Tag: manufactur

Wow.. automation destroys jobs. Who knew?

Who is winning the race for jobs between robots and humans? Last year, two leading economists described a future in which humans come out ahead. But now they’ve declared a different winner: the robots. From a report on the New York Times:
The industry most affected by automation is manufacturing. For every robot per thousand workers, up to six workers lost their jobs and wages fell by as much as three-fourths of a percent, according to a new paper by the economists, Daron Acemoglu of M.I.T. and Pascual Restrepo of Boston University. It appears to be the first study […]

Evidence That Robots Are Winning the Race for American Jobs

Evidence That Robots Are Winning the Race for American Jobs

Who is winning the race for jobs between robots and humans? Last year, two leading economists described a future in which humans come out ahead. But now they’ve declared a different winner: the robots.

The industry most affected by automation is manufacturing. For every robot per thousand workers, up to six workers lost their jobs and wages fell by as much as three-fourths of a percent, according to a new paper by the economists, Daron Acemoglu of M.I.T. and Pascual Restrepo of Boston University. It appears to be the first study to quantify large, direct, negative effects of robots.

The paper […]

Study: Robots Actually Hurt Wages, Stoke Pay Inequality

Study: Robots Actually Hurt Wages, Stoke Pay Inequality

Robots weld the bodies of Porsche Macan SUVs at the new Porsche Macan factory at the Porsche plant on February 11, 2014. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Industrial robots had a significant impact on U.S. employment and wages for many local labor markets between 1990 and 2007, according to new research.

“Employment effects of robots are most pronounced in manufacturing, and in particular, in industries most exposed to robots; in routine manual, blue collar, assembly and related occupations; and for workers with less than college education,” reads the study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). “Interestingly, and perhaps […]

Top 5 reality checks if you think you can’t lose your job to a robot

Top 5 reality checks if you think you can't lose your job to a robot

Inside the production facility of La Colombe coffee factory at 6366 Norton Center Dr. on Jan. 24, 2017 in Norton Shores, Mich. La Colombe started production over two weeks ago and uses local milk to produce their canned draft latte beverages. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com) (Joel Bissell) Global accounting firm PwC recently studied the potential impact of automation on jobs in the United Kingdom, comparing it to three other economies, including the United States.

The results: The U.S. could lose up to 38 percent of its jobs to technology – including artificial intelligence and robots – by the early 2030s.

Among […]

How automation could make us more human

How automation could make us more human

The robots are coming. Of that there is no doubt. But how relentless the march of automation will be—and how quickly it will transform the workplace and the workforce beyond recognition—depends on which particular report you read.

The McKinsey Global Institute recently issued a study on the subject, stating 50 percent of today’s work activities could be automated by 2055. This contrasts with research from Oxford University, which estimated in 2013 that 47 percent of US jobs were now at risk from automation. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, meanwhile, was a little less aggressive, concluding in its 2015 […]

Automation already a reality – fewer people working on processing lines

Automation already a reality - fewer people working on processing lines

Automation already a reality – fewer people working on processing lines

During a recent lecture held at Bocconi, one of FreshPlaza’s Italian editors talked about labour cost reduction in the fresh produce sector and about the technologies that can replace manual labour. She also brought the following examples of best practice:

> the processing plant at Mivor in Laces (BZ), one of the 7 cooperatives part of VI.P., the association of Val Venosta fresh produce cooperatives the revolution determined by optic graders such as those manufactured by Unitec, that can even monitor internal defects in cherries or separate stalks […]

How automation could make us more human

How automation could make us more human

The robots are coming. Of that there is no doubt. But how relentless the march of automation will be – and how quickly it will transform the workplace and the workforce beyond recognition – depends on which particular report you read.

The McKinsey Global Institute recently issued a study on the subject, stating 50% of today’s work activities could be automated by 2055. This contrasts with research from Oxford University, which estimated in 2013 that 47% of US jobs were now at risk from automation. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, meanwhile, was a little less aggressive, concluding in […]

Should the Trump Administration be Worried About Automation?

Should the Trump Administration be Worried About Automation?

yoh4nn/istock In an interview with Axios’ s Mike Allen on Friday, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he was unconcerned about the possibility of machines replacing significant numbers of human workers in the near future, saying it was “not even on [the Trump administration’s] radar screen” and insisting that displacement would not be an issue for another 50-100 years. “In fact I’m optimistic,” he told Allen.

While there’s a healthy ongoing debate over just what impact automation will have on the workforce , Mnuchin’s assertion that it is not a matter of any particular urgency raised some eyebrows. “Just about […]

Trade Denialism Continues: Trade Really Did Kill Manufacturing Jobs

Trade Denialism Continues: Trade Really Did Kill Manufacturing Jobs

There have been a flood of opinion pieces and news stories in recent weeks wrongly telling people that it was not trade that led to the loss of manufacturing jobs in recent years, but rather automation. This means that all of those people who are worried about trade deficits costing jobs are simply being silly. The promulgators of the automation story want everyone to stop talking about trade and instead focus on education, technology or whatever other item they can throw out as a distraction.

This "automation rather than trade story" is the equivalent of global warming denialism for the […]

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Flat Whites?

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Flat Whites?

When we talk about “what’s next” for coffee, rarely does that conversation center on the barista. They are the unchangeable constant across coffee in all its forms—a living, breathing human who manages the machines, the “mano” in the “mano, miscela, macchina” upon which the espresso tradition was built. A human, standing behind a machine, waiting to serve coffee to the world: that’s a barista.

At least, it used to be.

Cafe X —started by 23-year-old college dropout Henry Hu—seeks to automate the making and serving of specialty coffee. But unlike, say, BRIGGO, the HAL-like coffee behemoth at the University of […]