automation – The OM Blog by Heizer, Render, & Munson

OM in the News: AI Is Mining Our Trash for Treasure

Here’s a job the computers can take without much complaint: sorting recyclables. For humans, it is a foul, laborious job that entails standing over a conveyor belt, plucking beer cans and detergent bottles from a stream of refuse. The job pays little and is hard to fill.

At one recycling facility near Hartford, machines are taking over the dirtiest jobs, reports The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 8, 2026). A few workers remain on the line, mostly to watch for hazardous items. Otherwise, the system of conveyors, magnets, optical sorters and pneumatic blocks runs largely unmanned. The technology allows them to sort up to 60 tons an hour of curbside recycling into precisely sorted bales of paper, plastic, aluminum cans and other materials. The material is sold to mills, manufacturers and remelt facilities, which pay more for cleaner bales.

AI is used to instantly spot recyclables and send instructions to machinery down the line at to remove them.

Watching over it all are computers that analyze material as it passes by at 7 mph. The devices use AI to identify recyclables, flag food-grade material, gauge items’ mass, assess market value and calculate points at which a robotic claw might best clasp each piece.

The U.S. 50% aluminum tariff has lifted demand for scrap metal, while pulp mill closures have left box makers more reliant than ever on old corrugated containers. And consumer goods companies want to reclaim their bottles as states adopt extended producer responsibility laws aimed at reducing plastic pollution.

Part of the problem: Americans’ poor recycling habits are an obstacle to profit. A lot of beer cans and delivery boxes never even make it to sorting centers. A study in Virginia’s waste stream showed that 28% was recyclable, yet the system was stuck at a recycling rate of about 7% no matter how much it spent trying to teach people how and what to recycle.

The big breakthrough in recycling technology has been combining vision recognition systems with pneumatic blocks. Using puffs of air to separate items has proved much faster and more accurate than robotic pickers, which are limited to about 40 items a minute, compared with thousands for pneumatic system.

Classroom discussion questions:

Why has recycling been so inefficient?
Should job loss through automation be a concern?

Guest Post: Sharpie’s U.S. Comeback– A Masterclass in OM

Prof. Jon Jackson is Associate Professor of OM at Providence College. He created AI classroom exercises–appearing in our Instructors Resource Manual– for every chapter of the text.

Newell Brands (the parent company for Sharpie markers) just revealed how it revitalized one of America’s most iconic writing tools through strategic operations management. The company invested $2 billion to bring production of Sharpie pens back to its Tennessee plant, leveraging automation, workforce empowerment, and supply chain redesign to lower costs while keeping prices stable. It serves as a powerful illustration of how operational excellence can become a source of strategic advantage.

For decades, manufacturing strategy centered on offshoring—moving production to lower-cost countries to chase labor savings. Newell flipped that logic. By reshoring Sharpie production, it bet on process innovation through automation, reports The Wall Street Journal (Oct. 6, 2025). The Tennessee plant now produces pens up to 4 times faster than before, thanks to robots and computer-vision systems that detect defects in real time. (The factory operates around the clock, making 1.8 million fine-tip Sharpies a day). Newell also reengineered workflows, balanced production lines, and embedded quality control directly into the process.

A common fear associated with automation is job loss. Sharpie’s story shows an alternative path. Rather than cutting staff, Newell retrained workers for higher-skill roles such as robotics support, maintenance, and technical troubleshooting. These new roles led to average wages increasing by nearly 50%.

Bringing production back to the U.S. also reshaped Newell’s supply chain. Domestic production reduced lead times, transportation costs, and exposure to global disruptions and geopolitical risks. In doing so, Newell gained not only cost efficient but also greater agility and control over its operations.

While not every company can afford a $2 billion operational overhaul, Sharpie’s success underscores a broader lesson: sustainable cost advantage often comes from process innovation and continuous improvement, not from chasing the lowest labor costs.

Classroom Discussion Questions:

Why did Newell’s decision to reshore Sharpie production make sense strategically, even though U.S. labor costs are higher?
What other “simple” products could benefit from following Newell’s operational strategy to reshore?

OM in the News: Amazon Is on the Cusp of Using More Robots Than Humans

The automation of Amazon facilities is approaching a new milestone: There will soon be as many robots as humans. The e-commerce giant, which has spent years automating tasks previously done by humans in its facilities, has deployed more than one million robots in those workplaces, reports The Wall Street Journal (July 1, 2025). That is the most it has ever had and near the count of human workers at the facilities.

