With Germany's acute labour shortage leaving few candidates to take on the skilled but dirty and hazardous manual work, the company will replace him with a robot. Other small and medium-sized companies are also turning to automation as the gradual exit from the workplace of Germany's post-war "baby boom" generation tightens the labour squeeze. Managing director Henning Schloeder cited that trend to explain S&D Blech's push over several years towards automation and digitalisation, saying: "This will further aggravate the already difficult skilled labour situation, particularly in production and crafts."