The United States is not competitive in manufacturing, and we're falling further behind every day. Any company that builds hardware here can tell you that sourcing from China is generally 5 to 10 times cheaper. And it's not just because of their lower labor costs — it's because of China’s national investment in robotics. Last year alone, they installed nearly nine times the number of industrial robots we did.
To catch up, we don't just need more robots, we need best-in-class training, too. That's why we testified before Congress last month to advocate for a Center of Robotics and Manufacturing Excellence in every state — physical hubs where manufacturers can walk in, test equipment, compare technologies, and leave with a plan for automating their operations.
This is core to our proposed National Robotics Strategy. The time to act is now.