Robot Invasion

We us many robots in our manufacturing plant. The robots are a threat to unskilled workers. Robots have replaced many of those jobs over the years that I have worked here. There have been some jobs created for skilled technicians at about a 10 to 1 ration, for every 10 jobs we lose we make one technicians job.

Robots have improved our productivity at the cost of jobs, and I am a part of that process as I have integrated most of the robots into our operations.

Mike

Yeh but they are a poor replacement for the tea lady .

I agree with MrRoboto above. Although I haven't dealt with robotics for quite awhile, process control/automation of any sort have the same hallmarks. The less capable workers view it as a threat.

Here is the cycle: 1. Automation (for whatever reason) is installed. 2. Because the automation takes care of things so well, the operators get less and less "hands on" operating time. 3. Less operating time means that they are less prepared to handle any situations that arise. 4. Since they cannot handle the situations when they do arise, management calls for more and more automation/complex programming to handle those situations. 5. Loop back up to 2.

And yes, I am part of that cycle by adding more automation.

"...lacking the ability to see and hear, and with limited tactile sensation"

They also lack the complaints, vacation days, mood swings, etc... I, too, have automated large parts of our processes (and continue to do so every chance I get). The company I work for had almost no competition for the first 50 years and things ran at a pace set by the workers with the company "deciding" on the final price tag. Over the past decade or so, a bunch of competitor have sprung up to take a bite out of the market and without automation, the company would not exist anymore (or at least, not supporting 3000+ employees).

The success of developing countries, like China & India, proved that workforce still dominating the market. Human are still more cheap & reliable than robots...