The current world is very dynamic and human beings are responding to the changes in the world on daily basis. The ability of human beings to adapt to changes occurring in the world has enabled better living and less prone to extreme effects brought about by natural and human activities. With increased population for instance, there is rising need for more production of commodities and services to cater for the needs of the high population. Taking into consideration limited resources at their disposal, human beings have devised mechanisms and techniques aimed at increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of production, while minimizing costs to the lowest level possible. The rise in technological inventions and innovations has been in the forefront of achieving most of the current human being’s objective for a better and healthy living (Rossi, 2015).
Machines and robots have been a point of concern for many researchers. The issue of contention is whether robots will one day replace human beings in the work places. This research looks into inner depth of the extent to which robots may replace human beings in industries and other organizations. To get a better understanding of this issue, this research seeks to identify whether robots will partly or entirely replace human workforce. In this regards, the paper will discuss the areas of performance where robots can work and others where human labor is most ideal. However, owing to the large and extensive fields where robots can entirely replace or complement human labor, this research focuses on manufacturing industry.
Productivity and Efficiency for Robots and Human Beings
The manufacturing industry is one of the most outstanding and important industries in the world as it is known for production of commodities which greatly support better living of human beings around the globe. Due to the increase in demand for manufactured products, industries have gone to machine automation where production is more efficient and cost effective. This is because machines are capable of undertaking complex tasks and endeavors faster and more accurately than human beings. In this regard, robots are being popularized and prioritized over human beings in the manufacturing sector for their high production with less chances of danger threats since they are machines and not susceptible to death or injury. Use of robots therefore has helped industries save money and time and thus becoming ideal and common providers of labor requirements to many industries particularly the manufacturing sector (Rossi, 2015).
As pointed out earlier, robots save time through production of bulk of products within a short timeframe. In addition, they greatly reduce the waste products due to their unquestionable efficacy in their operations. Therefore, they benefit manufacturing industries through their high return on investment. This is because they use fewer raw materials due to reduced material losses and are not prone to injuries and thus do not require compensation in case of damages as the case with human beings. For this reason, the adoption and adaptation of robots in the manufacturing industry serves a great deal for the industries due to reduced cost of production.
Apart from this direct involvement of robots in the production sector, there is a mutual relationship between the robots and human beings in production. Robots have created new responsibilities and jobs for human beings in manufacturing industries. For instance, individuals who were initially directly involved in production have shifted to programming of the robot. This is an absolutely new task of workers. Working in a manufacturing industry can be boring to some workers. This is because they are involved in monotonous tasks and duties day in day out. Shifting to use of robots gives the worker an exciting and challenging opportunity as they issue different commands depending on the task.
Cost Involve for Robots and Human Beings
The increased use of robots and decreased need of human labor among many manufacturing industries has experienced tremendous cost implications. Robots are believed to be cost effective when it comes to industrial production. Human beings on the other hand have much cost burden to these industries as they require several compensation benefits such as monthly or periodic salaries and wages, insurance covers against injuries and health, various allowances, and other benefits such as education to their children. All these compensation attributes are to be met by the manufacturing company not forgetting the fact that the employees are many thus increasing the production cost to the industry (Rubenstein, Ahler. & Nagpal, 2012).
Acquisition of computerized machines and robots has a very high initial cost. This cost involves initial purchase as well as installation of the relevant devises for full operation of these machines. They are usually very expensive especially for small and medium enterprises such that these enterprises cannot afford the adoption of robot. This has been a serious challenge to these SMEs such that they have been outcompeted from the market by the large industries with a large capital base. These small and medium enterprises have therefore remained to use the ‘expensive’ human labor thus enduring high cost of production and consequently low profit margin which does to allow them to experience any significant growth. On the other hand, the cost of acquiring human workforce is very low such that it is always the ideal option for many manufacturing industries especially for the small firms. However, the long-run result of human labor is expensive for many organizations when compared to full operation of machines. The cost effectiveness of robots relative to human beings has been the baseline why many manufacturing industries have adopted robot use in their production endeavors.
Nature of Work for Robots and Human Beings
The task undertaken by either a robot or a human being in the workplace largely depends on the nature of the assignment. There are those tasks which robots cannot entirely do and thus requiring human efforts. Similarly, other tasks prefer robots to human beings due to their effectiveness and cost implications. In the manufacturing industry for instance, robots will be most preferred to undertake most of the physical tasks such as machine operations, packaging, sorting and grading, in-house transport, material planning as well as inventory management. There are those tasks which human beings will be required to operate such as general planning, manipulation of raw materials, quality control and maintenance practices. For this reason, there exists a clear distinction between the duties carried out by human beings and the robots depending on their nature.
It is worth nothing that some duties can only be done by human beings and not otherwise. In addition, human beings have specific attributes intrinsic in them and which enable them to undertake some specific duties. These attributes include intuition, creativity, consciousness and critical thinking among others. They help individuals in major decision making processes regarding productivity of the company. Robots lack these aspects and therefore cannot undertake some duties such as making decisions regarding the development of the industry. Generally speaking, the nature of the work will determine whether a human being or a robot will be ideal for the work (Degryse, 2016).
