Kunal Shah, PhD, President, LiloTree

If necessity is the mother of invention, the Covid-19 pandemic will be the catalyst for a great deal innovation. Supply chain disruption, material shortages, and changing labor dynamics present new challenges. In particular, we have seen strong push for automated and autonomous solutions that support manufacturing.

The global pandemic changed the equation when considering greater automation in manufacturing. What was a "nice to have" option to manually operated tools has become a necessity as well as an opportunity. Automation can reduce demands on labor, freeing talented staff to focus on the most productive tasks. The combination of labor shortages resulting from the "great resignation" and the "skills gap" that exists among the available talent has changed equation for calculating ROI (return on investment), making automation even more attractive.

Implementing automation helps address both labor shortages and the skills gap. It can also improve employee retention and job satisfaction by automating dangerous or monotonous tasks. Further, automation can help insulate an operation from the impacts of a future pandemic. By reducing staff, social distancing can be much easier and smart tools makes remote work even more productive.

I'm bullish on the future of manufacturing, especially domestically. While the pandemic was disruptive, it allowed us to understand where to and how and why to automate. It allowed us to experiment in places we wouldn't before. With that came mistakes and wins, and important lessons learned in very short order. It's been a unique generational opportunity to learn a decade's worth in 18 months.