Key findings from the ABB Robotics 2021 Automation Survey

1

Companies using robots are seeing a variety of business benefits

Of the 1,014 respondents that answered yes to the question:

‘Does your business currently use robots or robotics?’, all reported seeing a wide variety of business benefits, with improvements achieved across a variety of areas. Top benefits reported across all respondents in all sectors included:

The ranking of these benefits varied across the different sectors. The following breakdown shows the top 5 benefits per sector:

Conclusions:

Results in order of importance according to responses per sector:

Highest rated benefit by sector:

• Technology – Improved product quality and consistency – 59.4%
• Retail – Reduced operating costs – 43.5%
• Healthcare – Improved workplace health and safety – 51.9%
• Engineering – Improved product quality and consistency – 53.3%
• Manufacturing – Increased production output – 53.8%

• Automotive – Reduced operating costs – 75%
• Food & Beverage – Reduced operating costs – 48.1%
• Leisure – Improved quality of work and job satisfaction for employees – 61.9%
• FMCG - Improved product quality and consistency – 49%
• Transport & Logistics – Increased production output – 66.7%

Costs, quality and increased production output rate as biggest benefits of robotic automation

Taken as an average across all sectors, reduced operating costs, improved product quality and consistency and increased production output are rated by robot users as the main benefits delivered by robotic automation.

Robots are being used to improve working conditions and employee performance

• With the exception of manufacturing, robotic automation is seen as a key means of improving the quality of work and job satisfaction for employees.
• All sectors see robotic automation as playing a role in improving workplace health and safety and the use of robots to reduce staff turnover is seen as a high scoring benefit in the Retail, Healthcare, Leisure and FMCG sectors.

Highlighting the importance of the human factor, these results demonstrate that robots are being used to help improve working conditions and job satisfaction and enhance workplace safety. By assuming repetitive, dangerous and difficult jobs, robots can help to greatly enhance worker productivity and minimize issues arising from boredom, injury or error.

Robots can increase manufacturing flexibility and provide certainty in uncertain times

• Increased manufacturing flexibility is seen as a key benefit in the Manufacturing, Automotive, Food & Beverage, Leisure and Transport & Logistics sectors. In the manufacturing, automotive and food & beverage sectors in particular, the flexibility provided by robots helps to increase product variety by enabling the same lines to be used to produce multiple types of products, with the ability to run production 24 hours if required.
• The impact of the pandemic has exposed those companies that had little or no contingencies in place to handle unexpected events. With many businesses basing their planning on historical performance, the impact of an unforeseen event such as the COVID-19 pandemic has left many ill prepared to deal with its consequences. Circumstances such as repeated lockdowns, employee absence due to illness or self-isolation, the demands of social distancing and restrictions and delays on imports and exports have all caused disruption to manufacturers and their supply chains, reducing their ability to deliver goods on time and increasing costs.
• While robot users have not been immune to the effects of the pandemic, the inherent flexibility of robots means it is easier both to adapt production lines to new products and to respond more quickly to changes in demand. As such, a flexible production line using robots can help to provide a greater degree of insurance against changing circumstances than one using fixed machinery limited to a single purpose.

2

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a game-changer for business

Responses by sector to the question:

‘Has the COVID-19 pandemic been “game-changing” for your business and industry?’

Conclusions:

Globally, 85 per cent of respondents said that the COVID-19 pandemic has been game-changing for their business, either completely impacting on their business or requiring adjustments to be made to allow them to continue operating.

While all sectors have been affected by the pandemic, the survey results show that the greatest impact has fallen on the FMCG, Leisure, Transport and Logistics and healthcare sectors, with businesses in these sectors either completely impacted or needing to make adjustments to their processes and production operations.

In terms of the scale of the impact, the automotive sector has been the worst affected.

of respondents reporting that their business had been completely impacted by the pandemic

With less scope for diversification vs. other manufacturing industries, the automotive industry has been hard-hit by a downturn in the demand for vehicles. The disruption caused by the pandemic has led to a global fall in the number of vehicles produced, with 64 million units sold in 2020 compared with around 80 million units in 2017 (source: Statista.com - https://www.statista.com/topics/1487/automotive-industry/).

The least affected sector is manufacturing. The sector had the lowest number of respondents completely impacted by the pandemic (27.9%) and the highest number reporting little to no change in their usual operations (17.9%). As the sector is the largest user of robots in the survey (79.3% of manufacturing sector respondents are already using robots and 42.2% reported increased manufacturing flexibility as a major benefit of using robots), the comparatively lower impact of the pandemic on the sector may be attributable to its use of robotic automation.

4

Businesses will increase their uptake of robotic automation

Responses by sector to the question:

Is your business likely to introduce (or increase your use of) robotics and automation to your workplace in the next decade?

