At machine parts producer S&D Blech, the head of the grinding unit is retiring. With Germany's acute labour shortage leaving few candidates to take on the skilled but dirty and hazardous manual work, the company will replace him with a robot.
Other small and medium-sized companies are also turning to automation as the gradual exit from the workplace of Germany's post-war "baby boom" generation tightens the labour squeeze.
Finding a new head of the grinding unit was hard "not only because of all the experience he has, but also because it's a back-breaking job that no one wants to do any more", Schloeder told Reuters. But with baby boomers retiring and a new cohort - much smaller, due to low birth rates - joining the labour force, the Federal Employment Agency expects the pool of workers to shrink by 7 million people by 2035.
Heavy investment in automation by car makers and other industrial giants means Germany is already the world's fourth-biggest market for robots, and the largest in Europe.But as robots become cheaper and easier to operate, the often family-run Mittelstand companies that are the country's economic backbone are also using them, from manufacturers like S&D Blech to bakeries, laundries and supermarkets.
Family-run ROLEC, which produces systems to protect industrial electronics and control equipment, bought its first robot last year, to allow production to continue at night. The company has already acquired a second machine and plans to continue investing in automation. Even workers and trade unions, once fearful of job losses, take an increasingly positive view. A survey published by robots marketplace automatica in June found nearly half of German employees see robots as helping to address labour shortages.
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