Reasons for Automation

 Reasons for Automating

Companies undertake projects in automation and computer-integrated manufacturing

for good reasons, some of which are the following:

1. Increase labor productivity. Automating a manufacturing operation invariably increases production rate and labor productivity. This means greater output per hour

of labor input.

2. Reduce labor cost. Increasing labor cost has been, and continues to be, the trend

in the world’s industrialized societies. Consequently, higher investment in automation has become economically justifiable to replace manual operations.

Machines are increasingly being substituted for human labor to reduce unit

product cost.

3. Mitigate the effects of labor shortages. There is a general shortage of labor in many

advanced nations, and this has stimulated the development of automated operations as a substitute for labor.

4. Reduce or eliminate routine manual and clerical tasks. An argument can be put forth

that there is social value in automating operations that are routine, boring, fatiguing, and possibly irksome. Automating such tasks improves the general level of

working conditions.

5. Improve worker safety. Automating a given operation and transferring the worker

from active participation in the process to a monitoring role, or removing the

worker from the operation altogether, makes the work safer. The safety and physical well-being of the worker has become a national objective with the enactment

of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970. This has provided an

impetus for automation.

6. Improve product quality. Automation not only results in higher production rates

than manual operation, it also performs the manufacturing process with greater

consistency and conformity to quality specifications.

7. Reduce manufacturing lead time. Automation helps reduce the elapsed time between customer order and product delivery, providing a competitive advantage to

the manufacturer for future orders. By reducing manufacturing lead time, the manufacturer also reduces work-in-process inventory.

8. Accomplish processes that cannot be done manually. Certain operations cannot

be accomplished without the aid of a machine. These processes require precision,

miniaturization, or complexity of geometry that cannot be achieved manually.

Examples include certain integrated circuit fabrication operations, rapid prototyping processes based on computer graphics (CAD) models, and the machining of

complex, mathematically defined surfaces using computer numerical control. These

processes can only be realized by computer-controlled systems.

9. Avoid the high cost of not automating. There is a significant competitive advantage gained in automating a manufacturing plant. The advantage cannot always be

demonstrated on a company’s project authorization form. The benefits of automation often show up in unexpected and intangible ways, such as in improved quality,

higher sales, better labor relations, and better company image. Companies that do

not automate are likely to find themselves at a competitive disadvantage with their

customers, their employees, and the general public

Is there a place for manual labor in the modern production system? The answer is yes.

Even in a highly automated production system, humans are still a necessary component of

the manufacturing enterprise. For the foreseeable future, people will be required to manage and maintain the plant, even in those cases where they do not participate directly in

its manufacturing operations. The discussion of the labor issue is separated into two parts,

corresponding to the previous distinction between facilities and manufacturing support:

(1) manual labor in factory operations and (2) labor in manufacturing support systems.

1.3.1 Manual Labor in Factory Operations

There is no denying that the long-term trend in manufacturing is toward greater use

of automated machines to substitute for manual labor. This has been true throughout

human history, and there is every reason to believe the trend will continue. It has been

made possible by applying advances in technology to factory operations. In parallel and

sometimes in conflict with this technologically driven trend are issues of economics that

continue to find reasons for employing manual labor in manufacturing.

Certainly one of the current economic realities in the world is that there are countries whose average hourly wage rates are so low that most automation projects are difficult to justify strictly on the basis of cost reduction. These countries include China, India,

Mexico, and many countries in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

With the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the North

American continent has become one large labor pool. Within this pool, Mexico’s labor

rate is an order of magnitude less than that in the United States. U.S. corporate executives who make decisions on factory locations and the outsourcing of work must reckon

with this reality.

In addition to the labor cost issue, there are other reasons, ultimately based on economics, that make the use of manual labor a feasible alternative to automation. Humans

possess certain attributes that give them an advantage over machines in certain situations and certain kinds of tasks (Table 1.1). A number of situations can be listed in which

manual labor is preferred over automation:

• Task is technologically too difficult to automate. Certain tasks are very difficult (either technologically or economically) to automate. Reasons for the difficulty include

(1) problems with physical access to the work location, (2) adjustments required in

the task, (3) manual dexterity requirements, and (4) demands on hand–eye coordination. Manual labor is used to perform the tasks in these cases. Examples include

automobile final assembly lines where many final trim operations are accomplished

by human workers, inspection tasks that require judgment to assess quality, and

material handling tasks that involve flexible or fragile materials.

• Short product life cycle. If a product must be designed and introduced in a short

period of time to meet a near-term window of opportunity in the marketplace, or

if the product is anticipated to be on the market for a relatively short period, then

a manufacturing method designed around manual labor allows for a much sooner

product launch than does an automated method. Tooling for manual production

can be fabricated in much less time and at much lower cost than comparable automation tooling