Automation is on the rise across the nation, increasing productivity, helping to solve labor shortages, and bringing manufacturing back to the United States — while also worrying workers who feel that their jobs may be threatened. Is Puerto Rico an exception?
Automation is increasing in Puerto Rico, too
Automation is increasing in Puerto Rico across many sectors.
Dairy farming is one of the most important elements of Puerto Rico’s agriculture industry, so it shouldn’t be surprising that this is one of the areas that is seeing progress in automation. In 2020, the Island’s first automated dairy farm was financed by a Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture grant in Camuy. Robotic milking machines were introduced in Europe in 1992 and hit the states in 2000.
In 2023, Orlando Health launched a robotic surgery center in Dorado, Puerto Rico. Robot-assisted surgery allows surgeons to work with less fatigue and leads to faster recovery times for patients. Robotic surgery began in the United States in the 1980s.
In 2024, the main airport brought in three cleaning robots. The AI-powered cleaners sweep, mop, and vacuum the airport’s million square feet of tile floors. The airport served 12.2 million passengers in 2023. Cleaning robots have been around since 1996, with the real surge in commercial cleaning robot use taking place since the pandemic in 2020.
Stories like these are commonplace across the nation, but they’re new in Puerto Rico. What’s not new is industrial automation in manufacturing. Puerto Rico owes nearly half its GDP to manufacturing, and has been using automation in factories since the 1980s. Estimates of the future market for robots in Puerto Rico anticipate strong and growing demand.
Benefits for Puerto Rico
It is true that many people in the United States worry about the threat of robots taking over their jobs. The situation for Puerto Rico is different.
For one thing, the ability to cut labor costs through automation makes Puerto Rico more appealing to companies looking to reshore their manufacturing. When it was a question of paying wages at the level required in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico) or at the level required in Mexico or China, Puerto Rico looked expensive. Now, with manufacturing requiring fewer, better trained human workers, the opportunity to shorten the supply chain and avoid relying on China for crucial supplies like antibiotics makes Puerto Rico seem much more appealing.
“Other countries may be good at cheaply providing 10 unskilled bodies,” Packaging Digest pointed out. “Puerto Rico excels at providing one highly skilled operator, as well as the technicians, engineers, support staff, and others required to make automation viable. A highly competent workforce from operators to plant managers is Puerto Rico’s real competitive advantage.”
With roughly half of Puerto Rico’s college grads in STEM majors, the territory is in an excellent position to thrive in the new, automated landscape of manufacturing.
Concerns
The future looks bright for manufacturing in Puerto Rico, but there are still concerns. The cost and unreliability of energy production in Puerto Rico can be an issue. Highly automated systems require a lot of electricity on a regular basis. The ongoing work to shift Puerto Rico to renewable energy may be part of the solution.
Manufacturers looking to build new plants want to make sure not only that there is an available workforce, but also that living conditions for their workers will be positive. Good schools, good roads, and good housing are usually top priorities, and Puerto Rico’s territory status has been an impediment to providing these amenities in some parts of the Island.
Rural states have had to invest in their infrastructure to bring industry into their communities in the past, and Puerto Rico may need to do the same in the future.
