It seems logical to suppose that robotics eliminates jobs. Robots have certainly sent thousands of auto workers packing. Yet, the robotics industry is apparently creating thousands of jobs to support the development and production of robots. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) commissioned a study by Metra Martech to ascertain just how many jobs the robot industry has actually created, while also offering a peek into future job creation in the robotics industry.
The study, "Positive Impact of Industrial Robots on Employment," claims that by 2016, the robot industry will add another 1 million jobs worldwide. That would come in addition to the 8 million to 10 million jobs that Metra Martech estimates have already been created by the robotics industry.
The jobs fall into a number of industries, from consumer electronics to food, solar, and advanced battery manufacturing. The study also questions whether robotics has cut deeply into the manufacturing employment population. The report noted that between 2000 and 2008, manufacturing employment increased in nearly every major industrialized country, even as robotics increased sharply.
There is certainly no doubt robots eliminate factory jobs. The question the study prompts is whether there is a net job loss due to robotics or simply a displacement of jobs from repetitive blue-collar work to technical jobs.
The report’s author, Peter Gorle, noted that robots are being used to carry out work that would not be economically viable in a high-wage economy, thus allowing the manufacturing to remain in the high-wage country. He also pointed to robot use that has nothing to do with job displacement, specifically the use of robots for tasks that are unsafe for humans or tasks that would simply be impossible for humans.
While the United States, Japan, and Germany have led in the adoption of robotics in manufacturing, emerging countries are beginning to deploy robots as well, particularly China and Brazil.
Robots for quality, not job elimination Part of the growth in robot jobs comes from the expanded tasks that are getting shifted to robots. “In former times, robots were primarily used in order to replace workers and save costs. This has changed,” Gudrun Litzenberger, general secretary of the IFR, told Design News. “The manufacturing industry all over the world is forced to improve their production processes. Robots are being used to accomplish this.” He notes that the reasons to use robots have simply diversified.
Because of the diversification and the success of robots in industries such as automotive, there has been a surge in the deployment of robots. “The number of industrial robots in operation will increase from 1 million in 2010 to 1.3 million in 2014,” says Litzenberger.
While automotive has led the development of robotics in manufacturing, robot applications are diversifying into new industries. “The high volume of industrial robots will continue to come from the automotive industry,” Litzenberger notes. “The establishment of electro mobility, new materials such as carbon composites, and modernization of production processes will be the main drivers for investment.”
Another industry that has lately turned to robots for manufacturing is electronics. “The electrical and electronics industry will continue to invest in capacity and modernization. The trend towards more energy-efficient products, increasing consumer markets for electronic products, and new production technologies will further boost robot installations.”
Litzenberger points to other industries where the use of robotics is gaining momentum, including rubber and plastics, metal and machinery, pharmaceuticals, and food and beverage. So, while robots are certainly trimming repetitive manufacturing jobs, the robotics industry continues to add jobs at an aggressive rate.
It's a lot like Google, they will not hire you unless you have a 4 year degree in something... you could have an IQ of 198 and blazed through High School with straight A's but if you didn't put the effort into going to school like everyone else they will not put in the time to hire you.
That piece of paper has always been the reason subject A gets hired and subject B does not.
Anyways back to the subject.
Robotics does create jobs. If you do not believe me then come to Wisconsin and meet me. The company I work for decided to start a robotic welding department about 7 years ago. It was small but adding that first ABB robot cell added 2 jobs. One being the Programmer. Two being the "Operator". Being a robotic welding operator, you perform simple duties such as pushing buttons, deburring and repairing of parts. A non-degree job. Yes it would make sense to put an experienced welder on it to make the best repairs, but we didn't. We still have many parts being welded manually, but today we have 12 robot cells.
I am the companies 3rd shift programmer. We do not have engineers at my company. Instead I do all of the duties an Engineer would do (for a fraction of the pay :P) but it is great work experience and good to put on a resume in case it was needed.
So our company in total has added 39 jobs due to the robotic welding department. A large number if you ask me!
You're right, KCP, about people believing they deserve high pay for a job that can be commoditized. But that's human nature. Good days come and we begin to believe we're entitled to those good days. Any job that can be commoditized is eventually at risk.
