According to data provided by a representative on behalf of Rethink Robotics, Standby Screw Machine is one of more than 20 Ohio customers the company added in the past year. Rethink Robotics is one of the companies making so-called collaborative robots, which can be used safely without barriers around it. Standby Screw Machine, which did not disclose its annual revenue, makes precision turned parts for industries including outdoor power products. The company spent the equivalent of about $30,000 on each of its Baxter robots, sales manager Drew Rabkewych said in an email. The Baxter robots are used for packaging — one actually picks up the pieces fed to it by an industrial robot — and for milling and moving certain parts.

Standby Screw Machine has nearly 400 employees, about 150 in Berea and the rest in a plant in China. It also has nine robots, either already installed or on the way — four, with a fifth planned for August, in Berea, and two, with two more on order, in China. While Standby Screw Machine's industrial robots have to be kept in cage-like cells, the collaborative Baxter robots can be placed in employee spaces. Marcell demonstrated how an employee could even bump the machine without harm, since it pauses if something unexpected is touching it. The company's robots have helped to keep the company globally competitive, consolidating operations and reducing the possibility of human error. The robots even added capacity to the plant, Marcell said. He said the company always needs to make things faster and less expensively, and it will continue to find ways to automate and streamline its processes. Robots also will play an important role in the highly automated contract manufacturing plant that Randy Theken, founder of the NextStep family of companies, intends to open next year. He said he plans to use robots to more accurately inspect finished parts made by 3-D printers, as well as perform milling and turning operations. Robots don't get tired, he said, and can often perform more efficiently and effectively than humans. “We believe that there's a lot of mundane tasks that are performed in the manufacturing arena,” Theken said. In the automotive industry, which has been using robots in its plants for decades, the machines have helped ease the demands on employees. “It's really a support-the-operator strategy,” said Al McLaughlin, plant manager for General Motors' Parma Metal Center. Robots were first used in body shops and assembly plants, where there were many parts to handle and weld, McLaughlin said. Today, he said the Parma plant often uses robots for welding, material handling and structural adhesives, which need to be precise.