The Swiss industrial robotics vendor ABB Ltd. this week opened its refitted U.S. robotics headquarters and manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan, marking its third global robotics factory expansion in three years across China, Europe, and the Americas.
According to ABB, the reopened site is part of an effort to strengthen its local-for-local footprint, since it will use the facility to develop and manufacture cutting-edge robotic solutions in the U.S., for customers in the U.S. and the Americas.
The expanded site offers a 30% increase in facility space, a customer experience center to showcase its hardware and software solutions, and a training center that will educate over 3,000 workers and students each year. The location will also support ABB Robotics’ specialist centers including its Packaging and Logistics hub in Atlanta, Georgia; its Life Sciences and Healthcare hub at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas; and AI Research Lab in San Jose, California.
“Robotics and AI are essential tools for companies in addressing critical labor shortages, localized supply chains and the need to operate more sustainably,” Sami Atiya, president of ABB’s Robotics and Discrete Automation Business Area, said in a release. “The advances in AI-driven software and hardware make our robots more accessible to a wider range of businesses, enabling them to increase resilience and become more competitive. America is now the world’s second largest robotics market, and our production facility will help ABB support existing customers as well as new growth sectors across the US and the Americas region.”
