Posted on 01/07/2015 11:47:10 PM PST by dennisw
Technology innovators and CEOs seem positively giddy nowadays about what the future will bring.
New manufacturing technologies have generated feverish excitement about what some see as a Third Industrial Revolution. In the years ahead, technological improvements in robotics and automation will boost productivity and efficiency, implying significant economic gains for companies. But, unless the proper policies to nurture job growth are put in place, it remains uncertain whether demand for labor will continue to grow as technology marches forward.
Recent technological advances have three biases: They tend to be capital-intensive (thus favoring those who already have financial resources); skill-intensive (thus favoring those who already have a high level of technical proficiency); and labor-saving (thus reducing the total number of unskilled and semi-skilled jobs in the economy). The risk is that robotics and automation will displace workers in blue-collar manufacturing jobs before the dust of the Third Industrial Revolution settles.
The rapid development of smart software over the last few decades has been perhaps the most important force shaping the coming manufacturing revolution. Software innovation, together with 3D printing technologies, will open the door to those workers who are educated enough to participate; for everyone else, however, it may feel as though the revolution is happening elsewhere. Indeed, the factory of the future may be 1,000 robots and one worker manning them. Even the shop floor can be swept better and cheaper by a Roomba robot than by any worker.
For the developed countries, this may seem like old news. After all, for the last 30 years, the manufacturing base in Asia’s emerging economies has been displacing that of the old industrial powers of Western Europe and North America. But there is no guarantee that gains in service-sector employment will continue to offset the resulting job losses in industry.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
#ifixrobots
#ibreakrobots so I see the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
I will take a course at my local community college and become a certified robot repairman.
Wait until the robots start a union.
“proper policies?”
Ok, you win. LOL
I figure the locker has cost at least three jobs, all around.
I have been looking into a possible job opportunity as a field application engineer working on robots for the auto industry. I know a lot of the guys in my church who work there.
Interesting Documentary on the subject, well worth the time it takes to watch.
Cue Mr. Bender.
As with everything you will find work if you have prepared properly.
If you design and build robots you will thrive.
If you do high wage low value added work you will be replaced.
“I will take a course at my local community college and become a certified robot repairman.”
You’ll have to do your repairing at least two or three times removed. Robots will repair robots, will repair robots, etc, you get the idea....
Page Kryten.
The ‘government’ will outsource humanity ... we’ll all turn into the fat, lazy entitlement cattle that already populate parts of the country.
I will have no problem find work in the Robot Revolution.
I will be the one designing and building the robots.
Background: The reason Free traitors gave us why this country needed to offshore manufacturing was to fight the unions and lower costs with cheap slave labor.
OK, if a factory is say 100% automated and labor costs are no longer an issue then why does it need to be in China? What is the new excuse for back stabbing the USA and enabling our enemies?
“Understandably, not a “robot” issue—but in the manufacturing facility where I work, there is a (replacement) parts locker where the supervisors can log in, extract a part, and log out.”
When my next to last employer ran their own stockroom they were always coming up short. The inventory would say there were 10 parts and there were none in the bin. The reason was they employed expediters who would get a ladder and climb over the wall to get parts to keep the line going when the stockroom was closed. The more outrageous these got in stealing parts the faster they got promoted. Then, the company outsourced to a different company that wasn’t in the same building. That company was open whenever the main company was building. So, the parts had to be moved the legal way. (The outsourced company got paid based on metrics of never being without a part that was needed.) Problem solved.
My next company also outsourced. There were vending machines all over the plant. An employee swiped their badge and the machine dropped the parts into a bin and the employee opened a door and removed them. The machines were all internet connected and somebody from that company kept them refilled and serviced. It virtually illuminated parts shortages.
The pharmacist at Publix told me that they would eventually close all the Publix store pharmacies and replace them with an automated warehouse that mailed the prescriptions. They’d either go to your house directly, or if a controlled substance would go to a Publix where you’d pick it up from a regular employee. If you have a question you’ll be instantly connected to their English speaking pharmacist in Bangalapore. All those awesome $60,000 pharmacy jobs are about to become a part of history.
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