Industry Brief, September 16, 2026: MEP awards, humanoid cobot demand, packaging report

By MillBrief Editorial · September 16, 2026 · Retrospective edition, published September 23, 2026

This is a retrospective edition. The brief did not run on September 16, 2026; we wrote it on September 23, 2026 using only reporting that was published on or shortly before September 16, 2026, and it makes no forecasts.

This is a retrospective edition covering September 16, 2026, using only reporting published on or up to two days before that date. Today: NIST funds a round of Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers to help smaller manufacturers adopt automation, a Schneider Electric executive says humanoids get too much attention, humanoid makers become a new market for cobot arms, and PMMI publishes its packaging machinery report. Our own words, links to the original outlet, vendor numbers labelled as vendor numbers.

NIST awards more than $30 million to 12 MEP centers

NIST announced more than $30 million for 12 Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers to help small and medium-sized manufacturers adopt AI, robotics, automation and additive manufacturing. The centers are in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Utah and Vermont. The largest awards went to Pennsylvania ($6,110,684) and Ohio ($6,076,983). New organizations were selected in Louisiana, Missouri and Ohio.

Awardees must find at least 50% nonfederal matching funds, and the money covers only the first year of an agreement of up to five years. The centers must also develop technology-adoption metrics to share across the network. The funding call covered 13 states and Puerto Rico, but no centers were selected for Alaska or California; NIST plans to take applications for those two states in a competition in early 2027. Manufacturing Dive reports that NIST did not respond when asked why. The wider MEP network has nearly 1,400 advisers at more than 450 service locations, according to NIST.

Why it matters: Your state MEP center is often the cheapest first stop for an automation assessment, and this round is aimed squarely at technology adoption. If you are in one of these states, ask your center what help it offers with scoping a first project before you call vendors. See what to automate first and is automation worth it for a small manufacturer.

Sources: NIST, September 15, 2026; Manufacturing Dive, September 16, 2026.

A Schneider executive: ask whether you need a humanoid at all

In an interview with Manufacturing Dive, Andre Marino, Schneider Electric’s senior vice president of industrial automation for North America, said humanoids are getting “too much attention” and are becoming a distraction. He said companies should ask whether they really need a humanoid and what problem they are trying to solve, since different robot forms solve different problems.

Marino argued that “the transformation cannot be limited to the 10% of companies at the top” and said many smaller manufacturers are not exposed to the shift to software-defined automation, which decouples PLCs and other hardware from the software layer. He said that shift also helps with hiring, since it is easier to find people who can program in Python than PLC programmers. He said adoption is moving fastest in water utilities, which have very old infrastructure, and among makers of power generators, because of their ties to data centers. He warned against “pilots forever”: define the problem first, then add sensors and build the digital framework. He said Schneider’s Lexington, Kentucky, plant cut paper use by 90% and saw 25% energy savings (company figures).

Why it matters: The advice fits a small plant well: start from the task, not the robot. For most first projects, the realistic choice is between a cobot and an industrial arm, and engineers wish buyers knew that a clearly defined problem matters more than the hardware.

Source: Manufacturing Dive, September 16, 2026.

Humanoid makers become a big new buyer of cobot arms

TechTarget reports an Interact Analysis forecast that cobot shipments to humanoid manufacturers will jump from 5,000 units in 2025 to more than 43,000 in 2026, more than eightfold (43,000 ÷ 5,000 = 8.6), as humanoid makers buy proven arms instead of building everything in-house. China is expected to supply most of them. Interact estimates humanoid applications could eventually add 10% to 30% to cobot vendors’ revenue by 2030.

Interact analyst Mike Yang said this could create a two-tier market: longer lead times for high-performance humanoid arms and more price pressure on standard hardware. He said the firm does “not expect a broad-based capacity shortage across the cobot industry.” Separately, robotics professor Bram Vanderborght of Vrije Universiteit Brussel said the more useful line is not cobot versus humanoid but safe versus fast: “We need to kill the difference between fast but unsafe industrial arms, and slow but safe cobots.”

Why it matters: For a buyer of ordinary cobots, the forecast points to price pressure, not shortages, on standard arms. If you need a high-performance arm, check lead times early. Watch the cobot price tracker and our cobot cost guide.

Source: TechTarget, September 16, 2026.

PMMI: packaging machinery demand shifts to flexible lines

Modern Materials Handling reports on PMMI’s 2026 Packaging State of the Industry Report. The trade association estimates U.S. packaging machinery shipments at $11.7 billion in 2025, with food about 44% of the total ($5.1 billion, projected to reach about $7.1 billion by 2031). Canadian shipments were about $1.2 billion in 2025, up 3.6%, and 91% of Canada’s packaging machinery exports went to the United States.

The report says more SKUs, shorter runs and new package formats are pushing manufacturers away from dedicated equipment toward systems with faster changeovers. Robotic palletizing is gaining ground where SKUs, case sizes and pallet patterns change often, although cost, speed and integration needs still decide which technology fits. Early AI uses include capturing knowledge from retiring staff and helping with real-time troubleshooting.

Why it matters: End-of-line palletizing is a common first automation project for food and consumer-goods plants. If your SKU count is rising, specify changeover time and pallet-pattern changes in the quote, not just cases per minute. Our RFQ generator can help, and the TCO calculator covers the full cost.

Source: Modern Materials Handling, September 16, 2026.