Company warehouses buzz with metallic arms plucking items from shelves and wheeled droids that motor around the floors ferrying the goods for packaging. In other corners, automated systems help sort the items, which other robots assist in packaging for shipment.

One of Amazon’s newer robots, called Vulcan, has a sense of touch that enables it to pick items from numerous shelves. Amazon has taken recent steps to connect its robots to its order-fulfillment processes, so the machines can work in tandem with each other and with humans. Now some 75% of Amazon’s global deliveries are assisted in some way by robotics. The growing automation has helped Amazon improve productivity, while easing pressure on the company to solve problems such as heavy staff turnover at its fulfillment centers.

For some Amazon workers, the increasing automation has meant replacing menial, repetitive work lifting, pulling and sorting with more skilled assignments managing the machines. Amazon has trained more than 700,000 workers across the world for higher-paying jobs in mechatronics and robotics apprenticeships.

The number of packages that Amazon ships itself per employee each year has also steadily increased in the past decade to 3,870 from 175, an indication of the company’s productivity gains.

Amazon is also rolling out artificial intelligence in its warehouses to improve inventory placement, demand forecasting, and the efficiency of its robots. Amazon said it will cut the size of its total workforce in the next several years.

Classroom discussion questions:

Research Amazon’s history of using robotics.
What are the advantages of introducing more robots?

OM in the News: Why Is It So Difficult for Robots to Make Your Nike Sneakers?

It took Nike 8 months to figure out how to automate a way to put the Nike swish on a shoe, only to move onto a new shoe line for which the method no longer worked.

A yearslong effort by Nike to shift part of its manufacturing from China, Indonesia and Vietnam to North America illustrates how tough it is for U.S. brands to wean themselves off the flexible, low-cost contract manufacturers.

In 2015, Nike poured millions into an ambitious effort to partly automate what has always been a highly labor-intensive industry. At the time, rising labor costs in China and advances in manufacturing techniques opened the possibility of finding a new way to make shoes that would rely on fewer workers. The goal: Make tens of millions of sneakers at a new high-tech manufacturing site in Mexico, by 2023.

The plant would still include thousands of workers, but far fewer than are needed in Asia to make the same number of sneakers. Nike’s competitors also sensed an opportunity to rethink a manufacturing model built around hand stitched fabrics and glued soles. The same year, Under Armour announced “Project Glory” using automation to make shoes in Baltimore. And Adidas launched “speedfactories” in Atlanta and Germany, with high-tech machinery to quickly spit out shoes, which we blogged about then.

Nike aimed for large-scale automated production in under a decade, which would save on labor costs and allow it to deliver new models of shoes to Americans faster. It established new production lines that used machines commonly seen in electronics manufacturing. The machines were supposed to build the upper part of a shoe, knit fabric, add logos and glue the sole.

The effort quickly ran into trouble, reports The Wall Street Journal (April 22, 2025). The robots struggled to handle the soft, squishy and stretchy parts that are integral to shoemaking. Another problem was the huge variety of shoes Nike produces. As a result, factory production never became as automated as envisioned. As shoe production increased, the factory personnel swelled to 5,000, twice as many as originally planned and costing more than a similar workforce in Vietnam.

All three firms surrendered in 2019 and stuck with their original Asian locations.

Classroom discussion questions:

Will the threat of new tariffs mean they will ultimately have to bring shoe production back to the U.S.?
Why the failure for all three firms?

OM in the News: The U.S. Made T-Shirt

The U.S. is awash in a sea of cheap imports that has destroyed much of the domestic apparel industry. In 2023, less than 4% of the apparel purchased in America was made here, reports The Wall Street Journal (Dec. 31, 2024). Then, there is Walmart, whose aisles are piled high with goods this holiday season. But one item sticks out: cotton T-shirts that were made in America and cost $12.98.

It wasn’t tariffs that made the $12.98 shirt economically feasible, says the CEO of American Giant, the U.S. apparel company producing them. It was Walmart’s heft—and guaranteed orders. The country’s biggest retailer—and importer of consumer goods—pledged in 2013 to buy more items that were made, grown or assembled in the U.S. In 2021, Walmart increased its goal and promised to spend billions more each year through 2030.

