Automation, Inc.  is a name that many of you may not be too familiar with at all, after all they have made it their mission to service other business and organizations and the average consumer may not know much about the. So lets begin by talking about how the company has chosen to describe itself, “a Minneapolis based value-added stocking distributor of motion, vision, pneumatic, fluid power, and industrial control components. We serve Minnesota, Western Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Automation, Inc. was established in 1981 and we are currently celebrating our 30^th year in service. Our professionals offer technical support and selection assistance to help our customers achieve their automation goals.”

The company is getting ready to cut back on about 10% of its overall workforce, which is about 150 people in general. This means that the company is going to, most likely, make a mass layoff action happen in the near future. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

The company is choosing to highlight in a recent news release the creation of a new robot instead of addressing  what will happen to the workers who are being cut from the payrolls, “Baxter is an entirely new type robot that is redefining the way robots can be used in manufacturing environments. It performs a variety of repetitive production tasks – all while safely and intelligently working next to people. How? Baxter exhibits behavior-based ‘common sense,’ capable of sensing and adapting to its task and its environment. It requires no complex programming or costly integration. And with its uniquely low price point, Baxter provides a compelling alternative to low-cost offshoring for manufacturers of all sizes.” For the time being there does not seem to be any word about what kind of benefits, if any, the company will be giving to the workers in order to help the adjust to the transition of being put out of work.

They are, of course, not the only ones to cut jobs in the manufacturing sector. For those of you who missed out on our earlier cuts to Molded Fiber Glass here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all, “The company is getting ready to cut back on about 370  jobs in order to set its profitability to the numbers where they want it to be and reduce its overall expenses, that will be enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines.”