This is John Batchel, a conversation with colleague Alan Tonnelson about manufacturing in the United States today as compared to other countries such as South Korea, China, Japan.

Robotics.

Alan speaks to whether the large manufacturers have invested adequately to provide for the skill sets that are available

in South Korea, for example, in Seoul. In addition, Alan reminds that you've got to make

major changes, not minor changes, when you go to robotics and AI. The factory of the future

is right now. Here's Alan Tonnelson to explain.

More of this tonight. Well, there's one big area in which factory automation in the United States

has been lagging, and that's robotics adoption. It has been spreading here, but it's been growing

much faster, not only in China, but in countries like South Korea, Taiwan,

etc. So on that issue, certainly American manufacturers have to start stepping up their game.

At the same time, it's not simply a matter of sticking various robots into existing factories.

There are whole systems of operation that need to be rejiggered and rethought in order to make the robots adoption actually effective.

In fact, that's one lesson that General Motors learned back in the 1980s when industrial robots first began appearing on the scene, at least insignificant numbers.

You don't simply install robots and expect your operations to change overnight because of that.

You've got to rethink many management practices also.