Make no mistake, the age of automation is upon us. Anyone with notions of a return to a time when plants and factories were full of workers is failing to read the very bold writing on the wall. Manufacturing and production are only going to become more automated, and humans are only going to be made less and less part of the process.
Yet, as of 2018, we haven’t handed the entire operation over to artificial intelligence and advanced robotics, at least not yet. There remain several key areas where human brains and dexterity are required for manufacturing to be done right.
Take, for instance, the role of the CNC Operator, who needs to be there to program and monitor the computer-guided machine as it goes to work. Whether a plant has opted for used CNC machinery for sale or the latest state-of-art models, they need someone to operate the device on the factory floor. There is no disputing the fact the automated precision of computer-assisted lathes and other machinists tools are chiefly responsible for the end product, but a person had to be there to see the job through.
It’s important to note the CNC Operator represents the entry-level employee of modern manufacturing; regardless of the task being performed, the “worker bees” in today’s plants and factories are part-machinists, part-programmers. The degree of familiarity with digital systems as they pertain to automated manufacturing only goes up from here, in terms of a person’s role in the operation.
Nowhere has the balance between man and machine reached as great equilibrium as it has at the Siemens AG electronics plant in Amberg, Germany. The plant is now fully digital with near-total automation, yet its workforce has not dwindled in number. The Amberg facility proudly boasts a tenfold increase in productivity since going digital, a result of workers retrained in how they go about manufacturing.
In some ways, it could be compared to turning each worker into their own manager. Only instead of managing a crew of men and women, they’re now overseeing a series of automated systems, each performing a task or group of tasks once requiring a human to do, but with much less speed and accuracy.
As times marches on, it’s safe to say the need for a person to be within close proximity of a machine or series of machines under their watch will be all but eroded, despite the need for a person to still manage the automation. In fact, the advent of industrial wireless control systems is already upon us, with the aforementioned Siemens AG leading the way. The way WCS works is pretty much like the wireless internet, only with greater reliability and stronger connectivity, not to mention a few fail-safes. In time, it’s safe to say it won’t be unusual for a machine located in Tokyo to be programmed and monitored by an operator in Tegucigalpa, or the other way around.
Automation is undoubtedly the way of the future because it’s already the way of the present. In fact, it’s been a part of the past going back to the dawn of civilization, in that technology is inherently something which accomplishes a task once requiring a person to achieve, and therefore automates some aspect of the human experience. It’s simply been a march toward an ever increasing level of automation. The only difference in modern times is that the pace has picked up considerably. But as far the near-future is concerned, humans continue to have a role in manufacturing, where man and machine meet to build the world of tomorrow.
