There Is Not Enough Skilled Labor for the Factories Being Built

Matthew Chang has a direct answer for manufacturers planning new capacity. The workers to staff it are not there.

Interviewed by Jane King about physical AI and reshoring, the founder and principal of Chang Robotics put it this way:

It's also a human capital move because we are already short on manufacturing workforce and skilled trades in this country. We're reshoring at record pace. There is no way to bridge the gap unless all the new factories come online are automated and the existing factories start walking down a path towards automation.

Note who he includes. It is not only the new plants. The factories already running have to start moving too.

Why the pressure is worse than usual

Asked what he is seeing from companies on the ground, Matt described something he has not seen before in his career:

Everything is taking off at once. I've never seen it in my career. I've only done manufacturing and factory construction my whole career. Typically, you have one big industry. Could be aviation leads the way or pharmaceutical leads the way. What we have right now is every industry vertical is taking off at the same time. And so, that's putting a lot of pressure, especially because we have this AI compute happening at same time. We need data centers and we need factories.

Data centers and factories draw on the same steel and the same electrical components, and both are being built right now.

The inputs are tightening

Asked how a company knows when to start, Matt's answer was about securing what you need before it gets harder to get:

The biggest thing is you have to build your team now. So, there's only so many teams like mine out there in the country that can lead you to a premier advanced manufacturing facility. You better go ahead and get your team locked down. Supply chains are stretching out. It's hard to get the electrical components. It's reset, but you can't get steel for a building anymore. We're constrained on that.

And on timing:

These supply chain bottlenecks are going to keep stacking up. So, my advice to any company thinking about it is get started now. The speed you go is up to the business, but as long as you have your plan lined out, you can hit the accelerator anytime you want.

What having a plan lined out means

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?

The output is a written study you can take to your management to justify the next step.

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. Restoring American manufacturing, one factory at a time.

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Watch the full interview with Matt Chang, interviewed by Jane King.