Tag: manufactur

What’s Automation Ever Done For Us? Okay, There Is The Improvement In Worker Safety

What's Automation Ever Done For Us? Okay, There Is The Improvement In Worker Safety

Image courtesy Getty Royalty Free When it comes to worker safety, factory automation is a winner.

That flies in the face of the harsh criticism automation in manufacturing has seen in the press and popular opinion in recent years. It’s not without cause, either – there are far too many horror stories of jobs lost when plants were automated. This has been happening for decades now. There’s also been plenty of “ink spilled” about the steady decline in manufacturing employment for the past 40 years. And of course, automation can lead to consolidation of operations, meaning plant closures and their […]

Digitalisation linked to slowdown in job creation – study

Digitalisation linked to slowdown in job creation - study

The report found that a third of jobs are at high risk of being affected by digitalisation A new report has found that one in three jobs in Ireland is at high risk of being affected by digitalisation over the next five years.

The study by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs also found that those most at risk of displacement by digital technologies are those with lower levels of education.

The analysis says digital technology is rapidly changing how, where and when we do work and increasing efficiency and productivity levels.But the body, which advises the Government on current […]

How Upskilling Can Pave the Way for Blue-Collar Workers’ Employment in the Future

How Upskilling Can Pave the Way for Blue-Collar Workers' Employment in the Future

To be successful in the age of automation, blue-collar workers need upskilling and training to survive in the market hastily opting for robots over humans With artificial intelligence (AI) and automation displacing several human jobs, many blue-collar workers will require special skills to survive in the future. Unlike white collar workers, blue collar workers spend significant amount of time in physical activities. Whereas, the white-collar worker typically performs work in an office environment and may involve sitting at a computer or desk. To be successful at their jobs in the age of automation, blue-collar workers may also need upskilling […]

Taxing robots is a bad idea

Taxing robots is a bad idea

Around 5.7 million jobs in SA will be at risk due to automation. As more jobs become automated globally, prospects of unemployment have sparked worldwide debate on whether governments should impose a tax on robots that are taking over human jobs.

This is not a good idea, as it will not counteract the negative effects of automation, said Professor Rasigan Maharajh, nodal head of the Department of Science and Technology and chief director of the National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy. He was speaking at the Global Work Tech Scenarios 2050 conference, […]

Women should not be barred from any job

Women should not be barred from any job

A pilot trains on a flight simulator at the Bombay Flying Club’s College of Aviation in Mumbai, India. (Reuters) If there was ever a hashtag that resonates with the majority of today’s women it is #TheFutureIsFemale. Whilst acknowledging that this slogan is at least 40 years old, it holds more weight today than ever before.

If the future is indeed female, it is quite concerning that there are still places and occupations around the world where women cannot work. Despite the great strides most countries have made to encourage more females into the workforce, there are still many jobs from […]

Intelligent Robots Are Here to Make Workers Lives Better

Intelligent Robots Are Here to Make Workers Lives Better

Chris Barber Every successful business leader knows that having the right employees on staff, performing the right jobs, is essential to a profitable business. However; not all successful business leaders know that the right person for the job might end up not being a person at all…

Incorporating robotics systems powered by artificial intelligence (AI) into workforces has been a game-changer for many manufacturing companies. Similarly, the supply chain and logistics businesses that adopt these technologies not only find that their warehouses and distribution or fulfillment centers are more productive, but they are more adaptable to business changes and they […]

Humans vs. robots: The role of automation in GM’s factory closings

Humans vs. robots: The role of automation in GM’s factory closings

Linda Nazareth is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Her book Work Is Not a Place: Our Lives and Our Organizations in the Post Jobs Economy will be published this month. Robot arms weld the bodies of fourth generation Toyota Prius cars on the production line at the company’s Tsutsumi assembly plant in Toyota, Aichi on Dec. 8, 2017. It really was not as simple as a bunch of robots swooping in and telling the auto workers that they were done and that the cars were going to be made a different way. General Motors’ decision to close […]

Bring On the Robots: Why Automation Is Good

Bring On the Robots: Why Automation Is Good

The size of the global automation market is forecast to reach $200 billion by 2020. 1 As more industries deploy machines and computers, the labor market is being transformed.

This is one reason why many of us worry that machines will take over our work, leaving us unemployed. But automation has been happening for centuries — more specifically, since the Industrial Revolution. Ever since, some have predicted that automation would cause massive unemployment and make humans obsolete. And today, even the CEOs of tech companies like Facebook 2 and Microsoft 3 make similar claims — adding that, this time, the […]

How AI automation could boost employment: The role of demand

In previous automation revolutions, we’ve seen people move from one pillar of industry to another. We’ve seen people move from agriculture to manufacturing and from manufacturing to services. Every time this has happened the basic skill-set has increased dramatically. Where do people move to when automation starts making deep inroads into services? More importantly, what kind of skill-sets will people need to be valuable in the future and are those skill-sets even plausible for the majority of people?

A former PM in Australia defined the following pillars to our economy: manufacturing, agriculture, services, education, health, transport and commodities.

Automation has made […]

The world keeps turning for state of Illinois manufacturers

The world keeps turning for state of Illinois manufacturers

The East Peoria manufacturing facility of Caterpillar Inc. makes the D10, a trendsetting track-type dozer. | Fred Zwicky/Peoria Journal Star via AP Lucina Miguel has a job unlike any other performed by Illinois’ 571,800 other factory workers. She glues strips of a map of the Earth onto large plastic spheres for Replogle Globes , one of 13,000 manufacturing companies in the state.

That task once fell to founder Luther Replogle, who started making and selling handcrafted spherical creations out of his Chicago apartment in 1930. Success followed over the next several decades and Replogle eventually became one of the largest […]