American Giant said that without Walmart acting as a backstop by committing to buy a predetermined number of shirts over time, American Giant’s suppliers wouldn’t have had the confidence to make the investments in automation and other upgrades that drove down production costs. The company buys yarn that is grown, spun, dyed and sewn in the U.S., contracting with suppliers mainly in the Southeast. It also owns cutting and sewing facilities in N. Carolina and Los Angeles.

How did American Giant get the price down from the $40-$60 it usually charges for a T-Shirt? By automating parts of the process to keep labor costs low, it was able to compete with countries such as Vietnam and China where workers are paid a fraction of the U.S. minimum wage.

“You can make almost anything here, as long as it doesn’t require lots of labor,” says the CEO. To fulfill Walmart’s order for hundreds of thousands of shirts, the company tweaked the design and then spent $1 million on machinery designed to make production faster and more efficient.

The T-shirts arrived in 1,700 Walmart stores and were up against other 100% cotton T-shirts selling for half as much. But those shirts didn’t have any American emblems. Walmart bars suppliers from using the term “American Made” or the American flag on products that aren’t made in the U.S. Despite the success of American Giant and a handful of other apparel companies that have figured out how to produce domestically, it is unclear how much Americans care about buying products made in the U.S.

Classroom discussion questions:

Could American Giant have reshored without Walmart?
What are the key OM decisions that were made?

OM Podcast #26: Operations Management at the Port of Philadelphia

In this latest podcast Barry Render interviews Dominic O’Brien, an executive at the Port of Philadelphia–called Philaport. Dominic and Barry discuss why the port system is so important to supply chains in the US and worldwide.

Heizer Render OM Podcast · OM Podcast #26: Operations at the Port of Philadelphia

Transcript

A Word document of this podcast will download by clicking the word Transcript above.

Did you know our podcast is now available on Apple podcasts? Just go to your Apple podcasts app, search “Heizer Render OM Podcast,” and subscribe to get all our podcasts on your mobile device as soon as they come out!

Instructors, assignable auto-graded exercises using this podcast are available in MyLab OM. See our earlier blog post with a recording of author and user Chuck Munson to learn how to find these, or contact your Pearson rep to learn more! https://www.pearson.com/en-us/help-and-support/contact-us/find-a-rep.html

OM in the News: The Port Strike and Automation

An economically devastating port strike was averted last week after a 3-day work stoppage. Dockworkers secured a 62% pay raise, but the central dispute was never solely about wages, even though the tentative deal that averted the strike will result in dockworkers at the NY-NJ port earning more than $500,000 a year on average.

Port automation could ease supply chains

The ocean carriers, which pay the bills at U.S. ports, can perhaps afford that level of increase. What they can’t afford, and the U.S. economy can’t either, is a ban on the future use of automated cargo-handling technology at ports along the East and Gulf coasts. “Absolute, airtight language that there will be no automation or semi-automation” remains a key demand of the Longshoremen’s union that still must be negotiated ahead of a new Jan. deadline.

Why is this such a crucial issue, and why do port managers adamantly oppose the demand? The key reason is the need to create future port capacity. Since the U.S. is building new port facilities at a snail’s pace, the only way to expand capacity is by handling more cargo more quickly through existing facilities. The only way to do that is with automated cargo handling.

The lack of automation in the U.S.—only 3 port facilities are fully automated, all on the West Coast—exposes ports as an Achilles’ heel of U.S. trade competitiveness. High costs and inefficiency have long been the status quo. Not one U.S. port ranks in the top 50 globally in productivity, reports The Wall Street Journal (Oct. 8, 2024). Charleston is the highest at No. 53. The consequence of low port productivity is that “instead of facilitating trade, the port increases the cost of imports and exports, reduces competitiveness, and inhibits economic growth,” says the World Bank.

The purpose of automation isn’t to lower costs by replacing workers with machines but to increase it within existing port footprints to accommodate growth. The fully automated Long Beach Container Terminal can handle 12,000 to 15,000 20-foot equivalent units per acre per year versus 1/2 that at a nonautomated terminal.

Classroom discussion questions:

What are the top-ranked ports in the world and how does the U.S. differ from them?
What can the U.S. do to be more competitive?

