INTEGRATION OF COLLABORATIVE ROBOTS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY DURING POST-PANDEMIC RECOVERY

In the era of speed and technological advancement, the automotive industry has faced various crises, pandemics, and catastrophes. Following the global financial crisis of 2008, also known as the Great Recession, the industry was forced to confront the COVID-19 pandemic, and now the entire market is directly facing the semiconductor crisis. Globally, there have been and will certainly be crises regarding human resources, and situations in which global industrial organizations in the automotive sector will face challenges and must implement solutions to optimize their costs to ensure profitability even in times of crisis. In the current conditions, the authors argue that only industrial organizations that are oriented towards flexibility and openness to adaptability will be able to successfully survive. In this context, collaborative robots are becoming an increasingly viable alternative. In this scientific work, the authors propose a pragmatic vision regarding the integration of collaborative robots, emphasizing the importance of an effective integration process of collaborative robots in organizations within the automotive industry. The authors consider this proposed desideratum an important aspect, as collaborative robots are considered universal and highly flexible tools that can easily adapt to any process.