So That Happened: Give Up on Humanoid Robots Already!

Editor’s note: Welcome to So That Happened, our editors’ takes on things going on in the manufacturing world that deserve some extra attention. This will appear regularly in the Member’s Only section of the site.

Textron Aviation Strike Ends

While more than 30,000 striking Boeing workers head to the polls Oct. 23 to vote on a new contract proposal, operations have begun to return to normal at Textron Aviation in Wichita, Kansas, where nearly 5,000 workers walked off the job in mid-September after rejecting a new labor agreement with the aircraft manufacturer.

Striking workers at both manufacturers are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Local Textron IAM members voted to accept an updated contract offer, which was presented Oct. 17, the national labor organization reported. Striking workers were to begin returning to work Oct. 23.

The five-year agreement includes a 31% general wage increase over the term of the contract, with an 11% increase immediately upon ratification; a guaranteed $3,000 annual lump sum payment over the life of the contract, longevity bonuses, a cost-of-living cap that more than doubles over the previous contract (from $700 to $1,500) and improved healthcare premium options.

“The ratification of this contract marks a new chapter, and we are eager to move forward together,” said Ron Draper, president and CEO of Textron Aviation, which produces Cessna and Beechcraft jets.

—Jill Jusko

Manufacturers Joining the Race for Power?

One of the country’s largest electric utilities has signed framework agreements with two Fortune 50 companies to develop up to 10.5 gigawatts of renewable-energy and storage projects in the next six years.

The twist: The deals are not with hyperscaling technology companies.

The leaders of NextEra Energy Inc., the parent company of Florida Power & Light and one of the country’s most prominent renewables developers, announced their agreements Oct. 23 alongside third-quarter results. They’re not yet naming names but, asked for a few details about plans, were quick to point out that the potential customers aren’t the usual tech suspects—think Meta, Google or Amazon—that have been making headlines with energy-supply deals.

Chairman, President and CEO John Ketchum said the agreements show that large corporations of all stripes are paying ever more attention to securing the energy they’ll need to keep growing in the coming decades. And with the aforementioned hyperscalers staking claims to massive amounts of juice, they’re realizing they may have to pay more down the road if they don’t also get in the game.

“It’s not just a data-center phenomenon and it’s so encouraging,” Ketchum said on a conference call.

Several industrial-company CEOs—Alcoa Inc.’s Bill Oplinger and oil and gas executives among them—have talked of late about the need to secure dedicated renewable energy to power capacity expansions. Don’t be surprised if NextEra’s agreements quickly become the norm in manufacturing.

—Geert De Lombaerde

Latest CHIPS Investment to Create 1,700 Jobs in Pennsylvania and California

The 2022 CHIPS Act is still issuing funding to expand domestic semiconductor manufacturing. One of the latest investments announced is $93 million to Infinera Corp. for a new semiconductor fab site in San Jose, California and a new testing and packaging site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. According to the company, the new funding will create up to 1,700 jobs.

In a statement, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the Infinera investment is meaningful for the goals of the CHIPS Act. “From artificial intelligence to electric vehicles to telecommunications infrastructure, 21st century technologies all rely on optical semiconductors like the ones manufactured by Infinera,” she said.

The Commerce Department says that Infinera’s new fab and chip foundry in California will be over 40,000 square feet and allow Infinera to increase its production capacity tenfold. A new facility in Infinera’s existing Pennsylvania campus will bolster the company’s ability to assemble or package semiconductors domestically and include R&D space for new optical packaging technology.

—Ryan Secard

Good Robots Don’t Have Two Legs

The electrical grid is in trouble, cars don’t need more touchscreens, and the best way to circumvent sanctions is to build your plants in the companies levying the sanctions.

The new report released today from Forrester, “Prediction 2025: Smart Manufacturing and Mobility.” available here, has three manufacturing-specific predictions:

• The grid cannot keep pace with electrification. They predict over 50% of manufacturers will have to slow plant electrification plans in 2025.
• Car manufacturers next year will rethink digital experience development (i.e. everything you get on screens in your vehicles) thanks to buggy performance.
• Chinese manufacturers will begin building plants in Europe, in part to circumvent sanctions and tariffs meant to favor locally-manufactured goods.

The report also predicts that 25% of big last-mile service and delivery fleets in Europe will be electric next year. Finally, and this part makes me chuckle, forget about bipedal robots because the designs aren’t the best choices for automation applications:
 
“Focus on the use case when evaluating physical automation of tasks in your organization, and don’t get distracted by the far-off sci-fi promise of C-3PO, the Terminator, Lt. Commander Data, and their ilk.”

Note from Editor-in-Chief Robert Schoenberger: The report doesn’t name Tesla specifically, noting that several companies are testing bipedal robots, but the timing throws a bit of shade at Elon Musk’s showmanship. Earlier this month, the electric vehicle maker showed off new humanoid robots, having them talk to audience members, mix drinks, dance and hand out gift bags. But, it turned out that those weren’t the independent droids you were looking for. Instead, they were remote controlled by Tesla employees, raising the question of how far away we are from getting a protocol droid for home use.

So, maybe our new robot overlords aren’t as close on the horizon as sometimes feared. Good.

— Dennis Scimeca