The Manufacturing Executive How Humanoid Robots Are Already Transforming Production Lines w/ Colin Webb and Paul Baker
Feb 17, 2026
Colin Webb, founder of Avatar Robotics, builds humanoid robot workforces for manual industrial tasks. Paul Baker, CFO of Productive, runs warehouse operations and deploys humanoids in live lines. They discuss moving robots from demos to reliable production, why humanoid form matters for two-handed tasks, testing robots in live kitting lines, and how robots augment workers and reshape manufacturing roles.
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Scale And Reliability Define Readiness
- Humanoid robots reach the “party” when they can perform tens of thousands of reliable cycles daily at required throughput and accuracy.
- Colin Webb argues real-world scale and reliability—not competing startups—defines success for robotics today.
Production-as-a-Lab Experiment
- Productive treated production as a live lab, moving Avatar robots into real lines instead of controlled demos.
- Paul Baker says 90 days of live production produced far more learning and volume than any demo environment could.
Reps Drive Rapid Improvement
- High-repetition live runs accelerate learning; one Avatar can perform thousands of picks per day across SKUs.
- Paul Baker notes 150,000 reps per month drives rapid iteration and improvement.