OM in the News: Meet The Robot Butcher

Meatpacking jobs can be some of the toughest, bloodiest and most dangerous around, and companies such as Smithfield, Tyson Foods, and Cargill have long struggled to fully staff slaughterhouses and processing plants. Workers might have to stand for hours a day, often in cold temperatures, repeatedly slicing livestock carcasses on fast-moving processing lines or moving heavy boxes of frozen meat. The companies have sought for years to recruit enough workers and to run their plants at full strength.

A system at Cargill’s beef-processing plant scans meat for bones and other undesirable materials as it passes through the production line

So meatpackers are increasingly looking to robots for help, writes The Wall Street Journal (April 10, 2024). Smithfield, the largest U.S. pork processor, began rolling out automated rib pullers at its pork plants several years ago, which company officials said helps leave less wasted meat on the bone and relieves workers from some of the industry’s most physically demanding jobs—allowing workers to be reassigned from pulling loins or ribs to food-quality inspection jobs.

Taking hourly workers off the processing line and training them to work with robots that require more technical skills can be challenging for meat companies and employees. Tyson is working with a local community colleges to create a pipeline of potential workers.

Tyson has installed more computers and X-ray inspection technology throughout its facilities to detect bones and other undesirable materials in products. Cargill now operates automated rib-chine saws that cleave off the spine from the carcass, and machine hock-cutters that chop the front off shanks, the part of the leg between the knee and the beef carcass. (Automation has been an industry ambition for some time, especially among processors of chickens—which tend to be smaller, more uniform in size and easier for a machine to handle).

Classroom discussion questions:

Why is staffing so difficult at meat packers?
Identify other potential applications of technology in this industry.

OM Podcast #15: Automation, AI, and Operations at Frito-Lay

In the latest podcast, Barry interviews Tom Rao, Senior Vice President of US Field Operations for Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo. Tom and Barry discuss various operations improvements at Frito-Lay, general plans for how Frito-Lay plans to utilize AI to support the business, and how Frito-Lay is addressing the challenge around labor shortages.

HRM Podcast · OM Podcast 15 (1/29/24) – Operations at Frito-Lay

Transcript

A Word document of this podcast will download by clicking the word Transcript above.

OM in the News: Robots Are Looking Better to Detroit

United Auto Workers (UAW) members recently approved a labor contract with Ford, General Motors, and Jeep maker Stellantis that included a record 25% wage increase over 4 years and marked the sharpest labor-cost increase for the companies in recent memory. The auto makers did avoid a strike, but the longer term cost was great, reports The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 15, 2024).

Robots weld the body of a Model Y EV at a Tesla factory

The effect from the deals in Detroit quickly rippled through the industry, with Toyota, Hyundai and other nonunionized automakers increasing wages to stay competitive. The contracts were richer than Detroit had planned for, and the auto makers are strategizing ways to blunt the increased costs. Ford said the new terms would add $900 in cost per vehicle by 2028.

So the firms are looking to an old friend to help offset rising labor costs: robots. For decades, car companies increased automation inside their factories. Now, they are looking even more seriously at this approach, to address the rising labor bill and take advantage of more sophisticated technology. Competition from newcomers like Tesla, which has been more aggressive in deploying robots, is also nudging more traditional auto manufacturers in this direction.

The global auto industry is a top consumer of robots, having installed 136,000 new industrial robotic units in 2022. Often these so-called cobots work alongside workers to access hard-to-reach spots or perform tasks that are particularly physically demanding.

Dozens of new battery and EV plants in the works will also open the door to broader use of high-tech systems. It is easier and less costly to install robots in a new facility versus retrofitting an existing one. Plus, it is more streamlined to have updated systems that “speak” to each other smoothly, as opposed to popping in a new machine among older ones.

The UAW may have attained major wage increases, but the trend is making its members nervous about the prospect of machines replacing jobs. “The companies have used technology as a way to cut jobs instead of interjecting robots and technology to make our jobs easier,” says the UAW president.

There are risks to automating. Adding robots to a process for the first time can introduce quality problems. And whatever machines gain in terms of productivity can be zeroed out by the needed personnel to fix or program robots.

Classroom discussion questions:
1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of robotics in the auto industry.
2. What is Tesla’s edge?

