Robots that Create Jobs and Construct Apartment Buildings

An Idaho company, Autovol Volumetric Modular, is building apartments inside a Nampa, Idaho factory and shipping the modular components to the San Jose, CA area for installation.  In a 400,000 square foot manufacturing space they are maximizing the use of robots and automation to do the heavy lifting and to ensure precision manufacturing.  The value according to CEO Rick Murdock, is saving 20% on costs and 40% on time.  "We’ll build it here (in Idaho), ship it and save the project about $100 a square foot.”

What a great story!  Idaho, known worldwide for their farming of "famous potatoes," is innovating and shipping their finished products to Silicon Valley, and none too soon.  The oldest archaeological evidence of house construction is estimated to be around 1.8 million years old.  It's about time for innovation! 

How do they designate what work the humans do, and what work the robots do?  Robots are used to build walls, floors and ceilings and to assemble the modules, while the humans install wiring, plumbing and fixtures, perform inspections and write the software programs that control the robots.

By innovating with the use of automation and robots, Autovol Volumetric Modular anticipates having over 300 employees in Idaho by next year.  This is an example of robots helping to create jobs - not taking them away.

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Kevin Benedict

Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.