Last week, Bloomberg had a great article on a new trend involving automation: Robots as a Service. Robots and automation have gone through so many hype cycles that I’ve completely lost count. In fact, in one of my favorite books, The Goal, the story begins with a manager on his way to a conference to share a success story about the installation of robots.
People still think that robotization is something similar to the enemy. They, or us, but there's no room for both of us. However, I'm starting to consider the problem of derobotization. Unless you have the control of your product and can manufacture large series of units, most of companies don't want robots, because they need to be flexible and invest much time on reprogramming them for different tasks. But is (de)robotization a safe choice for the future of the company or a national economy?
An additional benefit: for the tasks that are being done by Robots and paid by the hour, the Buyer has maximum flexibility to run from only a few hours/day to 24/7 operations without paying overtime or having idle (or furloughed) human workers.
People still think that robotization is something similar to the enemy. They, or us, but there's no room for both of us. However, I'm starting to consider the problem of derobotization. Unless you have the control of your product and can manufacture large series of units, most of companies don't want robots, because they need to be flexible and invest much time on reprogramming them for different tasks. But is (de)robotization a safe choice for the future of the company or a national economy?
An additional benefit: for the tasks that are being done by Robots and paid by the hour, the Buyer has maximum flexibility to run from only a few hours/day to 24/7 operations without paying overtime or having idle (or furloughed) human workers.