A Las Vegas-based company is providing manufacturers with what can only be described as a rent-a-robot service.
AAA20 Group’s business model is “flexible, robotic automation,” which prevents companies from having to purchase and make space for permanent machines, said co-founder Marcus Kurle. The company instead rents machines to other entities for cheaper than manual labor, Kurle said, functioning not unlike subscription services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime.
“Let’s say you produce candles, for example, and during the holidays of Christmas you produce 50% more,” he said. “You rent a robot for three months. In January, you call me and say, ‘Hey, I don’t need the robot anymore. Take it.’ … Then I move to a factory that makes chocolate for Easter, and they need it for three months, and then they take it out. And then I send (it) to Napa Valley for a winemaker, (who) only produces wine for three months during harvest.”
Now, AAA20 Group is expanding with its third and largest facility in Las Vegas—a 9,000-square-foot robotic manufacturing complex with the capacity to assemble around 20 robots, each nearly the size of a car.
The new AAA20 Group facility is also strategically located within minutes of Harry Reid International Airport. When a manufacturer buys robotic equipment, it can take up to 18 months to receive it, Kurle said. So when a company rents that equipment instead, they want it as soon as possible.
“Many of my machines are produced to have in stock,” Kurle said. “So when the customer calls me, I say, ‘No problem. I’ll ship it to you next week.’”
Diversification of Southern Nevada’s economy has been a priority for leaders for quite some time, said Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft. Bringing in a company with high-tech experience and background like AAA20 Group is a priority for economic development, he said.
“All of the organizations, from the state to the county, have been working to prioritize diversifying our economy for my whole life,” Naft said. “So to see that happen, and this be one example of that, is really an exciting thing.”
There’s been an organic migration of tech companies like AAA20 Group from places like California to Nevada, Naft said, so local leaders are trying to foster the tech corridor and make sure it’s appealing.
He pointed to the low cost of living, competitive quality of life and taxes, the number of visitors to Las Vegas and more as benefits of settling a business here.
Though AAA20 group was originally established in Chicago, Kurle said the company moved to Las Vegas for weather, cost of living and warehouses, and the convenience of the airport.
He also pointed to Las Vegas’ proximity to manufacturing hubs in California.
“Being here is very strategic for logistics, besides the cost and the weather,” he said. “And now, in the last year and a half, I developed a great relationship with UNLV as well, and I just hired two graduates from there.”
It’s integral to have opportunities and employers who are willing to hire locally if people who are educated at UNLV are going to remain a part of the Southern Nevada community for a long time, Naft said.
“Not only is it good for the community, but it’s good for the university system in Southern Nevada to have feeder programs like this one where jobs are being created for these specific skills that are being learned right here in Las Vegas,” Naft said. “I think that is vitally important.”
While one goal of automation may be to prevent having to hire and pay for more physical labor on the factory floor, Kurle emphasized that the robots themselves are not completely autonomous and just redefine the job descriptions of workers.
“It’s much more fun work to do, and less, let’s say, injury-related,” he said. “Usually our customers call us when they have over 50 people. So whenever they get over 50 people, it’s time for them to consider some robots, because they can duplicate their capacity without needing another 50 people.”
With regard to AAA20 Group’s main product of palletizers—robots that carry boxes and place them on pallets—Kurle said the machines do a job that “nobody wants to do.”
“That’s the point,” he said. “Some of my customers, they cannot produce more because they don’t have people to do those jobs. But someone needs to do it because the box will not fly to the supermarket.”
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