BENTON HARBOR, MI—Whirlpool Corp. has received 2022 Manufacturing Leadership Awards for its Project Tracking System and Global Kaizen Power Pitch project.

COPENHAGEN—Bosch Rexroth Corp. has acquired a majority stake in Kassow Robots ApS, which specializes in seven-axis cobots that can work in tight spaces.

DETROIT/TOKYO—General Motors and Honda recently announced plans to codevelop a series of affordable electric vehicles based on a new global architecture using next-generation Ultium battery technology.

SUDBURY, MA—Methods Machine Tools, a supplier of automation and CNC machine tools, says it will open a production and distribution center in Fort Worth, TX, in February 2023.

TOKYO—SoftBank Robotics Europe says it will acquire a minority stake in the United Robotics Group, a German distributor of service robots.

WASHINGTON—The manufacturing sector boosted U.S. employment by 38,000 jobs in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last
Friday.

MIAMI—To highlight unique careers and companies in the welding and metal fabrication industries, the American Welding Society has launched Metal America, a new video series streaming exclusively on YouTube.

TOKYO—Mitsubishi Electric Corp. says it has acquired 42,000 square meters of land in Owariasahi City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, where
it will build a new plant to manufacture factory automation control system products starting in April 2025.

SHANGHAI—China’s biggest microchip producer, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., and Apple Inc. supplier Pegatron
Corp. continue to operate factories here during the city’s most-recent COVID-19 lockdown by isolating workers and running a closed-off procedure allowed by local authorities.

SEOUL—LG Electronics says it will invest 851.9 billion won (nearly $700 million) in its plants this year to increase white goods
production worldwide.