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I watch a lot of How It's Made. On many episodes you'll see an assembly line that is almost entirely automated, except for some small section. Sometimes that se

I watch a lot of How It's Made. On many episodes you'll see an assembly line that is almost entirely automated, except for some small section. Sometimes that section involves (A) precision work that we haven't yet figured out how to automate. Most other times it seems to be (B) extremely "automatable" work (e.g. grabbing widgets six at a time and putting them in a package) that leaves me scratching my head as to why the robots aren't there as well. I watch these episodes and think to myself that these workers are just the last portion of the line to be replaced by robots, and it's only a matter of time, capital, or both. Demos like this move the line between (A) and (B). The Industrial Revolution was only a half-step--just the "brawn" part. Now we're in the middle of the "brains" part, and the outcome is both exciting and scary.

spyder 12y ago
There are already factories that can run unsupervised. It's called "lights out manufacturing" and one of those factories is building robots: "Robots are building other robots at a rate of about 50 per 24-hour shift and can run unsupervised for as long as 30 days at a time" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_out_%28manufacturing%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_out_%28manufacturing%29
fauldsh 12y ago
My presumption was it came down to money. Machines have a lot higher initial one off costs. The repair costs of some robots might make them more expensive per hour. Humans are tried and tested, they don't break-down and stop your production line. When designing the production lines they must weigh up the cost of a machine at each stage (initial cost, elec, repairs) vs workers and decide a time-frame they want to project and compare the costs over (because of their higher initial cost the longer period you do your projection over the more likely a robot will ever be cheaper).

spyder 12y ago

There are already factories that can run unsupervised. It's called "lights out manufacturing" and one of those factories is building robots: "Robots are building other robots at a rate of about 50 per 24-hour shift and can run unsupervised for as long as 30 days at a time" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_out_%28manufacturing%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_out_%28manufacturing%29

fauldsh 12y ago

My presumption was it came down to money. Machines have a lot higher initial one off costs. The repair costs of some robots might make them more expensive per hour. Humans are tried and tested, they don't break-down and stop your production line. When designing the production lines they must weigh up the cost of a machine at each stage (initial cost, elec, repairs) vs workers and decide a time-frame they want to project and compare the costs over (because of their higher initial cost the longer period you do your projection over the more likely a robot will ever be cheaper).