Tag: small business

OM in the News: AI-Based Robots

Should companies deploy robots at their plant if they could virtually reprogram themselves to perform new and different tasks, asks Industry Week (May 13, 2026)? We’re nearly at the end of the AI hype cycle, when suggestions for how to leverage the technology become less flashy and more realistic.

Now Siemens has just revealed Eigen, an AI agent that can replace manual coding or programming for programmable logic controllers, distributed control systems, and robotics applications, updating code or instructions to reflect new priorities and goals.

Siemens says that engineering and reconfigurations constitute 70% of the entire lifecycle cost of a robot. If, however, an AI agent like Eigen can shorten the time needed to make these adjustments, it makes the robot more efficient, and small and medium-sized businesses might be better able to afford deploying the technology.

“There’s a kind of new age of automation arising, because with AI assistance to program robots and PLCs, it means you could suddenly automate much smaller lot sizes on a good return of investment,” says the firm’s CEO of its automation division.

Eigen can help manufacturers deal with a lack of coders and programmers. Another Siemens exec adds “We don’t attract the best of the programmers to the manufacturing floor. … So getting programmers to come and code our controllers or robotic systems? That was a scale up bottleneck. Bringing in AI to reprogram things, reprogram the whole process, will be more game changing in the U.S. than in Germany, where I see when people with Master’s degrees on the manufacturing floor, which is not the case in the U.S. Humans must always remain in the loop, however. Agentic AI is like an orchestra and humans the conductors.”

In short, Eigen acts as an AI-agent that handles the tedious, expensive back-end coding of robotics, making automation flexible, cheaper and more accessible to smaller firms.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. What is Eigen‘s role?
  2. What is the roadblock to more robotic use in small manufacturers?

OM in the News: Supply Woes Hit Small Businesses

An Oklahoma restaurant is paying nearly $200 for a case of gloves that normally costs $40. A medical-device maker in Colorado is tweaking the way it manufactures its products to offset higher plastic costs. A clothing wholesaler in Michigan has hundreds of hoodies it has yet to sell because winter was over by the time they arrived from Bangladesh.

The supply-chain disruptions rippling across the business world are taking a heavy toll on small U.S. companies, which have fewer resources to absorb or push back on price increases and less leverage to pass along the higher costs to customers.

supply chains

Forty-four percent of small businesses reported temporary shortages or other supply-chain problems in March, reports The Wall Street Journal (April 22, 2021). A U.S. Census Bureau survey of small businesses found supply-chain disruptions in wholesale trade, manufacturing and construction, among others.

Multiple forces are driving supply-chain woes, from coronavirus infections among employees and temporary business closures to increased demand as vaccines take hold and restrictions ease. A backlog at California ports, the temporary closure of the Suez Canal and weather-related problems have created additional challenges. Smaller companies typically have less sophisticated purchasing departments than larger corporations.

Delays can be particularly troublesome for small businesses selling seasonal goods. B&S Activewear, a Warren, Mich., clothing wholesaler, was still receiving shipments of zip-up hoodies and other winter apparel from Bangladesh in April, roughly two months later than expected. B&S has tried to speed up delivery by shipping goods via UPS Air Freight, at a cost of $8,000 for 72 boxes of T-shirts, more than 10 times the cost of sending the same items by boat.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1.  What supply chain advantages do billion dollar companies have over small businesses?
  2. What advantages do small businesses have?