As technology transforms and advances, so does manufacturing. With the easy availability of superior technical robots, it is now easier and cheaper for manufacturers to roll out products.
Robots have been in the manufacturing sector for over five decades. Technological advancements have made them nimble and easily acceptable even by small manufacturing entities. As new technology is incorporated into robots, they are gaining new skills that will lead to lots of changes in the manufacturing sector.
Here are some of the changes we expect to see as more and more companies accept and buy robots as part of their manufacturing processes.
Loss of Manufacturing Jobs
Lots of industry studies have been conducted on the effect that robots will have on human labor. These studies have found that more robots in the factories will lead to job losses. It is estimated that by 2030, many manufacturing firms will be fully automated as the use of commercial robots is brought into the factory floor.
Lower Labor Costs in Industry
With fewer people employed in factories, one of the most glaring results will be a reduction in labor costs. Modern robots do not need much maintenance. Whether in terms of money, skills or time. With the advent and incorporation of artificial intelligence in the robots, they easily diagnose and quickly repair themselves in case of inconsistencies in production.
Factories will no longer incur huge wages or health insurance costs for their large number of factory workers as it is today.
Fully Automated Factories
For manufacturing processes that will not need a lot of human input, companies will prefer to have fully robotic processes. Robots will run all the processes from the intake of raw materials to the production of the final product.
For example, warehouses today need only a handful of people and automatic systems that run robots to run smoothly. In the future, unless there is a need for human interaction, there will be no human workers in these warehouses thanks to robots.
Enhanced Robot Capabilities
As technology, artificial intelligence and robotics engineering merge, robots will develop more and more capabilities. As a result, robots will increasingly handle tasks that are now handled by human workers.
Superior robot capabilities are the main contributor to the existence of fully automated factories.
The Rise of New Jobs
As robots invade or are adopted in other industries outside of manufacturing, there will be a rise in new jobs and an emphasis on some that already exist. For example, robots in the service industry will take over most of the manual and repetitive jobs while jobs that require human presence will gain more prominence.
Jobs that will require human skills such as empathy, compassion or creativity will be left to human workers for the foreseeable future before robots are able to acquire these skills. There will also be jobs in technology sectors of robotics and artificial intelligence to enable robots to learn from their experiences and to keep them running.
Increased Income Inequality
Income inequality is already a thorny political and social issue at the moment. As job losses are affected due to the increased uptake in robots, income inequalities issues will exacerbate. This will create a new headache for social policy creators and political leaders.
With lower expenses, owners of factors of production will have more money. With their skills rendered redundant, many lowly skilled individuals and factory workers will be left without income.
Increased Productivity
Unlike human beings, robots can work continuously without the need for breaks. Robots will never have to complain about working conditions in factories. As long as they are set up, they will always be in production. They are highly accurate and precise, reducing waste and enhancing production and quality of products.
Conclusion
Robots will incredibly transform manufacturing sectors all over the world. There will be both positive and negative changes brought about by the permeation of robots in different sectors and industries. In the future, robots will transform all areas of work as we know them today.