China, Japan and South Korea rely far more heavily on robots for manufacturing and distribution than does the U.S.

Why the discrepancy? On this episode, we get a perspective from Simon Whitton, senior vice president of Kuka Robotics. He explains how the characteristics of those three Asian powerhouses — in particular, low birth rates and high aging populations — lead naturally to a greater reliance on industrial automation. Meanwhile, many U.S. manufacturers and distributors are holding back from widescale adoption of robots, despite this country’s current labor shortage and widening skills gap. Whitton also punctures a long-held assumption about the link between automation and unemployment. And he offers an opinion about which tasks in factories and warehouses are still better performed by humans. Hosted by Bob Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain.

Show notes:

A blog post from Kuka about demographic changes in the U.S., China and Europe.