Kuka opens Monterrey centre to double robotics training
KUKA México has inaugurated an Innovation and Technology Development Center in Monterrey, positioning the company to double its annual robotics training capacity from approximately 550 engineers to more than 1,100. The expansion comes as Mexico faces a projected shortage of approximately 150,000 skilled workers in the engineering sector by 2025, with robotics and automation specialists among the most in-demand roles.
The 500 square meter facility is located within the research and technology park of Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), the third largest public university in Mexico. Founded in 1933, UANL currently educates over 221,000 students through more than 7,100 professors, making it a strategic partner for industrial skills development.
The center will host KUKA's Industrial Robot College and Mobile Robot College programmes, alongside providing technical support and hands-on demonstrations for automotive, intralogistics, electronics and metalworking applications. At the opening, the facility showcased robots for MIG welding, autonomous mobile robots for intralogistics and KUKA College training cells.
"By establishing a stronger presence in Northern Mexico, we are working more closely with our customers, partners and educational institutions to expand robotic automation training," said Christopher Hernandez Moya, Managing Director of KUKA México.
Strategic location in Mexico's manufacturing heartland
The Monterrey location places KUKA's training operations at the center of Mexico's industrial ecosystem. Nuevo León is home to more than 200 automotive-related companies and hosts over 120 industrial parks, making it Mexico's largest industrial real estate market. The state government's cluster strategy, introduced in 2004, has expanded to 15 strategic clusters by 2024, including automotive, aerospace, appliances and medical devices.
Mexico currently ranks fourth globally in robotics and automation with over 40,000 industrial robots installed, with the automotive sector being the principal driver of robotics deployment in the country. The concentration of automotive and electronics manufacturers in Nuevo León makes the region particularly suitable for robotics training expansion.
Three decades of robotics leadership
The center opening coincides with KUKA's 30th anniversary in Mexico. The company entered the country in 1996 with its first major project alongside Volkswagen for the Jetta A3 and new Beetle models, marking the beginning of automotive robotics deployment in Mexico. Initially focused on serving the automotive industry, KUKA México now works with electronics, consumer goods, food and beverage, logistics, healthcare and plastics manufacturers.
KUKA is one of the world's leading robotics companies with over 550,000 robots installed globally and approximately 15,000 employees operating in more than 50 countries. The company developed the world's first industrial robot with six electrically driven axes, the FAMULUS, in 1973, establishing itself as a pioneer in the robotics industry.
The training expansion addresses a critical workforce development need in Mexico, where approximately 124,000 students graduated from engineering, manufacturing and construction programs in the 2021 academic year, representing about 26% of all higher education graduates. The new facility aims to bridge the skills gap between academic preparation and industry requirements in robotics and automation.
