How digital manufacturing will shift production from the factory to your kitchen table

How digital manufacturing will shift production from the factory to your kitchen table

With the rapid pace of technological innovation, the need for greater market responsiveness, and the rising cost of labor in nearly all economies, many companies are revisiting age-old manufacturing strategies. They recognize there is a growing need to introduce innovative products faster to meet customer demands while maintaining aggressive cost and quality objectives. Traditional manufacturing approaches can no longer keep pace with this dynamic new consumer-driven age. Meeting these demands will instead require a complete reinvention to how we approach manufacturing, and this reinvention will need to unfold on a scale that amounts to a new industrial revolution. Welcome […]

Automation and Disruptive Technologies Will Soon Replace Lower-Skilled Jobs in ASEAN

Automation and Disruptive Technologies Will Soon Replace Lower-Skilled Jobs in ASEAN

A new study by the ILO Bureau for Employers’ Activities examines how technology is affecting workplaces in five major sectors across the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the transformation that enterprises and workers can expect in the next decade.

The report on ASEAN in Transformation: How Technology is Changing Jobs and Enterprises found the potential for growth and employment presented by advanced technologies, such as additive manufacturing, robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT), are considerable.

The report provides critical data on how millions of jobs are going to be impacted in the run up to 2025. However […]

Growth no longer means jobs: Inflexible labour laws, rapid technological change have caused employment generation to stall

Growth no longer means jobs: Inflexible labour laws, rapid technological change have caused employment generation to stall

Where are the jobs? This is the question Prime Minister Narendra Modi is repeatedly asked by his political opponents. One answer he has given recently in media interviews is that the jobs that are being created are invisible in the statistics: loans from the Mudra Bank are enabling self-employment, and as these micro businesses grow, they will add employees, one or two at a time. Hopefully, they will ultimately create millions of jobs in an economy that is releasing one million youth every month into the job market.

While creating a nation of micro-entrepreneurs is better than doing nothing, there […]

ILO: Low-skilled workers risk being replaced by advanced technology

ILO: Low-skilled workers risk being replaced by advanced technology

Asian workers at a garments production facility. Image from UN-ILO. MANILA – Some 56 percent of salaried workers in the Philippines and four other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries are "at high risk of displacement" due to advances in technology over the next couple of decades, a report of the International Labour Organization (ILO) revealed.

Based on a new study by ILO’s Bureau for Employers’ Activities, titled ASEAN in Transformation: How Technology is Changing Jobs and Enterprises, the potential for growth and employment presented by advanced technologies, "such as additive manufacturing, robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT), […]

Robots are set to take the jobs of millions of Asian workers in the coming years

Robots are set to take the jobs of millions of Asian workers in the coming years

Workers at a garment factory in Vietnam In the next few decades, about 56% of all salaried workers in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam could be displaced by automation and advanced technologies, such as 3D printing. That’s the conclusion of an extensive series of new studies by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Mass-scale displacement won’t happen overnight, but it’s already in the works. Robots, for instance, are increasingly handling the labor previously done by low-skilled workers in industries such as automotive and electronics manufacturing. For governments and employers willing to educate and train workers for new, high-tech jobs, […]

Where today’s tech can, and can’t, replace humans

Where today’s tech can, and can’t, replace humans

This morning, McKinsey & Co. is releasing a new look at the impact automation is likely to have across various sectors of the economy and, ultimately, the workplace. Its findings are based on analysis of 2,000-plus work activities across more than 800 occupations and includes data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The good news, says the report, is that automation will “eliminate very few occupations entirely in the next decade.” It adds that automation will eventually affect “portions of almost all jobs to a greater or lesser degree.”

Whether you see this as a good or bad thing could […]

Good news for U.S. manufacturing? Yes, with caveats

Good news for U.S. manufacturing? Yes, with caveats

Cagle Cartoons National Columnist

Reports of NASA’s Juno spacecraft entering the orbit around Jupiter lit a sparkler in this American heart – on the Fourth of July, no less. It showed that Americans still have what it takes.

To keep spirits orbiting, let’s note another recent American feat that few could have imagined a couple of years ago. The United States is now gaining, not losing, factory jobs. This glad trend has some sobering asterisks attached, but there’s no denying this:There are now nearly a million more factory jobs in this country than there were in 2010. Many of them are […]

U.S. factory jobs increasing, but automation plays key role

Reports of NASA’s Juno spacecraft’s entering the orbit around Jupiter lit a sparkler in this American heart — on the Fourth of July, no less. It showed that Americans still have what it takes.

To keep spirits orbiting, let’s note another recent American feat that few could have imagined a couple of years ago. The United States is now gaining, not losing, factory jobs. This glad trend has some sobering asterisks attached, but there’s no denying this:

There are now nearly a million more factory jobs in this country than there were in 2010. Many of them are coming — surprise, […]

The real impact of robotics and automation advancements

The real impact of robotics and automation advancements

Dear Senate, don’t mess with my automation.

Senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.) chaired a Joint Economic Committee hearing on May 25, titled, “The Transformative Impact of Robots and Automation.” The hearing touched on the impact of robots and automation on jobs and the economy . Of course, any time a Senate committee starts quoting, "One study found that nearly half of American jobs are at risk of being automated over the next couple of decades," I take an interest.

Several experts testified with some interesting thoughts, and I have many of my own. Also read: Is machine learning smart enough to help […]

Southeast Asia – Robot age could leave half of workers without jobs in the next 20 years

A new study by the ILO (International Labour Organization) Bureau for Employers’ Activities, ASEAN in transformation: How technology is changing jobs and enterprises , shows that more than half of workers in five Southeast Asian countries are at risk for losing their jobs to robots in the next 20 years.

The report examines how technology is affecting workplaces in five major sectors across the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the transformation that enterprises and workers can expect in the next decade.

It shows that low-skill workers will find themselves displaced in favour of automation, and more than 60% […]