Conclusions:

The survey results show that the FMCG sector (95%) followed by the Automotive and Manufacturing sectors (both at 94%), are most likely to increase (or introduce) robotics and automation in the next decade. By contrast, Retail (73%) and Food & Beverage (74%) with a high rate of affirmatives, are least likely.

Potential reasons for this difference could hinge around the comparative ease of finding skilled workers to carry out tasks. Both the automotive industry and the manufacturing industry have been finding it harder to recruit skilled workers. As a result, the automotive industry has led the way in automating many of its processes, with the manufacturing industry increasingly following suit and finding ways to use robots to supplement human workforces and perform tasks that cannot be filled by skilled manual workers.

In contrast, both the retail and food and beverage industry have found it traditionally much easier to recruit workers, with the skills bar being much lower. In the case of retail, the rate and scale of changes taking place also make it difficult to predict what the sector will look like in 10 years’ time. Even before the pandemic, consumers were increasingly turning to e-commerce to purchase goods. Since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, the trend towards e-commerce has accelerated rapidly – according to data from IBM, COVID-19 has sped up the shift from physical stores to online shopping by around five years, resulting in the collapse and closure of many well-known bricks and mortar retailers. As a result, remaining retailers will need to look to new models such as omni-channel fulfilment to drive traffic to their physical stores, with consumers ordering goods online and then picking them up from local stores.

In the case of the FMCG sector, the growth of online ordering in particular has placed added pressure on operators to turn around a growing multitude of products to increasingly tight delivery deadlines. In the case of perishable goods especially, the ability to have products on shelves as quickly as possible helps to maximize their potential shelf life, helping operators to reduce costs and minimizing the risk of wastage caused by goods becoming prematurely spoiled.

One example of an FMCG company using robotic automation is Dutch fresh foods company, Heemskerk. The company is using a robotic order picking installation to prepare orders according to each supermarket or food retailer’s needs, so that the products can be cross docked directly onto supermarket shelves instead of being stored at distribution centers.

5

Robotic automation can help to transform employment

Responses by sector to the question:

Does your business struggle to recruit and retain staff for roles that are either perceived as “boring” – those with repetitive tasks – or roles which include dirty or potentially dangerous tasks?

Conclusions:

The sectors highlighted in the results as having the highest net ‘yes’ scores are all characterized by processes involving repetitive tasks. The technology (85.1%), engineering (86.1%), manufacturing (84.1%) and automotive (82.5%) sectors frequently involve workers having to assemble identical or near-identical products for prolonged periods of time, often to set quotas, while the FMCG (88.3%) and logistics (87.2) sectors require workers to pick and place goods between locations over shifts lasting several hours, with little or no variation. It is perhaps therefore not surprising that these sectors should report the greatest difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff.

The survey found that 46.7% of respondents across all sectors agreed that robots can or could undertake some of the more repetitive tasks that many employees do not enjoy doing. Evidence shows that using robots to support monotonous production or dispatch tasks can help to raise employee morale and motivation, with a corresponding positive impact on their productivity.

of respondents across all sectors also agreed that robotics and automation does or could allow employees to upskill and move onto different tasks and roles, potentially adding greater value both to the company and to the employee’s own career development.

Another recognized area where robots can bring benefits is in the reduction or elimination of injuries caused by actions such as heavy lifting or exposure to dangerous machinery or processes. When asked if they agreed that robots can make the workplace safer, 43.9% of respondents recognized the potential of robots to reduce the risk of injuries (e.g. back injury, RSI), while 39.2% agreed that they make/could make their workplace potentially safer for employees.

6

Robotic automation could help transform SMEs

Small Business Overview (businesses with less than 25 employees)

Only 36% of small businesses surveyed currently use robotics, yet with 77% saying the COVID-19 pandemic was “game-changing” for their business, and 41% believe robotics will help enable social distancing, there is good reason to be optimistic for growth amongst small businesses – with 60% saying they are likely to introduce (or increase their current use of) robotics in the next decade.

Medium Business Overview (businesses with 25-250 employees)

• The percentage of businesses already using robotics in this group is double that of small business – 71%.
• Of those already using them, the main benefits to their business have been improved product quality and consistency (55%), followed by improved workplace health & safety (48%).
• 85% say they struggle to recruit and retain staff roles with repetitive or challenging tasks, and 31% of those currently using robotics say they have helped reduce staff turnover.
• COVID-19 has been game-changing for 88% of businesses in this group – and over half (53%) believe robotics could help enable social distancing.
• 92% say they are likely to introduce (or increase their current use of) robotics in the next decade – one of the highest responses to this question.