Can manufacturing automation actually level the playing field between the U.S and offshore cheap labor? We’re about to find out; in the next 10 years.

As you may have heard, the cost of foreign labor has been steadily increasing and is slowing eroding the advantages of US companies using workers from offshore. While China, India, and other manufacturing labor centers continue to see a demand for higher pay, America is busy tooling up.

With the evolution of industrial robots becoming cheaper, more available, and more advanced, they will likely become more widely used, according to a study released Tuesday by the Boston Consulting Group.

Increased automation in the workplace could cut labor costs by an average of 16 percent across the world’s 25 largest goods-exporting nations – 22 percent in the U.S. alone.

“As labor costs rise around the world, it is becoming increasingly critical that manufacturers rapidly take steps to improve their output per worker to stay competitive,” said Harold L. Sirkin, a senior partner at the Boston Consulting Group, according to a recent news release.

“Companies are finding that advances in robotics and other manufacturing technologies offer some of the best opportunities to sharply improve productivity.”

Source: USNews.com