Nobody Is Building a New Plant Without Automation (Matthew Chang on Cheddar)

For most of the last decade, a factory owner who wanted robots had to justify them. Matthew Chang says that is no longer how the decision gets made.

Speaking with Arnold Davick on Cheddar about reshoring, the CEO of Chang Robotics described the shift this way:

We went from, even five or six years ago, automation was cost-justified, so every time a factory owner invested in robots, they had to come up with a financial reason why it made sense. Today, in 2026 automation is the base case. So nobody is building a new plant without doing a full robotic implementation and traditional automation.

The burden moved. Automation is no longer the thing that has to earn its place in a plan.

Why the math changed

The big reasons are you've got the tariffs, which are leading to massive reshoring. We're seeing the factory numbers really start to surge up across every sector. And then the other reason is the workforce. There just is not enough workforce to go around to be factory operators. So to keep your factory running, you have to install automation so you can still get the product out the door.

Note the last line. He is not describing automation as a way to grow output. He is describing it as a condition of keeping the plant running at all.

Who works in a plant like that

Asked what the next generation of US factories looks like, Matt's answer was about the people in them:

Instead of the idea of having a factory operator, which might be a production line manager or a forklift driver, what you're gonna have is you're gonna have a team of technicians that run a factory that's already fully automated, and that team of technicians will understand the nuance of all the software and communication systems, the robotic systems that are in the building, and they're gonna be the ones with the expertise to keep it running.

That is a different job description, and it is a different hiring plan.

Where to start

A feasibility study is where that work starts. Before anyone specifies a robot, we study how your operation actually runs and answer three questions.

• Does automation make sense here?
• If it does, where and at what scale?
• What would it cost, and what would it return?

Some areas of a plant are not ready for automation, and we will tell you when that is the case.

How we work

Chang Robotics is vendor agnostic. We choose the technology that fits your floor, your people, and your operations, and we provide a performance guarantee on every system we design and build.

Restoring American manufacturing, one factory at a time.

---

Watch the full interview with Matthew Chang, interviewed by Arnold Davick on Cheddar.