Performance Evaluation for Robots and Human Beings
Evaluation of performance of both human beings and robots is importance to ascertain the level at which each entity has contributed in the productivity of a manufacturing industry. Human beings have been used as workforce in many industries for centuries. For all this time, their performance has been evaluated based on tasks completed within a given timeframe, successful projects undertaken relative to the failed endeavors among others. Therefore, there is a variety of criteria which can be used to measure the performance of human workforce. Generally speaking, evaluation of the performance of human beings is not very complex when compared to the performance of robots (Kruger, Lien, & Verl, 2009).
Evaluation of the performance of robots on the other hand is not an easy task. No criteria have been devised by human beings to evaluate the performance of robots in the manufacturing industries. The complexity of this issue is borne upon the fact that robots cannot entirely perform successfully without human intervention and assistance. The rise of this issue is a good avenue for future researchers and other interested parties to devise techniques to evaluate the performance of robots in industries and elsewhere. The status quo is that there is human participation in the performance of robots and which requires attention of researchers to evaluate performance of each element in the system where human beings and robots work concurrently. In the meantime, the best way to evaluate the performance of robots is to set goals before designing and evaluating the performance. Therefore, an individual can evaluate the performance based on the outcome of an activity (Kanda, et al., 2004).
Placement of Robot on a Selected Job
The manufacturing industry is one of industries which require too much of physical work. Departments such as production, packaging, sorting and grading, transporting among other duties require many laborers to complete such duties. The cost incurred by the company to provide such labor requirements is high and thus unhealthy for the industry’s profit. For this reason, adoption of robots to undertake these duties is a good option owing to their total cost and efficiency. It will require less robots and less time to complete a given task compared to human beings. This makes robots a good option for the production in the manufacturing industry (Rossi, 2015).
In addition, most of the tasks in the manufacturing sector are very risky and dangerous to human beings. Some machines are very dangerous when handled without care and thus exposing human beings to such conditions is risky for the company and thus increased chances of compensation lawsuits. In other cases, some manufacturing operations involve production or use of very toxic and poisonous chemicals which are dangerous to human beings. Robots are therefore an ideal solution to the risks these industries engage in during production. This is because they do not fall sick, get injured, die or even affected by poison or toxic compounds.
Impact of Placement Robots on The Company and The Society
(Talk about the impact of placement robots on the company more. Also, talk about, human attitude and human health in this section (Impact of Placement Robots on The Company and The Society))
There have been mixed reactions among members of the society regarding the impact of robots on the society, depending on how use of robots affects their lives. Adoption of robots has greatly compromised the jobs of the majority less skilled workers. This has contributed to a lot of inequality in wealth distribution as much benefits of robot usage go to the highly skilled few. This is a challenge associated with mechanization and the only solution towards mitigating the problem is by ensuring all individuals have a stake of ownership in the robot machines, which leads to substantial level of equality in income and wealth distribution (Freeman, 2015).
Robots have also affected the society in many ways. In the manufacturing sector for instance, robot usage has helped improve health of individuals since they have been actively involved in the production of harmful particles, fumes and temperatures. The workers in such industries have lived a healthier and longer life due to reduced risk of death and health problems associated with interaction of these workers and the harmful substances. The industrial robots have also facilitated reduced risks of injury in the workplace and consequently costs associated with compensation to human beings (Sabanovic, 2010).
Impact of Robot Placement on The Economy
The increased use of robots in the recent past has had tremendous implications on the world economy. Adoption and adaptation of robots in the manufacturing industry has been instrumental in contributing to economic growth and development. It is important to note that the manufacturing sector forms the backbone of any economy. This implies that a growth in the manufacturing sector leads to growth and development in the economy. Notably, use of robots has had a double effect on unemployment, through creation of jobs and loss of jobs. Robots have led to creation of high paying jobs for the highly skilled workers. At the same time, the majority workers with fewer skills have been replaced by the robots (Degryse, 2016).
Adoption of robots however has had a positive impact on the Gross Domestic Product. This is because of increased productivity of manufacturing industries. In this regard, the increased production has contributed to increase in exports and reduced imports. For this reason, the GDP has been increasing with replacement of human labor by robots. A research done on United States and sixteen other countries identified that for period of fifteen years ending in 2007, use of robots increased the GDP by an average of 0.37% every year (Graetz & Michaels, 2015). Use of robots also affects inflation. Increased use of robots leads to reduced cost of labor and consequently low cost of production. This result to reduced price of products thus lowering inflation. In an economy intending to reduce the problem of inflation, encouraged use of robots is a good solution (Degryse, 2016).
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References
Degryse, C. (2016). Digitalization of the Economy and its Impact on Labor Markets. European Trade Union Institute Research Paper – Working Paper
Freeman, R. (2015). Who Owns the Robots Rules the World. Harvard University and NBER, Germany, and LSE, UK
Graetz, G. & Michaels, G. (2015). Estimating the Impact of Robots on Productivity and Employment: Industrial Automation
Kanda, T. et al. (2004). Development and Evaluation of Interactive Humanoid Robots: Proceedings of the IEEE
Kruger, J., Lien, T. & Verl, A. (2009). Cooperation of Human and Machines in Assembly Lines. CIRP Annals Manufacturing Technology, Elsevier
Rossi, B. (2015). Humans vs. Robots: The Battle for the Workplace. Information Age
Rubenstein, M., Ahler, C. & Nagpal, R. (2012). Kilobot: A Low Cost of Scalable Robot System for Collective Behaviors. Robotics and Automation
Sabanovic, S. (2010). Robots in Society, Society in Robots. International Journal of Social Robotics, Springer
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