual welders in high-volume applications. 

Palletizing: Automating end-of-line stacking and packaging helps reduce strain and improve throughput. 

By automating these high-fatigue, low-complexity tasks, manufacturers can reallocate their human labor to higher skilled activities, reduce cycle times, and maintain consistent output, even with a lean workforce. Check Out Allied Automation's Pre-Engineered Cobot Workstations

Where Strategic Investment Meets Measurable Results 

One of the best investments accessible to manufacturers dealing with the workforce and throughput issues of today is cobot technology. These devices give manufacturers a scalable automation platform with predictable financial returns, operating in unison with human operators to tackle detailed assembly tasks with reliable precision.

Cobots are viewed as a strategic skill that generates return on investment (ROI) and contributes to corporate growth by the most successful firms, rather than a mere equipment acquisition. Proven automation solutions put manufacturing leaders in a position to acquire a competitive edge over the long run as well as boost production right away. 

The Allied Automation/Mechatronic Systems partnership brings extensive experience across diverse manufacturing environments and cobot technologies. Our track record speaks for itself - 100% of our cobot users have reported positive ROI, with most customers achieving full return on investment within 6 months to a year of their cobot workstation installation. 

Our commitment to your success means that your adoption of cobot technology will deliver measurable productivity improvements, cost reductions, and a sustainable competitive advantage. 

Contact us to see how we can provide the best cobot solution for your business!

Resources

1 Link, Jake. “Manufacturing Recruiting in 2025: Key Stats and Trends.” GoodTime, 17 Apr. 2025, goodtime.io/blog/recruiting/manufacturing-recruiting-trends/.

2 “Unfilled Manufacturing Jobs Will Hit the Millions by 2030, Study Finds.” RSS Inc., 26 Sept. 2023, www.rssinc.com/blog/unfilled-manufacturing-jobs-will-hit-the-millions-by-2030-study-finds/.

3 Rosalsky, Greg. “Why Aren’t Americans Filling the Manufacturing Jobs We Already Have?” NPR, NPR, 13 May 2025, www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2025/05/13/g-s1-66112/why-arent-americans-filling-the-manufacturing-jobs-we-already-have.