Author: automata

How Can Henry Ford Help Modern Manufacturing?

How Can Henry Ford Help Modern Manufacturing?

Workers on a Ford assembly line, circa 1913. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) Doing more with less is a common phrase in industry today. It seems like everyone is doing the work of two or three people either because they feel they have to, or they feel it’s necessary for job security. However, overworked employees may not be as focused. They’re also more prone to making costly mistakes and miss the social interactions and connections that lead to creative or innovative solutions. Is working harder and longer the answer to our economic problems, or a slippery slope that is causing […]

Robots May Take Millions of US Jobs by 2021

Robots May Take Millions of US Jobs by 2021

HowStuffWorks Now: Robots Want Our Jobs HowStuffWorks

Here’s a scary prediction: By 2021, automation will eliminate 6 percent of all jobs in the United States. But that’s where we’re heading, according to a recent report published by Brian Hopkins, an analyst at Forrester Research . To put that into perspective, there are about 144.6 million jobs in the country, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. If the employment rate doesn’t change in the next five years, that would mean machines could take nearly 8.7 million jobs.

That technology eliminates some jobs is undeniable. But it also can create new […]

AI, Robots to Eliminate 6 Percent of US Jobs by 2021, Report Says

AI, Robots to Eliminate 6 Percent of US Jobs by 2021, Report Says

According to a new report, robots and artificially intelligent machines will be taking over 6% of all jobs in the US, including customer service and transportation. (Photo : Steve Jurvetson / Creative Commons / Wikimedia Commons) Robots and AI’s will be taking over 6 percent of U.S. jobs in the next five years.

According to a report by market research company Forrester, cognitive technologies will start eliminating customer service and transportation jobs as early as 2021. Apart from these industries, the impact will also be felt in logistics and consumer services industries.

The report further details that the disruption will affect […]

University receives $1 million grant to improve collaborative robotics

University receives $1 million grant to improve collaborative robotics

The envisioned intelligent material delivery system: a robot will sense when skilled workers need materials, and deliver them in advance. This will help reduce worker frustration, stress, and talent loss, and save approximately $1.7 million dollars an hour by reducing work stoppage problems, according to UC San Diego. Engineers at the University of California San Diego have been given $1 million to research how to improve the way robots interact with people in US factories

Laurel Riek, a roboticist at the UC San Diego, will lead a three-year, $1 million project funded by the National Science Foundation to help […]

Buddhist Economics: Economics as if People Mattered

Buddhist Economics: Economics as if People Mattered

Economics Should Be About People, Not About Wall Street

By John Lawrence In Buddhist economics there is the concept of “right livelihood.” Work is considered an essential component of human life just as play and leisure. Work of a craftsmanlike nature, work which is satisfying–not work that is stultifying, of an assembly-line nature. Work that nourishes the soul; this kind of work results in right livelihood.

By the same token, there is “right consumption.” This is as contrasted with the unlimited consumption advanced Western societies and pushed on their citizens through advertising and other means in order to have […]

Study says 63% of Indian employees believe automation will take over process-based work

NEW DELHI: Indian workplaces seem to have woken up to the reality called automation. According to a study by US-based HR firm ADP, nearly 63% of employees in Indian offices believe automation and artificial intelligence will eventually replace people doing process-based, repetitive work.

But that does not deter them because around 61 per cent of those surveyed welcome the automation trend. Employees in India, in fact, were more positive than their counterparts from across Asia in terms of automation, says the ADP survey.

It is no surprise that employees are already thinking about their future in the workplace. Indian employees were […]

Study says 63% of Indian employees believe automation will take over process-based work

Study says 63% of Indian employees believe automation will take over process-based work

"Employees in India, and China, are more likely than workers in Australia and Singapore believe that trends will impact them," says John Antos, VP Marketing, APAC for ADP. NEW DELHI: Indian workplaces seem to have woken up to the reality called automation. According to a study by US-based HR firm ADP, nearly 63% of employees in Indian offices believe automation and artificial intelligence will eventually replace people doing process-based, repetitive work.

But that does not deter them because around 61 per cent of those surveyed welcome the automation trend. Employees in India, in fact, were more positive than their counterparts […]

Hungry startup uses robots to grab slice of pizza

Hungry startup uses robots to grab slice of pizza

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Did robots help make your pizza?

If you ordered it from Silicon Valley’s Zume Pizza, the answer is yes.

The startup, which began delivery in April, is using intelligent machines to grab a slice of the multibillion-dollar pizza delivery market.Zume is one of a growing number of food-tech firms seeking to disrupt the restaurant industry with software and robots."We’re going to eliminate boring, repetitive, dangerous jobs, and we’re going to free up people to do things that are higher value," said co-founder Alex Garden, a former Microsoft manager and president of mobile game maker Zynga Studios.Inside […]

Econometer: Will robots take SD jobs?

Econometer: Will robots take SD jobs?

New recruit "Pepper" the robot, a humanoid robot designed to welcome and take care of visitors and patients, holds the hand of a new born baby at AZ Damiaan hospital in Ostend, Belgium. Q: Given the trend toward more automated technologies, like self-driving Uber cars , do you think unskilled San Diegans will struggle to find work in the future? Phil Blair, Manpower

Answer: Yes

The lower your skill levels, the more prone you are to be laid off from your jobs due to automation/technology, outsourcing and irrelevant work. We all have a career manager, and it is us. […]

Selling free trade is a tall order. But Chris Bowen is doing better than Scott Morrison

Selling free trade is a tall order. But Chris Bowen is doing better than Scott Morrison

‘Arguing for more free trade while also pledging a crackdown on welfare and bemoaning the “taxed-nots”, as Morrison did, is just self-defeating.’ Photograph: Mal Fairclough/EPA Chris Bowen this week set out his plans for winning the fight against the rise of protectionism. It’s a fight in which those in favour of free trade have been shown over the past year – whether in the Brexit vote or the inability to counter Donald Trump – to have been completely inept. Among the best aspect of Bowen’s plan of attack is that he has realised one of the reasons for this […]