SAN PEDRO GARZA GARCÍA, NL – The reduction of the workday in Mexico will test the productivity of the manufacturing industry. Faced with this scenario, automation will be one of the tools used to compensate for the lost working hours and maintain the production capacity of the country’s plants.
During the conference “Intelligent Automation: Mexico’s New Industrial Engine”, at the 51st National Index Convention of the National Council of the Maquiladora and Export Manufacturing Industry (Index Nacional) , Luciano Diorio, CEO of Grupo Hi-Tec , considered that companies must accelerate the incorporation of technology and rethink their production processes to face the transition to a 40-hour work week, whose gradual implementation will begin in 2027 and conclude in 2030.
The challenge lies not only in reducing working hours, but in finding ways to produce the same or more with the available resources; otherwise, companies could face a significant increase in their operating costs , mainly due to the need to hire additional staff.
As an example, Diorio explained that a plant with a thousand workers would need about 20% more staff to maintain its production in 2030, based on a calculation that considers the reduction of working hours, although he clarified that it is a simplified estimate that does not take into account factors such as overtime, installed capacity or levels of automation.
The specialist applied this scenario to the export manufacturing industry and, using figures attributed to Index corresponding to 2025, projected that its approximately 2.8 million workers distributed across five thousand plants could require an additional 460,000 employees to sustain the same production levels.
“I’m not here to say that we shouldn’t hire people,” he said, pointing out that the response should focus on increasing the efficiency of operations and making better use of existing productive assets.
In that regard, Diorio explained that China has stopped competing exclusively through labor costs and has strengthened its industrial capacity through automation, while the United States has also increased its investments in industrial robots.
“China always competed with cheap labor. Today it is already automated. So, our main competitor for many years in manufacturing, abandoned the cheap labor model years ago after moving to automation,” he emphasized.
According to figures from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) , China installed 354,000 industrial robots in 2025, a 20% year-on-year increase; the United States grew 12% compared to 2024 to 38,500 units; and Japan, although it decreased 19% year-on-year, installed 36,219 robots in production plants.
In contrast, Mexico saw a 7% decrease in robot installations during the period , according to IFR data. The executive explained that 65% of the robots installed in the country are concentrated in automotive companies, so the investment cycles of this sector have a significant impact on market behavior.
This situation does not mean that Mexican industry lacks the capacity to adopt these technologies. On the contrary, Diorio highlighted examples of plants located in Nuevo León, such as Lenovo, that already use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve their processes and optimize their operations , anticipate failures, and enhance the quality of their products.
One of Diorio’s central arguments was that automation should be understood as a comprehensive transformation of processes and not as the simple acquisition of machinery .
To achieve this, he identified four levers that companies should consider: measure, decouple, consolidate, and predict .
The first step involves connecting the machines and collecting information to understand the actual performance of the plants, identify losses, and establish efficiency indicators, such as the overall effectiveness of the equipment.
The second seeks to decouple the operation from the permanent presence of workers, through automated processes that allow machines to continue working for longer periods.
The third focuses on consolidating operations, that is, reducing the steps needed to manufacture a part. Finally, the fourth lever involves using artificial intelligence to anticipate failures, reduce waste, and decrease downtime .
These tools would also allow for better use of industrial assets, as he considered that a significant portion of the machines’ available time remains unused.
In that regard, he questioned why companies keep high-value equipment idle for extended periods, when they could increase its utilization through better production scheduling and automated processes.
The conversation highlighted that reducing working hours should not automatically translate into higher production costs, provided that companies identify opportunities for improvement within their facilities.
“The law limits the number of hours people can work, but not machines,” Diorio summarized, insisting that the challenge for Mexican manufacturing will be to leverage technology to produce more efficiently and maintain its competitiveness in international markets.
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