MT Magazine May/June 2024

MANUFACTURING MATTERS

THE AUTOMATION & ROBOTICS ISSUE

10

ADVOCACY

Are Major Tax Increases on the Horizon? Campaign season is in high gear with the race for president in a virtual dead heat. Every seat in the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate seats are also up for election. The razor-thin majority in both chambers means control of either could shift. With the stakes so high, be prepared for more political posturing and less action in Congress as the clock runs down to November. Manufacturers should pay attention to where candidates stand on increasing taxes since most of the tax cuts implemented in 2017 will expire at the end of 2025, necessitating a major tax bill in the 119th Congress. In his budget framework for fiscal year 2025 released in March, President Joe Biden called for $5 trillion in taxes on corporations and high earners to pay for deficit reduction and new spending programs aimed at families and lower-wage earners. The framework serves more as a policy document and stands no chance of passing in a GOP-controlled House.

INTERNATIONAL

AI Changing the Game: Automating Automation? As manufacturers around the globe grapple with a dwindling workforce while striving to sustain or boost production, integrating automation has emerged as a crucial strategy. Automation can help mitigate worker turnover and allow for the upskilling of employees from repetitive manual tasks to more skilled positions. Contrary to fears, it has become evident that automation has fostered job creation at certain levels. The question people are asking now, however, is: Will artificial intelligence change that? The integration of AI is a significant trend in automation and could be a game changer, particularly concerning the synergy between autonomous robots and machine learning. The most noteworthy outcome of this is the potential to use measured data points acquired directly from the factory floor to autonomously optimize manufacturing processes. This could potentially reduce high-mix, low volume manufacturers’ dependency on skilled robot programmers and enable them to automate their operations successfully. Look to South Korea for developments here. They have the largest ratio of robots per industrial worker in the world.

June 4-6, 2024 Pittsburgh

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