Considering the rising competition from low-wage manufacturers offshore and the dearth of job candidates willing and able to work with their hands, one would assume that American manufacturers are in a rush to automate their production lines. Not quite, as the founders of Formic Technologies in Chicago can tell you.
Misa Ilkhechi and Saman Farid started Formic two years ago after they noticed that production plants were slow to bring robots to their factory floors for two major reasons. Robots, often priced at $100,000 and more, were unaffordable for small companies with modest budgets for capital spending. Read more>