2024 UR and Mir Consolidated R & D facilities and headquarters. Source: Universal Robots
Economic uncertainty has affected the robot industry, including major suppliers. Teradyne Inc.’s robotics group has fired 10%of global workforce this week. Teradyne owns the University of Universal Robot A/S and Mobile Industrial Robots APS, each of which is a collaborative robot cancer and autonomous mobile robot developer.
The number of employees affected by restructuring is exactly unclear. But Teradyne Robotics says there are more than 1,400 employees worldwide on the website. The decrease of 10% includes 6% dismissal in Denmark, where both UR (Universal Robots) and mobile industry robots (MIR) are headquarters.
UJJWAL KUMAR, the group chairman of Teradyne Robotics, said, “The robot industry is generally taking a rough patch. Robot report.
“UR has decreased 3% year -on -year and MIR has increased by 1% year -on -year.” “We had better performance than the market, which recorded a decline in two digits.”
Kumar said the demand for robotics did not meet expectations due to the slowdown in capital, war that affects trade and labor, and uncertainty among manufacturers. “I’ve been in the industry for more than 25 years, and I’ve never seen this kind of fullback in core low mixing and high -quality manufacturing.”
Kumar said, “Last year was one of the operating integration of UR and MIR and improved the quality and cost of the product and the on -time delivery of new products. “Our playbook is to surpass the market due to innovation, channel innovation and new vertical vertical.”
Teradyne reports the ‘restructuring’ of sales, marketing, and services.
Teradyne admitted that the robot business was slow compared to the core test project, demanding income from the fourth quarter of 2024.
North Reading, Massachusetts, said, “The industrial automation market has been weakened in the fourth quarter. “In 2024, we combined UR and MIR operation as an integrated robot operation group.”
“In the first quarter of 2025, we integrate the market function at the level of robotics, allowing the best partners to sell the entire UR and MIR product lines and provide better services to customers through a single customer service organization.” Teradyne said. “This restructuring will increase our efficiency and reduce the profitability of robotics from $ 440 million in 2024 to $ 365 million in 2025.”
The company said that the total robot engineering income was $ 360 million in 2024, the UR donated $ 293 million and the MIR $ 72 million.
Kumar said Teradyne is integrating the sales, marketing and support teams of UR and MIR, which focuses on new products last year.
“Up to 55%of MIR partners are partners and 55%of their revenue,” he explained. “In the previous structure, there were each account manager who called the same OEM, Global Systems Integrators and distributors. We have the opportunity to eliminate some duplications, describe customer services, and expand the scope of regional application. ”
Kumar added, “The service has a similar duplicate to other product lines.” “By combining power, we will better ensure all geography for technical support and repair service according to the service contract for many years.”
Register today to save 40%of the conference pass!
Universal robots move from new products to new markets
Last year, Teradyne announced that it has launched a new number of records to grow the available address market (SAM). This included the MIR1200 Palette Jack, which includes artificial intelligence for palette detection, a clean room -grade robot for the manufacture of semiconductor, and food and drinks and MC600 Mobile Cobot.
The UNIVERSAL ROBOTS has increased the payload capacity of UR20 and UR30 ARM with software updates. We continued to launch the polyscope X platform and began working with NVIDIA by combining AI and Cobot. MIR FLEET Enterprise, meanwhile, provided fleet management for autonomous mobile robots (AMRS).
Kumar said, “We needed a wider commercial organization to continue to focus on the launch of new products and to have a better coverage using large accounts and OEMs. “The main vertical for us includes a new relationship with Teradyne and ADI (Alog Devices Inc.), which includes semiconductors as well as logistics and warehouses. We are focusing on food, drinks and pharmaceuticals. ”
The MC600 is designed for stable mobile manipulation, MIR says. Source: Mobile Industry Robot
Kumar is still optimistic for global growth.
Teradyne is expected to slowly grow in the first half of 2025, but Kumar is still optimistic about the prospects of the University of UNIVERSAL ROBOTS and Mobile Industrial Robot.
In December, Universal Robots opened its first production facility in China and opened the new models of the market, UR7E and UR12E.
Kumar said, “We think that the Chinese market is around the corner. “We are now important to segment -based ecosystem -based products of better performance, and we are based on the hypothesis. We have a big growth plan. ”
At the same time, if the labor shortage of manufacturing, warehouses, agriculture, food processing and construction increases, the demand for automation in North America and Europe will increase.
Kumar said, “We are talking with major companies across the United States. “A more cooperative and high -quality robot space for mid -size jobs can help the industry to continue to relocate people. These are exactly a job that new generations of Kobot and AMR can help. ”
As the exhibition season begins, the University of UR+ Ecosystem Partners will continue to be exhibited, as you can see in the UR cooperation event this week.
Kumar said, “We do not withdraw our existence at this event. “Our growth focus is on the launch of new products and we need to talk about new applications and solutions with customers.”
“Mobile manipulation is a gradual growth driver,” he said. “We launched two products last year, and we use all the same human applications as humanized robots, but there is a more competent and cheaper mobile cobot.”
Kumar said, “We will continue to provide AI -based solutions to expand the application space. “2025 will be an important year for us in the high -end robot industry.”
Editor’s note: Steve Crowe contributed to this article.
