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After two years of fly high-pitched , industrial automaton order dropped by nearly one - third last yr . Per the Association for Advancing Automation ( A3 ) , 31,159 industrial automaton were buy by North American companies in 2023 , down from 44,196 . That marks a 30 % drop for this central market . The number is also down ( albeit less so ) from 2021 ’s 39,708 .
The driblet is certainly a precipitous one worth examining . What it is n’t , however , is a complete surprisal . Last August , we citeda paper from the industriousness grouping noting a 37 % twelvemonth - over - year drop for the second after part of 2023 . That was the 2d straight quarterly decline for the manufacture .
These numbers throw a bit of insensate H2O on what has been regard as a white - live industry dating back at least to the beginning of the pandemic . There is , no doubt , some cause for concern among robotics manufacturers . But all of this needs to be caveated by the fact that both 2021 and 2022 marked disk sales for the diligence . Some regress to the mean was likely inevitable here .
But the story behind the numbers is far more complex than a retardation in borrowing watch over a pandemic - fuel automation spree . As full-bodied as the class has appeared at time , it ’s not immune to the same macroeconomic headwinds as the rest of the technical school world . In fact , in some ways , it may be more slight . Industrial robot are n’t exactly a luxury item , but they are big - ticket purchases with a tidy sum of upfront costs , push many to commence consider the robotics - as - a - service ( RaaS ) rental model .
Uncertain times are no doubt a major cause of caution . Manufacturing keep on to be the key driver for mechanisation , and as the economy struggle in 2023 , many postponed plan to purchase new cars . The chip famine also stay on to bottleneck production in the first half of the yr . Automotive manufacturing automaton — which make just over half the full number — visit a 34 % driblet for the year .
Non - self-propelled robots fair only slightly well last year , dropping 25 % . agree to A3 , metal electronics manufacturing , nutrient / consumer , aesculapian and plastics / safe saw the largest demand outside of automotive for the year .
A3 President of the United States Jeff Burnstein light upon a hopeful Federal Reserve note , put forward , “ While robotic sales were down over the yr , 2023 end with both an gain over the old fourth part and a most equal number of sales from automotive and non - automotive caller . Both are promising house that more industries are becoming increasingly comfortable with mechanization overall . While we expect to see automotive orders rebel again , there ’s little doubt that orders will increase from all non - self-propelling industry as they spot how golem can help them overcome their unique challenges . ”
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Certainly there are economical factor driving potential sale , going forrard , including many industries ’ stated hire issues . But the unconscious process of adopting automation for the first sentence is rife with get pain , and in some case the promise of new robotics technologies is n’t mature enough for meaningful widescale adoption .
Robots , on the other hand , are a common sight in automotive manufacturing , which has a decades - long brain set forth on the ease of the diligence . factor out in slow EV purchase has meaningfully impacted the overall name .
