The Issue At Hand: A Continued Shortage of Skilled Labor
We’re probably preaching to the choir here, but there is a severe lack of welders in the U.S. today. And it’s not getting better anytime soon – the American Welding Society estimates the average age of a welder to be 54 years old, and there simply (and unfortunately) aren’t enough incoming welders to fill their shoes…leading to a potential shortage of 400,000 welders by 2025.
As a result, today’s manufacturers need to increase welding productivity through automation but currently only have risky and costly options to do so. Traditional robotic welding solutions are a big bet – bulky and expensive, with long delivery times, significant set-up time and cost, and plenty of “well, no-turning-back now” risk.
While larger corporations may be able to bear the cost and risk of traditional automation, the smaller shops that make up 75% of America’s 250,000+ manufacturers have been left behind but no longer. Vectis is Latin for “leverage”, and our mission is to provide those smaller manufacturers with flexible, DIY automation tools they can leverage to boost productivity and soften the blow of the skilled labor shortage.
