Dollars spent per unit produced is most likely unchanged if indexed for inflation. What's gone though are the pension and labor dispute or collective bargaining of unions. Automation still has high costs, but they are captured and capped five years out max.
Pay Rockwell, Siemens, ABB, and General Electric, instead of unions.
How are people trained for such jobs? And what the hell is a Kinetix drive?;-)
I work for a manufacturing company in central PA. We are not highly automated at least not in terms of using robotics. But we have trouble finding qualified machine operators and especially lathe operators and we pay very well, offer excellent benefits and are non-union.
The problem is not everyone is able to do the high tech jobs and never will be. Blacks and poor whites in the south used to work the fields every Spring, Summer and Fall. I was one of them. It’s what we depended on.
Over the years farming has become more mechanized and computerized. Now a machine can pick 16 rows of cotton at one time. And a lot faster than 16 people. With chemicals there are no weeds to chop. Over time those people started getting government checks and that’s what they depend on.
Some were capable of learning to do other jobs. Many moved to the factories. Now those jobs are gone. But the checks just keep coming.