Robots…coming over here, stealing our jobs! Or at least that’s the view of some people. But is this prejudice of foreign computers taking their place in British workplaces as small minded as a prejudice of foreign humans?
Industrial automation brings a huge amount of benefits to companies and in turn the economy in general. Whilst replacing humans with machines may seem like a way of simply creating unemployment, the reverse is actually the truth. Industrial automation simply replaces the more mundane tasks and those which can be improved by the technical skill that machines are able to have.
In turn though, using operating systems such as SCADA within industry creates other jobs. SCADA systems need to be supervised and the potential that such automation gives to a company means even further jobs can be created in other sectors.
The benefits of automation speak for themselves. The robots, programs and machines used are much more efficient than humans could ever be. A lot more work can be achieved and can be achieved to a higher degree than simple humans could manage. Products will be better quality, safety will be improved and the turnaround of products and processes in general will be much quicker. Monotonous jobs slowly become a thing of the past and the need to place people’s life in danger in the workplace is removed almost totally. In fact, history shows that the sheer potential created by using machines in the workplace is almost unlimited.
So for those who have been shying away from automating their business to keep it more personal, there may be too many benefits waiting for you not to change. Whilst people may no longer be needed for certain aspects, the increased efficiency will almost certainly mean you still need that human presence, just in a completely different way.