More jobs are coming to Davenport.
Tuesday, one of North America’s largest robotic integrators, Genesis Systems Group, which is not affiliated with Genesis Hospitals, celebrated a ribbon cutting at their new 61,000 sq. foot facility at 7310 Vine St. Ct. in Davenport.
The new building, which opened in October, accommodates Genesis’ second location at 8900 N. Harrison St. in Davenport.
“We build robotic equipment for manufacturing, primarily focusing on welding,” said Mike Jacobsen of Genesis Systems Group.
Today, several agricultural, aerospace and automotive manufacturers operate with automated equipment, or more simply, robots. Genesis Systems Group builds those robots and sends them to the appropriate manufacturer.
According to the staff at Genesis Systems Group, robots and robot-manufacturing will help keep jobs in the U.S.
“There’s a trend in the world of re-shoring; it’s not always economical to manufacture something and ship it around the world,” Jacobsen continued, “We’ve had some really strong sales and automation is definitely something that will keep manufacturing in the U.S.”
From engineers designing concepts, to the hands-on manufacturing process, all the work can be done at Genesis' new Davenport facility. Previously, some of that work would be outsourced.
“Some of the new equipment we have is a laser cutting machine, a bridge mill as well as a couple of new brake presses,” Jacobsen said, which helps them execute their plan from concept to completion in house.
“It’s amazing how much things have changed,” Rich Yates said as he stood next to his automated laser-cutting machine. “This company started out with two employees in the back-end of a welding supply warehouse in Rock Island.”
Yates, who is retired now but comes back to work for the company occasionally, was one of those two employees who has seen the manufacturing business transform.
Things change over time, and the manufacturing industry has proved to not be any different.