Posted on 02/25/2016 5:50:01 PM PST by BenLurkin
"Robots can't deal with the degree of individualization and the many variants that we have today," said the company's head of production Markus Schaefer. "We're saving money and safeguarding our future by employing more people."
The change comes at a time when a number of companies are replacing people with robotic devices. International Federation of Robotics (IFR) released a survey today stating that 1.3 million of the industrial robots will be in use by 2018. In fact, the number of those machines rose 43 percent in a year between 2013 and 2014. However, as Mercedes continues to expand the options available on its vehicles, the robots aren't able to adapt to new tasks. They're better suited for doing the same jobs repeatedly.
(Excerpt) Read more at engadget.com ...
Humans are better than machines to do work. A robot is only as good as the idiot who programmed it.
Back in the 80s we used to joke that Roger Smith’s goal at GM was to replace every assembly line worker with two EDS robot programmers.
One company -- I think it was Ford -- looked for the most cost-effective way to replace as many humans as possible on the assembly line. This was difficult to implement because they ran into all kinds of opposition from the UAW.
Another company -- I think it was Volvo -- interviewed their workers and asked them what parts of their jobs they hated most. They then went about designing robots to replace those particular functions. As a result, the union was thrilled to see the robots added to the assembly process.
Kind of interesting how that all works ...
are robots really cheaper than human labor? How expensive is it to repair those robots when something breaks?
“...the robots aren’t able to adapt to new tasks. They’re better suited for doing the same jobs repeatedly.”
The robot will do what it’s told to do. Unless Mercedes is thinking hiring some of those “refugees” will be cheaper and enable them to better suck up to the gov’t.
I think these days, the industry best uses robots where there is heavy lifting (ex: installing windshield) or safety concerns (ex: welding).
Robots have their place, and a multi-axis CNC machine can produce better parts than even a skilled machinist. But it is not a toolmaker, and that is a skill you can’t teach a machine. Many of the toolmakers I have worked with over the years have been artists, who made tools that were as much a work of art, as tool.
Tool and Die guys are dying breed unfortunately.
what is wrong with a having a job that requires some amount of physical labor? this country has become a lazy, desk-bound bunch, imo.
Hey! Don’t silicon-based citizens have any rights? Is no one concerned about depressed, unemployed robots hanging out at the dump, rusting and overdosing on hydrolytic fluid?
Interesting... this looks like the difference between mindless trends and knowledgeable planning.
Robots can do great stuff today and the technology has never been better. And yet we have not ginned up any respectable kind of artificial intuition. We find ourselves climbing a daunting complexity mountain. Maybe our models of intelligence, in fact, are wrong. Maybe the theologians had it right when saying we were empowered by a divinely sustained soul, and there’s much more to it than our bodies.
The use of robotics depends on the job being done. Some are simple and repetitive and can be more effective with machines like welding a certain spot quickly on an assembly line.
Others require more human thinking and judgement. It’s been this way forever.
And as many or more jobs are created to operate, maintain and audit the computers and robots.
I worked in a factory in Ft. Smith (Whirlpool - made refigerators) in the summer of 1977 and 1978 while I was in college. Anyone thinking that’s as far in life they want to go and work there for years and years are not the brightest bulb in the box. Some jobs were literally putting small pieces of plastic into a hole to help seal the unit before foaming.
These days, a skilled toolmaker is a hard guy to find.
And the ones who are artists, trained by company sponsored apprentice programs, are exceedingly rare these days. They were the ones with real talent.
...and maintains it, cleans it, repairs it....
I have learned a thing about manufacturing with robots. The number of employees goes down but not by as much as you might think. The offset is the higher skilled tech folks that must program and maintain the robots (engineers). The real savings (I've seen) is in the consistent productivity and the consistent quality control.
They also need to be monitored and maintained. A malfunctioning or slightly maladjusted robot will happily plug along ruining materials until corrected.
That ‘idiot” that programmed the robot in all likelihood makes several times what you make. Now if you could get paid for making ‘idiot posts, well...
Somewhat. It depends upon the task. The key is to figure out where they make sense, and where they do not.
Something I found to be an interesting bit of trivia, is that Rolex watches are now almost entirely manufactured by machines. There is one part that has to be done by hand, however, and that is putting the numbers and markers on the dial. Apparently a machine can't do the job as well as a human being.
Precisely. My uncle had a friend who works in a auto factory and ‘a whole damn lot’ of cars were absolutely ruined when it was discovered that a robot had gone through the motions of welding without actually turning on the torch. A human would have ruined MAYBE one or two cars before going “hey, WTF, this thing ain’t working.”
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