Are the Robots Taking Over?

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

Matties: What region has the most interest in robot technology?

Ostergarrd: If you look at the volume, China is by far the biggest consumer of robots in the world right now. Also, outside China, it's pretty big in Asia. If you look at the density of robots per worker, then Germany is leading the game, but the U.S. is also pretty well on this road. I think almost everywhere in the world there is an increasing demand for robots, and I think this is just going one way in the future. In general, the robot market rises around 25% a year, globally.

Matties: You talk about the displacement of people. Not everybody is going to wind up with a job.

Ostergarrd: Well, that's the thing. Every time there's been technological progress that takes the boring work away from people, people have found other ways to be occupied. We've seen that since the first industrial revolution, where we had the harvesting machines that actually freed up 80% of the world's population to do other things. Society normally finds ways. We actually believe and have this vision of the way the future will be. So we see that the previous four industrial revolutions have really freed up a lot of manpower in the world.

First we had the mechanization, then we had the electrification or steam power of industry, then we had the computer-controlled machines like the first robots and the first CNC machines. Right now, especially the Germans are talking about Industry 4.0, which is more or less about internet in production and supply chain software and centers. You can say all these technologies have really freed up a lot of manpower in production, but they have, in our view, also created a gap.

Before, when you had a tailor, he knew his materials, he knew his customers, and he knew his tools. So when a you came in and ordered a dress or suit, you got a personalized suit based on his knowledge, put into the product you bought. This has disappeared over the years. This way of understanding customers' knowledge has been taken away from the products we produce. So now we have these mass-produced products, the Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, and we have the possibility of doing mass customized products, but still it's without a human in the loop. We believe that all these developments have opened a gap that can again be closed if we somehow manage to get a human back in the loop when we do the production. I don't know if there are a lot of microbreweries here in China, but in Europe and the U.S. it's becoming really, really popular.

I believe the reason is not that the beer tastes better. It's because when you buy a beer from a microbrewery, you feel that someone wanted to share something with you. You actually feel connected to the guy who was sitting up at night and putting a little bit more of this, a little bit more of that into the beer, and this is why you buy and this is what you pay four times the price to get. So there is a definite need for people to feel special when they buy a product.  

I think the need comes from everything that's mass produced now. We really want to have some of this customization back in our products. By making technology, that allows a new kind of worker on the factory floor, like creative people, people with knowledge and people who know their materials and the tools. Then we can actually make the fifth industrial revolution with these robots that you can once again get the craftsmanship or the passion or the love back onto the production floor. So the products we buy are customized, you could say.

Matties: It's an equalizer as well, when you look at the labor.

Ostergarrd: Exactly. That was the point, because then suddenly there's a lot of need for people in the production. There is a need that all these people need to put the human touch in the products.

Matties: The value-added side.

Ostergarrd: Yes, because machines don't make products for machines. It is humans that make products for humans in the end. So there is a lot of potential there for jobs, and I also think there's a lot of value there, that can be gained.

Matties: The ROI is pretty quick, though, I’d imagine.

Ostergarrd: It depends on where you are in the world, but on the other hand, the ROI is maybe not the main selling point. So often, the machine that is being automated with a robot is actually the expensive part in the equation, and if you get just a little bit more time out of that machine or a little bit more production out of that machine, then it pays for itself. And you have the consistency of quality and so on. We see that in some companies that have bought a lot of our robots, like 50 robots in less than a year; they have at the same time increased the number of staff working with the robots. So we had a lot of cases where they bought 50 robots but got 80 new employees at the same time. So there's evidence that it's not really taking away jobs.

Matties: Well, it's changing jobs. You're right. I bring that up because I see that there is a lot of fear of robot technology in the world. The truth of the matter is that some people are going to be displaced, right?

Ostergarrd: Exactly. The people who did exactly the same for 30 years and have kind of grown into that position and can’t move from there.

Matties: Right. They're locked in, they're pushed out.

Ostergarrd: What you can say is it's good to have an education. It really helps a lot.

Matties: You're living proof of that. Well, congratulations on your success. How many years have you been at this again?

Ostergarrd: We started in 2005. So that makes ten years.

Matties: What are your sales now?

Ostergarrd: The sales from last year were 2,000 units. We expect 4,000 units this year, and then 8,000 units the year after that. It's been growing like this for five years now. We believe we can continue.

Matties: Good for you guys. Thank you very much.

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