The Pros And Cons Of Factory Automation

Nowadays, the world is all about mechanization. No matter where you turn there is someone trying to figure out how to make something to something else that way a person no longer has to do it. We as humans are stuck on having things done for us. No matter what it is, we would like to have a machine that would take care of it for us. In this day and age there are already a lot of things that require very little from us.

The same is true of factories the world over. To companies there is the matter of making more money and they are always on the look out for ways to cut the costs to make the products they offer. This is where factory automation comes into play. A factory that relies heavily on automation has less in the way of labor costs, making it less expensive for the company to produce products thereby increasing profits all the way around.

There is some debate on whether or not an automated factory is a good idea. Automation relies on machines, like robots to perform tasks that were at one time performed by a human. One of the problems is the fact that these robots and machines cost in the million or more dollars range for the most part, which means a very high initial investment for the company. Now they could, in theory, make the investment back in a few years by not having to pay an employee to do the job, but what if the job becomes unnecessary? This can mean that they spent a lot of money that was not needed.

Next is the fact that robots do not have the ability to think or solve problems without assistance from outside parties, namely humans. Most would say that robots only do the most mundane tasks in a factory so they have no reason to think. Well that very well may be true but what if something goes wrong with the process. Does the robot know to stop? Will it be able to solve the problem on its own? The answer to both of those questions is of course no. The robot must be told what to do by a human and has no thought process of its own.

The other factor is that using factory automation takes jobs away from the people who need them. This is the largest sore spot in the automation debate as it is known today. This is very true and it does harm the economy for the most part because the more people that are out of jobs the worse the economy is.

It is not the best idea for all intents and purposes it is not a good idea to completely automate a factory. The debate about this rages on and it is doubtful that machines will ever replace us completely.