I agree with you 100% on the "It's a piece of paper" But as I found out with 3M, you need it to get hired. I had a friend that worked there and asked me for a resume. He handed it to the HR dept. Several weeks later I was called in for testing. There was around 40 to 50 people that took the electronics test. I was called in for an interview, and at that point was told I would be 1 of 5 to be hired. 3M hired the first person, then a few weeks later called me, to hire me. The HR person said there was one thing missing in my package, my degree. I explained I recieved all of my electronics training during my 21 yrs in the military. That was not good enough. They needed that "piece of paper". So even though I was number 2 out of all those people, I could not be hired.
While I will not be so bold as to making carte blanche statements, I will say that I do not see this in my experience. For every company that I have been employed, spanning an almost 50 year career, the opposite has been the case. In every instance where a process was automated, there was employee attrition. And, with that elimination of position did not come a replacement of higher educational competency. When I started at my current employer we had about 25 "production" employees. Through my concerted efforts at designing automation equipment, we have in the past 15 years reduced the total employ to 15 members, which includes office staff, while at the same time increasing output (revenue) at least 10-fold. We moved into a more modern & structurally sound facility, and have gained in other ways too.
These machines run for the most part unattended. The existing production employees are knowledgeable in the machines' operations, and are qualified to support them for the most part. We are an ISO 9000 registered company, so ALL of these machines are well-documented in that framework.
I think Alex's point deserves a second look: not only do we need to train people in blue-collar jobs, such as in trade schools, but also those jobs have to get back the respect they used to have, especially when most jobs were blue-collar, meaning pre-automation days. How to give back that respect, I have no idea. I'm not even sure it's possible, but it certainly won't happen if no one's trying.
@kcp, you have hit the nail on the head concerning a piece of paper. I am sure we have all had the misfortune to work with degreed people who could not find their way to the front door if the crowd was not already headed there. By the same token I have worked with grizzled old set-up men who could figure out how to make a process work ,by relying on experience. It takes many different skill sets to make industry work and I am not ready to throw any under the bus, skilled or unskilled.
When I was in a position where i was hiring and firing people the hardest position I ever had to fill was a good janitor. When I found one who was really top notch, he was never content to stay in that position, so he would move up to something more responsible. However when I found a someone content to be a janitor, their work ethic and pride in what they did was nonexistant. I have spoken to other industry HR people who have found the same thing. They may not be skilled as such, but they are essential to a healthy happy work place.
Whether or not you have a degree is really beside the point, because it's a piece of paper. However, I think that in most cases formal training or eduction of some sort is the best way to gain the skills necessary to compete in the marketplace - and the more you know, the better.
I guess the point I really wanted to make is that if one does not have the skills to do a better job than a robot, one should realize that one's job may someday be replaced by automation - it's only a matter of time. And companies have every right to do so if it increases their profits or improves product quality (which, by the way also increases profits). I just can't understand those who think they deserve to be paid enough to buy an SUV for putting screws into holes all day long.
Kcp makes a good point. At the same time, it's important to realize that skills don't necessarily equate to a college education. I believe we need to reinvigorate, and also give respect to, trade schools and training to be a plumber, welder, technician and numerous other in-the-field jobs which are needed and can't be outsourced. This is something that I see as being neglected in the whole STEM debate, important though the STEM discussion is.
I agree, KCP. These days, teachers like to complain about so-called "helicopter parents," who get overly-involved. But the kids of helicopter parents have a far better shot at educational advancement than the kids whose parents don't show up for parent-teacher conferences.
You're right KCP, education quality comes down to the involvement of the parents. All the studies keep showing this. It's not the amount of $$ spent per student or the quality of the teacher's education or how much that teacher is getting paid. It's parental involvement. Some schools in tough neighborhoods have offered free pizza in the evening to get parents to come to school and interact with teachers and administrators. Hasn't worked. The parents don't come.
It happens in the home. By the time my kids hit kindergarten, they we're reading, learning Spanish, learning numbers. The assumption is that they would go to college. And they did.
The emphasis on education was even stronger with my inlaws. They were imigrants. They instilled in their kids that education was freedom, pure and simple. All of their kids ended up with multiple graduate degrees.
Andrew Morris designed a circuit that could detect a stroke victim's groan and convert the sound into a signal so caregivers would know when help was needed.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
On April 21, NASA launched a novel project, putting into orbit three satellites that employ an off-the-shelf commercial smartphone as the control system.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
0 
