A recent eWeek article discusses the many effects automation & robotics will have on IT. One such effect…will be reshoring.

Five Robotics Trends That Soon Will Be Changing IT – eWeek

From the article:

"Then there’s the issue of 'reshoring'—bringing work back home that was previously offshored to some faraway country. Automation, because of the money saved, will allow companies to do this. And this will in turn create new jobs to support the reshored functions. Rather than being feared as something that will replace humans, RPA [Robotic Process Automation] can be viewed as a pathway to job creation that will have a positive impact on companies—and their employees."

"The positive impact that the increased productivity of robots has on employment is already being seen. According to one study, the U.S. automotive industry deployed 60,000 industrial robots between 2010 and 2015. During this same period, the number of [employees] increased by 230,000."

This is a powerful question to ask. Can automation actually boost reshoring efforts? According to this author's information...yes!

How Robotics Would Encourage IT Reshoring

Fundamentally, automation is about improving processes. Doing more work, better, in a shorter time & for lower cost. As more businesses implement automation, they'll discover needs that didn't exist before. Needs the automation can't solve. But an IT worker can!

Say you replace 10 on-site workers with 2 robots. It's too bad for the workers…but as the robots work, they spawn the need for additional jobs surrounding their function.

• Someone's got to maintain the robots. More jobs that didn't exist before.
• What about software development, to build more features in? More jobs.
• What if the robots improve output? Then your distribution processes will need improvements too. More jobs.
• The robots' programming needs to integrate with on-site network applications. You'll also have to secure the robots against cyberattack. More jobs.
  • You might think, "The business can just outsource this part." While they could, offshoring IT integrations/security is awful for reliability. You'd damage productivity and risk a serious workplace accident. Locally-available IT workers are much more reliable.

Now we can see how robotics encourage IT reshoring. Automation using robotics saves on costs. Once the robots are in place, the business will need more jobs to maintain & improve on their productivity.

Result: More American IT jobs!

Thanks for reading Reshoring News!  Please share your thoughts on IT reshoring with us at reshoreyourit@planetmagpie.com.