Longmont Startup Week: Cheaper technology, labor shortage stokes demand for automation

LONGMONT — With automation technology less expensive and more accessible than ever, robots are becoming a more popular remedy for the manufacturing industry’s labor shortage. 

“We have a skilled worker shortage,” Colorado Advanced Manufacturing Alliance president Tim Heaton said this week during a Longmont Startup Week panel called “Using Automation to Solve Today’s Challenges — Do You Have the Next Great Idea?” As evidence, he cited more than 7,000 active Colorado manufacturing job postings online.

“Automation is a part of the solution” for manufacturers struggling to fill jobs, a problem that’s been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and early retirement from industry…