OM in the News: Walmart’s Warehouse of the Future

Leland Geiger transitioned from unloading trucks manually to using an autonomous forklift

Walmart is in the process of automating or partially automating many of its hundred-plus U.S. warehouses in the coming years. The shift means Walmart can use fewer people to process more goods and make stocking shelves at stores more efficient. To keep their jobs, many of the company’s tens of thousands of warehouse workers need to retrain for new roles. Some will leave. Warehouses will also need to hire people with new skills, such as technicians.

Large companies such as Walmart and Amazon that rely on massive warehousing networks have worked for years to automate more of their supply chains to increase the volume of packages they can process and reduce labor costs, writes The Wall Street Journal (July 29, 2023). Because of Walmart’s scale, its plan to make automation standard in more of its supply chain is likely to affect how smaller competitors invest in their own facilities and what a U.S. warehouse job becomes.

“What this technology does for us is increases capacity, increases the accuracy of our loads, increases the speed of the supply chain and lowers cost,” said the VP of supply chain for Walmart. It is “also completely reshaping the way that our associates work within the distribution center.”

In Walmart’s Central Florida warehouse, as sections of robotic arms and screens are gradually installed across the more than 1–million–square-foot facility, some of its 900 workers say they are skeptical about transitioning to new roles that require different skills. Transferring from unloading trucks manually to what Walmart calls an “automated cell operator” is easier physically but harder mentally.

Skepticism and fear of layoffs among workers are common when a warehouse first transitions to automation. Many workers are excited about a new challenge, but others leave. Employers automate, in part, to cut labor costs, so losing some workers during the process helps avoid the need for layoffs. At warehouses, managers are emphasizing that the new roles require less manual labor and offer more mental stimulation and potential longevity. Some of the jobs offer a pathway to higher-paying automation roles such as systems operators.

Classroom discussion questions:

What are the advantages of an automated warehouse such as the one in Florida?
Disadvantages?

OM in the News: Robots Bringing a Human Touch to Warehouses

“Humanoid robots are on their way to warehouses as companies start to move beyond the disembodied arms, moving trays and other machines aimed at speeding up logistics operations,” writes The Wall Street Journal (June 13, 2023).

Agility’s Digit robot has ‘eyes’ that show people where it’s going

Agility Robotics, Figure AI and Boston Dynamics are among companies designing robots more closely modeled on human beings for use in distribution centers. The new machines are being engineered with the ability to walk around warehouses, reach items high on shelves, crouch to put things down and pick up and move boxes, defying some of the prior physical limits on automation. The devices are intended to help warehouse operators mitigate labor shortfalls and eliminate the need to redesign warehouses to match the capabilities of machines.

Logistics operators have been adding automation to their warehouses for years to speed up the stacking and retrieving of goods and to take some of the most burdensome, repetitive tasks off workers. Many of the devices are designed to work in concert with employees by taking on tasks such as hauling heavy goods or bringing totes of items directly to workers. Humanoid robots take that automation a step further, seeking to stand in place of a human employee.

Agility Robotics, which has received funding from Amazon, has made a human-shaped robot called Digit that is teal, silver and black with white animated eyes. (Click here for an 11 second video).The device stands 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 141 pounds and can carry up to 35 pounds. Its humanlike shape gives Digit the ability to just walk into existing infrastructure and existing workflows and start to do tasks. The robot is designed to take on jobs warehouse operators have trouble hiring people to do, including repetitive roles like loading and unloading storage containers.

Some companies, seeking to address labor shortages and rising labor costs, have moved toward building warehouses that are entirely automated, known as dark warehouses. That level of automation can cost tens of millions of dollars.

The humanoid robots do need breaks, even if not for the same reasons as humans. Digit can operate for 2 hours with a 1-hour charge. That is well short of an 8-hour shift, but the machine is meant to work as part of a fleet, where two robots work while one charges.

Classroom discussion questions:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of these “humanoid robots”?
Can these robots replace warehouse workers totally?

OM in the News: McDonald’s Unveils First Automated Location

McDonald’s opened its first automated restaurant, with machines handling everything from taking orders to delivering the food – and dividing opinions everywhere, reports Fox Business (Dec. 24, 2022).

Guest Post: Shoe Capital of the World

Our Guest Post comes from Prof. Howard Weiss, who created the ExcelOM and POM software that we provide free to our readers.

