General information

  • Survey period: March 7, 2018 - November 7, 2018
  • Targets: Manufacturing establishments (robotic experts and facility managers)
  • Sampling technique: Stratified random sampling (81 sampling strata)
  • Data collection technique: Web and paper-and-pencil-instrument questionnaires
  • Valid responses: 428
  • Response rate: 5.3%

Survey Questionnaire

Georgia Tech researchers and NORC staff collaborated to develop the questionnaire, and conducted cognitive interviews and pre-testing to improve survey instruments. The questionnaire collected data on:

  • Background and establishment information:
    • Contact information
    • Manufacturing sector(s)
    • Products produced
    • Establishment relocation within past 5 years
    • Production facility size
  • Robots and other production technology:
    • Production volume
    • Flexibility of production operations
    • Design intensiveness
    • Product differentiation
    • Types of advanced automation in use
    • Robot maintenance or repair services used
  • Employment, Education, Skills, and Wage:
    • Number and type of employees
    • Wage by type of employee
    • Educational attainment of employees
    • Skill levels by employee type
    • difficulty in hiring by type of employee
  • Expenditures:
    • Amount spent on automation
    • Amount spent on robot equipment
    • Amount spent on robotics systems integration

To facilitate respondent cooperation, both Web and paper-and-pencil (PAPI) versions of the questionnaire were offered. Survey completion time was estimated to be take 15-20 minutes.

Click here to download the survey questionnarie

Sample Design

The primary source for selecting the sample of manufacturing companies to survey came from the Mergent Intellect business database that is created from Dun & Bradstreet business data and other sources. The survey sample is considered a probability based sample because the Mergent database includes virtually all manufacturing companies in the U.S. Since manufacturers’ response rates to voluntary surveys tend to be quite low, we supplemented the Mergent probability based sample with email lists of manufacturing companies gathered from different sources.

In the end, we administered a stratified random sample of manufacturing companies that employed at least 10 employees. Sample strata were defined by company size (small, medium, or large number of employees) and nine geographic divisions to ensure a representative sample of manufacturing companies in the U.S. While there were approximately equal sample sizes for census division and industry group, there was oversampling of medium and large companies relative to their representation in the population of manufacturing companies. The three sample stratification variables which were crossed to create 81 sample strata are described below:

  • Establishment size:
    • Small (10 to < 50 employees)
    • Medium (50 to < 499 employees)
    • Large (500+ employees)
  • Census division:
    • New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut)
    • Middle Atlantic (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania)
    • East North Central (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin)
    • West North Central (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas)
    • South Atlantic (Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida)
    • East South Central (Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi)
    • West South Central (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas)
    • Mountain (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada)
    • Pacific (Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Hawaii)
  • Industry classification:
    • Automotive and Other Transport
    • Computer and Electronics
    • All Other Manufacturing