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Back when my insomnia was really bad, I'd be up most of the night watching generally dull television. One of the most interesting shows was "How It's Made", wh

by shabble 15y ago

Back when my insomnia was really bad, I'd be up most of the night watching generally dull television. One of the most interesting shows was "How It's Made", which is an entirely narrated view following a camera through various production facilities for common(ish) products. http://science.discovery.com/tv/how-its-made/ http://science.discovery.com/tv/how-its-made/ and https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/How_It%27s_Made https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/How_It%27s_Ma... Most of the production is heavily automated, but there are always a few humans in the loop somewhere. In a lot of cases, it is exclusively loading the machine with some odd-shaped component, again and again as fast as they can. Sometimes there's a bit of excitement (poorly designed safety guards or practices), just waiting to trip someone up after they zone out midway through their 12-hour shift. I don't know what the failure figures would be like, but it's quite possible you do need that engineer on call, with his lateral-thinking brain and dexterous monkey-fingers, but otherwise, robots can do the lot, it's just a question of cost. See https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Lights_out_%28manufacturing%29 https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Lights_out_%2... for examples.

pessimizer 15y ago
That's exactly what I did - loaded the machine with some odd shaped component, again and again, as fast as I could. And somebody looked at what came out for quality control, then that was packed onto a pallet, and forklifted to somebody who loaded that stuff into another machine, or to a truck. Otherwise, robots (or dumb machines) have always done the lot.
chopsueyar 15y ago
Mattresses and incandescent light bulbs seemed to require a bit of human intervention for manufacturing, according to How It's Made.
- shabble 15y ago
  Mattresses especially fall into the 'dangerous' category from what I recall; the sewing machines would be extremely easy to run a hand or finger into if you make a mistake. Lightbulbs are probably similar to Pato11's original story; robots which can handle the glass and construct the filament supports require extremely delicate and precise control, so it's cheaper to use people. For now.

by shabble 15y ago

pessimizer 15y ago

That's exactly what I did - loaded the machine with some odd shaped component, again and again, as fast as I could. And somebody looked at what came out for quality control, then that was packed onto a pallet, and forklifted to somebody who loaded that stuff into another machine, or to a truck. Otherwise, robots (or dumb machines) have always done the lot.

chopsueyar 15y ago

Mattresses and incandescent light bulbs seemed to require a bit of human intervention for manufacturing, according to How It's Made.

shabble 15y ago
Mattresses especially fall into the 'dangerous' category from what I recall; the sewing machines would be extremely easy to run a hand or finger into if you make a mistake. Lightbulbs are probably similar to Pato11's original story; robots which can handle the glass and construct the filament supports require extremely delicate and precise control, so it's cheaper to use people. For now.