Netflix for Robots Could Unlock US Manufacturing Revival
Bloomberg reports on how subscription-based robot automation services could make factory automation more accessible to small businesses that comprise the majority of the American industrial economy, potentially enabling US manufacturing reshoring efforts.
The Atomic take
Robotics-as-a-service flips the economics for the small and midsize shops that make up most US factories, replacing six-figure capital outlays with monthly fees they can actually budget around. That matters because reshoring stalls when a 20-person machine shop can't justify buying and integrating an industrial arm on its own. Watch whether subscription providers can handle the messy reality of low-volume, high-mix production, since most small manufacturers don't run the repetitive lines that automation has historically served best.
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