How I am Inevitably Contributing to the Globalization Crisis on the Robotics Team

A subsystem on this year's robot: a "climbing" gearbox with a disc brake (one you could find at your local scooter shop). This gearbox alone will require seven parts from out-of-house manufacturers.

When I was talking to one of our robotics team's mentors the other day, he brought up the idea of globalization. This particular mentor works in a machine shop that manufactures computer boards for local technology companies as well as doing other odd jobs. In a previous blog post, I recommended machining as a “future-proof” job that does not require a bachelor's degree. However, after a conversation I had with this mentor last night, I realized that I should rethink my stance.

“We used to have twelve engineers in the house that would set up CAM files ten years ago,” he had said, “Now, we have one.” For those who don’t know, CAM is basically a set of instructions that a machine follows in order to machine parts. CAM isn’t easy to do. There are a plethora of certificates that one can get at the associate's degree level in order to “certify” oneself for particular machines. However, although CAM is a learned skill, it is a skill that can be easily outsourced.

Tonight, I will send out over twenty different aluminum parts for our robot to Beam On Technology, but the files will not actually be read by someone in the United States. The files will be sent to India for outsourcing. Since CAM-creation software is something anyone can download on their computer with a license, it becomes more resource-efficient for a manufacturing firm to pay twelve engineers from India to create the CAM programs. Then, the United States’ machinists can run the CAM programs on Beam On’s machines.

I thought this was particularly interesting because it reminded me of our in-class documentary on globalization. Obviously, the opportunity cost of keeping United States engineers in house create code that could easily be outsourced outweighs the benefits of outsourcing them. Lower wages mean that the company can exert more resources on other endeavors-- that’s the basic economic principle. With the rise of the internet came the ease of global communication. Files that once had to be transferred over the wire could now be transferred in a matter of seconds. Outsourcing these things makes sense.

But what is the cost? United States’ jobs for sure. The United States’ Bureau of Labor predicts that mechanical engineering as a field will grow 4 percent in the coming decade. This is lower than many other engineering fields’ outlooks, probably because of the same reason Beam On’s employees experienced. With the rise of licensable CAD and CAM software, mechanical and manufacturing engineers are finding themselves being outsourced simply because wages in the United States are higher.

Obviously, I’m still going to send the parts out tonight. To me, the consumer, it does not matter who actually creates the CAM file. All that matters to me is getting the part in my hands in a timely fashion. That’s the thing about people. We’ll keep prioritizing our self-interests over the needs of others, even if our consumer habits create negative externalities.

I’ll be signing off now. I still have more part files to create.

Works Cited:

“Mechanical Engineers : Occupational Outlook Handbook.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 Sept. 2019, www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/mechanical-engineers.htm.