At modern auto plants, some tasks, like welding together a car's body, are entirely automated. But other essential jobs, including major portions of final assembly, are still best left to people.

The latest Clean Energy Jobs Midwest report shows Indiana added more than 17,000 jobs in manufacturing and sales for hybrid and electric vehicles.

The Brooking Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program says Indiana has the highest percentage of jobs that could be lost due to automation in the near future.

Purdue University is expanding research into advanced manufacturing with a new laboratory.

According to a recent report, the risk of robots replacing workers is highest in Indiana and Kentucky, where some counties have nearly half the workforce employed in the labor-intensive manufacturing and transportation industries.

The facility soon to be built on the west side of Muncie is Waelz Sustainable Products. It's a joint venture between Mexico-based Zinc Nacional and Indianapolis-based Heritage Environmental.

An aluminum auto parts maker in Richmond says it will expand, telling the state it will create up to 200 jobs in the next four years.

Indiana is one of top manufacturing states in the country, accounting for more than $98 billion in state output in 2016.

The company says more than 6,000 employees work at these plants. It expects to cut 15 percent of its workforce in order to save some $6 billion by the end of 2020.