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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Robot Workers Taking Over Global Industry Politicians ramble about how America needs to return to our manufacturing roots in order to reboot our sunken economy. But, what if it's too late? What if a super-group of the world's most highly-trained, strongest, tireless, and resilient workers has upstaged not only America's manufacturers, but the world's? If you know anything about modern day robots, you probably know that this is a real concern. As a new and ever-improving wave of skilled robots enter the global workforce, factories across the globe will be forever changed. Off the coast of China in Crachten, the Netherlands, there's a famous factory known as Philips Electronics. They maintain hundreds of employees to perform some meticulous work, using their hands and special tools to create electric shavers. But it's sister factory over in the Dutch countryside has an alternate method. They've got 128 robot arms doing the exact same work, working so fast that human-supervisors has enclosed the robot arms in glass cages in order to prevent injuries. Robots now exist to do slave labor work humans have deemed too tedious. The core of manufacturing – the original Latin phrase literally means to make things (factura) using your hands (manu) – is in the midst of a major transition as modern industrial robots are taking over. Manufacturing robots were first used in 1961 when General Motors began using Unimate – a 4,000 pounds arm attached to a steel drum. The company used Unimate to weld auto bodies together; a process deemed dangerous for humans. Ever since GE's success, factory owners grew increasingly attracted to these “no-nonsense” new additions with the ability to improve productivity exponentially. Five decades later, and these simple industrial robots have evolved into a far more adept method for production. If you, your friends, or your family work in the manufacturing or distribution fields, jobs are at risk as these new machines are replacing workers. It's happening everywhere. Binne Visser, an electrical engineer who manages the Philips assembly line in Drachten admits, “With these machines, we can make any consumer device in the world.” According to the New York Times: Many industry executives and technology experts say Philips’s approach is gaining ground on Apple’s. Even as Foxconn, Apple’s iPhone manufacturer, continues to build new plants and hire thousands of additional workers to make smartphones, it plans to install more than a million robots within a few years to supplement its work force in China. Foxconn has not disclosed how many workers will be displaced or when. But its chairman, Terry Gou, has publicly endorsed a growing use of robots. Speaking of his more than one million employees worldwide, he said in January, according to the official Xinhua news agency: “As human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache.” The economic ramifications are expected to be profound, according to economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee. To find out just how severe the implications are likely to be, check out their recent book: “Race Against the Machine.” There are obvious pros and cons to these new robotic trends. For labor workers, having robots on board equates to fewer injuries, less stress (in many cases), and a less mundane work environment. Unfortunately, it also equates to greater unemployment rates for the manufacturing sector – once the strong backbone of our formerly booming economy. In one example, a single Kroger warehouse let go of approximately 20 percent of its work force after installing a German system that automatically stores and retrieves cases of food... This situations is no longer a rarity; soon it will be the norm. Robots will take the place of many low-skill, low-wage jobs. Companies like Federal Express and United Parcel Service currently employee thousands of workers whose jobs are at risk as well. Despite the controversy surrounding this scenario, there's no denying that robots are the wave of the future. Embracing them and learning how to capitalize on them will be key for investors in this decade's wildly volatile market. Gary Bradski, a machine-vision scientist who is a founder of Industrial Perception said that he believes the robotics revolution will “ultimately have as big an impact as the Internet.” +7 Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
The Industrial Revolution is over. We lost.
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