Poland ROBOTICS REACHES RECORD GROWTH
Robotics engineering in Poland, is a market sector that has reached record growth and represents excellent opportunities for U.S. companies. Currently, more than 30% of Polish companies in the manufacturing sector are planning to implement robots in the next three years. We have already observed an increased use of robots within Polish manufacturing facilities, and the country has never been more ready for the robotics revolution.
Poland, rated as a moderately innovative country (25th place in the Bloomberg Innovation Index 2020), has found its way towards innovation and the use of robotics. According to PwC, the Polish market will lack 1.5 million qualified workers in 2025. With a low unemployment rate of just 5.5% in January 2020, maintaining Poland’s economic growth will no longer be possible without supplementing the workforce with robots.
According to the International Federation of Robotics, the use of robots in Polish factories reached its record in 2018, during which, the number of robots grew by 40% compared to the previous year. In 2018, the total number of robots in the Poland reached 13,600, ranking Poland as the 16th most dense robotics country in the world, as published by the International Federation of Robotics.
Poland’s potential for increased robotics growth is high. Poland has only 42 robots per 10,000 workers, leaving the country far behind other European economies (eg. Germany has 338 robots per 10000 workers). Today, only 6% of Polish SMEs and 22% of its large companies use robots, compared to the EU where robot use is higher, at 7% and 25% respectively, according to the Polish Economic Institute analysis. Poland’s robot density is expected to increase in the coming years, as the International Federation of Robotics states. The Polish Economic Institute noted that industrial robots are used mainly in manufacturing industries (81.5%), and are most commonly used in the automotive (38.6%), chemical (18.9%) and metallurgy sectors (12.8%).
A 2019 study Barometer of Robotics of SME’s shows that 30% of companies from the manufacturing sector plan to implement robots within next three years. The most important expectations related to this plan are: to increase the effectiveness of their companies (82.7%), to increase the production volume (71.2%) and to shorten the lead time of orders (68.3%). The Polish companies plan to introduce robots to aid in: packaging (39.6%), machine service (37.6%), assembly (18.8%), transporting/moving goods (17.8%).
According to McKinsey analysis, food processing, manufacturing, and transportation present the largest potentials for automatization and the use of robotics in Poland. In 2020, Amazon plans to open a new facility in Poland, which will employ 1000 employees and will be supported by 4000 robots. The state of the art facility is expected to be a cornerstone in the Polish robotics arena.
Experts show that implementing governmental support in robotics will help the robotics industry to develop. In effort to support Polish industry to move to the next level, the Polish Government launched its Industry 4.0 Platform in 2019. The aim of this project was to enhance and incentivize Polish companies to educate its workforce on 4.0 processes and develop competences in areas such as robotics and automation. An example of this is the implementation of training on tool modernization, and additional actions are planned for Polish companies and workers in upcoming years.
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