Marlin Steel's Drew Greenblatt was quoted today in the New York Times in an article about automation and job growth that countered perceptions in a "60 Minutes" segment earlier this month.
In December, we won a job from a Chicago company that for over a decade has bought from China,” [Greenblatt] said. “It’s a sheet-metal bracket; 160,000 sheet-metal brackets, year in, year out. They were made in China, now they’re made in Baltimore, using steel from a plant in Indiana and the robot was made in Connecticut.”
In the article, a representative from the Frankfurt-based International Federation of Robotics appeared puzzled that a stale argument over whether robots hurt jobs had resurfaced in the United States. In Europe and Japan, manufacturers, workers and policy makers aren't so distracted by an antique debate, he indicated. The federation announced that it plans to issue a report next month describing how the robotics industry directly and indirectly will create 1.9 million to 3.5 million jobs globally by 2020.
Drew also framed the argument in a way that any red-blooded, purple-wearing football fan in Marlin's hometown of Baltimore could appreciate:
My robots are going to work during the Super Bowl, he said. “Do you know how popular I would be to ask my employees to work during the Super Bowl?
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