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Is That a Robot in My Factory? Jim McCoym, CIO, Raytheon Missile Systems [NYSE: RTN] Jim McCoym, CIO, Raytheon Missile Systems [NYSE: RTN] When you walk into the factories at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona, don’t be surprised to find robots working side-by-side with humans on the production lines. These automated workers have long had a place in other industries such as automotive, but thanks to some significant investments in manufacturing, the world’s largest missile maker has made the move to automation. “We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in...

Unlike most large urban jails that are located in the heart of downtown, santa rita is nestled among foothills. some 30 miles away from the tough oakland streets where most of its inmates were taken into custody. mornings here often begin shrouded in pacific coast fog and then something else that makes this place unique slowly breaks through -- the jail's robotic workforce. >> a lot of inmates will look at them. and the first thing they ask is, are at the a coffin? >> when i first saw that, it actually scared me. i thought they was shipping bodies out of here. i thought i was going to get kill...

>> what they do is they deliver food, supplies, clothing, linen to the housing units here at santa rita jail. we're a half mile fence to fence, so it would take a lot of inmates, a lot of the inmate labor, deputies to supervise is the inmates to transport those items to the units so these robots do it for us. we're the only facility i know that actually has this kind of a system. it runs is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. >> the agvs utilize a wire guided navigation system which is built into two miles of track running between all the jail's housing units and service areas. the series of se...

>> they will get a charge in the battery area and go out for one service around the jail. and then they will return to the battery area to get a quick charge, usually about three minutes and it's ready to go. >> they deliver about 1,000 meals a day. this is a custom design that was designed specifically for the sheriff's department. and they're designed in this shape so they fit underneath the food carts. >> santa rita robots. this is how our meals are brought to us. >> some inmates even foresee a day when robots might just replace some other common fixtures at the jail. >> pretty soon they're...

Our laundry and our supply. >> silently making their way through the tunnels are 24 automated guided vehicles or agvs. around here, the they're more commonly referred to as robots. >> they transport thousands of meals, tons of laundry and countless supplies throughout a jail facility that's a half a mile in length and a quarter mile in width. while the system appears futuristic, it's actually more than two decades old. and was nearly doomed from the beginning. >> the company that installed the system went bankrupt after they installed it here at santa rita jail. so we went ahead and hired on s...