Lynn Massachusetts In colonial days shoemakers had a capacity of roughly 5 shoes–not pairs–per day. The industrial revolution moved shoe manufacturing to factories, increasing capacity to 50 pairs per day. In 1883, Jan Matzeliger of Lynn, Massachusetts patented a machine that would use a wooden mold to form the leather top of the shoe and then attach it to the bottom. The new machine replaced this step (called lasting) which was performed by hand by skilled shoemakers. And it increased the capacity to 750 pairs per day while reducing the price of shoes by 50%.

Figure 8.1 of your Heizer/Render/Munson textbook mentions several factors for a successful location which we examine now with respect to shoe manufacturing.

Labor talent Due to the continuous flow of skilled shoemakers into the state, 234 shoe manufacturers chose Lynn as their location and manufactured over 1,000,000 pairs per day. This made Lynn the Shoe Manufacturing Capital of the World. The state of Massachusetts produced more shoes than anywhere else in the U.S. through World War I.

Leon, Mexico Today, however, over 90% of shoes bought in the U.S. are not manufactured here. One of the major manufacturing locations is Leon, in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico which currently has over 3,000 shoe manufacturers including Nike, Converse, Crocs, Skechers and New Balance. This makes Leon the current Shoe Manufacturing Capital of the World. There are several reasons for this:

Location of markets Leon is located roughly 250 miles northwest of Mexico City and has easy highway access to other cities in Mexico and to the U.S. through the 45 U.S.-Mexico border crossings. Mexico’s infrastructure is in excellent shape as are its highways. Shipments by truck to the U.S. take no more than 3 days, and to Latin America no more than 7 days. Guanajuato has an international airport with flights to cities in Mexico and L.A., Houston, Chicago and Dallas. Shipments to Europe take less than 2 weeks.

Labor talent again Mexico has had large influx of skilled leatherworkers from Europe.

Proximity to raw materials/supply chain One of the key materials needed to manufacture shoes is leather and there are nearly 700 leather tanneries in Guanajuato providing this raw material.

Classroom discussion questions:

What major manufacturer or service organization is located near your home or school and what were the factors for selecting that location?
What is the effect of NAFTA in selling shoes manufactured in Mexico in the United States?

OM in the News: Easing Worker Shortages with Automation

We used to ask whether robots will take over the jobs of humans. But that’s not quite the right question in 2022, as finding workers to fill the large number of jobs currently open in manufacturing is almost impossible. “There aren’t enough workers,” says a 3M exec. “And it’s not just large factories with low mix and high volume that are seeing this, it’s also medium-sized and small companies. Everyone is looking to automation to bridge the worker shortage.”

Operations managers are getting the message and in 2021, factories and other industrial users ordered 39,708 robots (valued at over $2 billion), a 28% increase from 2020. While robots have been in auto plants for a long time, orders from non-automotive companies now represent 58% of the North American totals.

A breakdown of industry orders is as follows:

Food and Consumer Goods: up 29%
Semiconductors and Electronics/Photonics: up 2%
Plastics and Rubber: up 4%
Life Sciences/Pharma/Biomed: up 4%
All Other Industries: up 65%

“There is a process we use to engage the operators and manufacturing employees to get them ready for automation,” says 3M. “It’s never about a 1-1 replacement of a worker. We explain that if someone was doing a certain job and now the robot will do the job, the employee can learn how to operate them and troubleshoot them. This leads to a higher pay grade. It can be a real win-win situation.”

The skills of the workforce have been changing over the past few years, reports Industry Week (March 10, 2022). Manufacturing has tended to pay higher wages than the service sector and is seeing an increasing portion of operators having either associate degrees, technical degrees, or even bachelors degrees. The upskilling of talent was underscored by a 2021 study from the World Economic Forum that predicted that automation would result in an increase of 58 million jobs. And two-thirds of the jobs transformed by automation will become higher-skilled.

These differing degrees of education are going to be essential as U.S. manufacturing will grow. Given the recent supply chain problems, we will see an increase of more companies producing products in the U.S. and automation will play a key role. So it’s an important tool for companies. Contrary to the belief that automation is taking jobs away, it’s automation that will keep companies competitive, and stay in business and protect jobs.

Classroom discussion questions:

Why does 3M say that robots will not replace workers? Is that true in all industries?
Why are manufacturing companies looking for better educated employees?