MES Inc., a global sourcing and supply chain solutions provider serving Fortune 500 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), has issued guidance to help robotics companies transition humanoid and mobile robots from pilot production to large-scale manufacturing. According to MES, the biggest hurdle in this transition is often hardware production rather than software development. The challenge lies in efficiently shifting dozens of structural parts from billet machining to scalable manufacturing methods, including die casting, forging, and extrusion, while maintaining consistent quality and meeting production deadlines.
Every humanoid robot built at volume still depends on dozens of cast, forged, extruded, and machined components.
Humanoid production is moving out of small-batch builds. Industry estimates put global humanoid robot shipments at roughly 13,000 to 16,000 units in 2025. In July, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said the country’s annual humanoid output is on track to top 100,000 units in 2026. In late June, AgiBot rolled its 15,000th robot off the line, less than three months after reaching 10,000. In the U.S., Tesla has announced plans for an Optimus production line designed for 1 million units a year, and Boston Dynamics expects capacity for 30,000 Atlas robots a year by 2028.
Each of those robots includes structural frames and chassis, actuator and joint housings, gearbox and harmonic drive housings, motor enclosures, and battery and electronics housings. At prototype volumes, engineering teams usually machine these parts from billet so they can change designs quickly. When volumes reach the tens or hundreds of thousands, the parts have to move to die casting, forging, and extrusion, followed by precision CNC machining on the critical interfaces.
“The parts that got a robot through its pilot builds are usually the wrong parts for volume production. A machined-from-billet housing works well when you’re building fifty units and changing the design every month. At fifty thousand units, that same housing has to become a casting or a forging, with the tooling, foundry capacity, and qualified suppliers to support it. That takes time to develop, and it should start well before the production schedule calls for it.”
-Hiten Shah, founder of MES Inc
Five constraints to address before volume production
- Porosity control in aluminum die castings that see repeated loading
- Thin-wall design tradeoffs between weight reduction and structural performance
- Tolerance stack-up across cast and machined features in complex assemblies
- Tooling lead times and the capital investment required for high-volume production
- Material and process selection that balances performance with manufacturability
“When a billet part is converted to a casting, the part itself changes. Wall sections, draft, porosity-critical surfaces and datum schemes all have to be redesigned for the new process. Then the machined features have to hold tolerance against a cast surface instead of a solid block. We work through that with engineering teams part by part, so the first production tool is right the first time.”
-Brad Layne, Engineering Manager at MES
MES supports robotics manufacturers with die casting, forging, extrusion, and precision CNC machining through a globally distributed supplier network. The company also qualifies suppliers, reviews designs for manufacturability, and manages quality across regions as programs scale.
MES Inc. is a global manufacturing sourcing and supply chain company headquartered in Lewis Center, Ohio. Founded by Hiten Shah, MES serves Fortune 500 OEMs across the automotive, energy, robotics, electrical, lighting, and construction and agriculture sectors. The company manages sourcing, quality, and delivery end-to-end through operations in the United States, Mexico, Poland, India, Vietnam, China, and beyond.
