4 ms·

Keep in mind that workers in the EU work for around 6 hours a day, a robot works for 24, so it's replacing 4 of them, not 1.

kaplun 2y ago
6? Not 8?
- llm_trw 2y ago
  Lunch and breakfast are serious business.
  - muspimerol 2y ago
    Huh? The average working week in the EU is 37.5 hours a week, or 7.5 hours a day: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20230920-1 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/d... Breakfast and lunch are not paid breaks in any EU country as far as I know.
    - Gare 2y ago
      > Breakfast and lunch are not paid breaks in any EU country as far as I know. One 30 minute break (lunch break) is paid in Croatia and Slovenia
    - Ekaros 2y ago
      It really depends. For Finland lunch is unpaid unless you are forced to eat at premises. But then you usually have 2 refreshment breaks (10-15min) which are paid...
- bottom999mottob 2y ago
  Assuming a lunch break is not included as part of 8 hours, do you really think most exmployees are productive for a full 8 hours? Most office workers spend an exorbitant amount of time twiddling their thumbs, reading emails, going to the restroom. On average, I'd say knowledge workers are typically productive for about 2 to 3 hours per day. I'd estimate physical laborers range up to 4 or 5 hours. Assuming 8 hours of full productivity is a strange number to focus on
- Krssst 2y ago
  I was surprised too but I guess OP included the weekends too since robots don't need those off. So 40 hours divided by 7 days.
NoLinkToMe 2y ago
Good point, although it probably won't be 4 for most labs, perhaps 2. My gf does 1 nightshift a week and she is alone in the lab for the 3-4 emergency samples that come in (versus a team of people processing hundreds during the day), there simply isn't much demand at night. Most blood sampling has a human pipeline of people going to their doctor or hospital with an issue, getting blood taken, which is sent to a lab, the majority of that during the day. Again for large scale centralised labs that get sent samples throughout the 24 hour period from all across the world, where timing isn't an big issue, this could work. But most labs are small, close to the customer, time-sensitive, and work with couriers to bring samples because samples need to be transported and stored in specific ways not to go bad. She works quite long shifts btw (10-12h), but that's more a function of her country/company culture rather than the norm. Probably 6-8 is more common indeed.
- vidarh 2y ago
  How much of the timing on samples is down to lab availability, though? E.g. my gp wants samples in by 1pm because otherwise they'll got to the lab the following day. If the lab would still process things that came in at the end of the day, I could very much see larger doctors offices sending off samples more than once a day, with the last one coming in after the end of their clinics. I could see demand spreading out more - though I agree it might be closer to 2 than 4 - if the availability of human labor wasn't an issue.

kaplun 2y ago

6? Not 8?

llm_trw 2y ago
Lunch and breakfast are serious business.
- muspimerol 2y ago
  Huh? The average working week in the EU is 37.5 hours a week, or 7.5 hours a day: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20230920-1 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/d... Breakfast and lunch are not paid breaks in any EU country as far as I know.
  - Gare 2y ago
    > Breakfast and lunch are not paid breaks in any EU country as far as I know. One 30 minute break (lunch break) is paid in Croatia and Slovenia
  - Ekaros 2y ago
    It really depends. For Finland lunch is unpaid unless you are forced to eat at premises. But then you usually have 2 refreshment breaks (10-15min) which are paid...
bottom999mottob 2y ago
Assuming a lunch break is not included as part of 8 hours, do you really think most exmployees are productive for a full 8 hours? Most office workers spend an exorbitant amount of time twiddling their thumbs, reading emails, going to the restroom. On average, I'd say knowledge workers are typically productive for about 2 to 3 hours per day. I'd estimate physical laborers range up to 4 or 5 hours. Assuming 8 hours of full productivity is a strange number to focus on
Krssst 2y ago
I was surprised too but I guess OP included the weekends too since robots don't need those off. So 40 hours divided by 7 days.

NoLinkToMe 2y ago

Good point, although it probably won't be 4 for most labs, perhaps 2. My gf does 1 nightshift a week and she is alone in the lab for the 3-4 emergency samples that come in (versus a team of people processing hundreds during the day), there simply isn't much demand at night. Most blood sampling has a human pipeline of people going to their doctor or hospital with an issue, getting blood taken, which is sent to a lab, the majority of that during the day. Again for large scale centralised labs that get sent samples throughout the 24 hour period from all across the world, where timing isn't an big issue, this could work. But most labs are small, close to the customer, time-sensitive, and work with couriers to bring samples because samples need to be transported and stored in specific ways not to go bad. She works quite long shifts btw (10-12h), but that's more a function of her country/company culture rather than the norm. Probably 6-8 is more common indeed.

vidarh 2y ago
How much of the timing on samples is down to lab availability, though? E.g. my gp wants samples in by 1pm because otherwise they'll got to the lab the following day. If the lab would still process things that came in at the end of the day, I could very much see larger doctors offices sending off samples more than once a day, with the last one coming in after the end of their clinics. I could see demand spreading out more - though I agree it might be closer to 2 than 4 - if the availability of human labor wasn't an issue.