NOVI, Michigan — As manufacturing companies search far and wide for employees to enter plants — and stay — many employers are automating jobs via collaborative robots, or "cobots" in hopes of filing staffing shortages and freeing employees to handle more meaningful tasks.

Like Emerson, a manufacturer of made-to-order material for refineries or other companies with factories. The St. Louis-based company employs cobots, costing upwards of six figures, to take on a dull task: palletizing various-sized flat boxes as well as opening boxes, taping them together and presenting them to a human who would fill it with items.

"It saves space, it saves time, and a lot of money," said Donald Bergquist, principal advanced manufacturing engineer at Emerson. By having a cobot lift boxes instead of an employee, for example, saves his company hazard and injury situations that can be more costly than a cobot.

One example: A Universal Robots UR30 cobot kit, with a 51.2-inch reach and the capability to lift 66 pounds, lists for $68,000 on olympus-controls.com.

Cobots, or collaborative robots, are designed to work safely alongside humans in shared workspaces like automotive assembly lines where employers say turnover rates are high. Stellantis NV, for example, uses cobots in its North America manufacturing facilities to deliver parts to the assembly line and facilitate operations with high cycle times.

Cobots are a lucrative business that’s projected to grow substantially over the next five years, according to Grand View Research. The San Francisco-based market research and consulting company estimates the industry’s value at $2.1 billion in 2024 and projects growth of 31.6% between now and 2030.

The interest in this technology was on full display Tuesday at Suburban Collection Showplace, where more than 300 Michigan manufacturers scouted out collaborative robots to add to their assembly lines and other production processes during the Collaborate North America 2025 convention, sponsored by cobot maker Universal Robots.

Growth in the use of cobots comes as employee recruitment and retention remains a key concern for manufacturers. According to a survey done in the third quarter of 2024 by the National Association of Manufacturers, nearly 60% of employers cited "attracting and retaining a quality workforce" as a primary business challenge.

"The types of tasks that robots do, generally, they're dull jobs, dirty or dangerous jobs that people don't want to do," said Jeff Burnstein, president of Ann Arbor's Advancement for Automation Association. "And so companies have a hard time finding people to do those kinds of jobs."

Welding, machine tending, painting, assembly, screwdriving, palletizing commercial goods and more applications can be programmed on cobots and used for industries such as aerospace and pharmaceuticals.

"Oftentimes we find the robot is actually allowing the person to do a better job. ... I can do something that allows me to use my brain more (like) oversee the system, which is oftentimes, a better, safer and higher-paying job, so we don't see robots as replacements for people," Burnstein said.

"The biggest threat to jobs that we saw in Michigan ... is when companies go out of business because they can't compete any longer ... or they decide to ship manufacturing jobs overseas to China. And what happened then is we lost a whole bunch of jobs because we chose to go that route instead of automating," he said.

"How do we restore some of those jobs? How do we bring back manufacturing to the U.S.? And really one of the only ways you can do it is by being highly automated, because you have to compete on quality, consistency, productivity, and automation allows companies to do that."

The automotive industry was one of the first to adopt industrial robotics, which employers say makes it easier for employees to transition to working alongside collaborative robots. Industrial robots are larger devices that handle heavier materials in safety cages that keep them separated from workers.

Retail and restaurant industries may need more time to introduce workers to robotics and automation as they may be concerned about how automation may impact them, Burnstein said.

At the same time, growth in demand for cobots increases the need for people with the skills to develop the devices.

"There are people who are looking right now who can't find people to work in robotics .... the companies that supply the technology, the company that integrates the technology and the end users themselves," Burnstein said. "They need skilled people. There aren't enough of them available. It's true throughout the country, not just in Michigan."

Universal Robots has sold roughly 30,000 cobots in the U.S. David Cappellani, a regional account manager for the company, said the devices are meant to complement human workforces, not replace them.

"A lot of these end-users are looking at: 'How do we take these people who are very capable and use them on something even more valuable?' So it's not about 'Hey we're trying to cut our force,' they just can't find enough people," he said. "It's about trying to fill that gap."

Mike Szesterniak, Midwest area sales manager for the company, said the cobots can increase efficiency while filling employment gaps.

"Welding is one of the first industries where we saw a labor shortage with just people not going into that trade anymore," he said. "You've got an aging workforce... there aren't many kids coming out of high school saying they want to do welding, or any trade really."

Welders, for instance, set the cobot to perform up to 50 to 60 welds a day by simply programming it, Szesterniak said.

"It's really taking their expertise and it's a force multiplier," he said.

Bergquist, the Emerson engineer, said cobots maximize employees' skills and expertise.

"I want people doing 'peopley' things ... just sitting applying glue to something for hours is not something that a person desires to do," he said. "We use the cobot today right next to people. A person uses it as a tool, they work side by side with it.

He concluded: "We rely on our people that are on the production floors to understand what they're building and to be able to do pretty complex tasks that robots aren't good at. When they have to think, (use) dexterity and (handle) every unit being different then the one before and after it, that's where we rely on people. We want to use these tools to support what they need to do."

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