February 2021 Volume 3

AUTOMATION

Management The last of these six technological influences is management, and for many companies this has been the greatest challenge as most of the expectations have altered with the arrival of a more machine driven environment. The first of these issues goes back to the labor issue. The manager needs to find the new workers they require while keeping the ones they already have. This is hard enough under normal circumstances, but in a labor short environment, the trained worker has the advantage as they know they are in demand. It is not always possible to hold on to people with pay and benefits, as these are expensive and can easily chew into profits. Motivating the worker who knows there are no ready replacements for him is also complicated. The robot-driven environment is demanding as the machines set the pace and can operate when people can’t. It is a balancing act to find ways to integrate the person with the machine, and some of the flexibility that was built into the old system is not present now. Prior to the days of heavy investment into robots and machinery, the manufacturer could react to seasonal lows and highs by adjusting the size of the workforce but now that workforce is static and the machines have to be paid for month in and month out regardless of demand. The planning now has to take into consideration the fact that some months will see high costs and low revenue. Robots are here to stay and there will be new iterations every month.

We are seeing increased use of “cobots” – machines that are literally designed to become part of a worker rather than a thing the worker operates. The medical sector already employs these cobot surgeons that are an extension of the person. The advances in artificial intelligence have been rapid as well. Things that were thought to be the province of humans alone are now revealed to be subject to change. An example was that of contract law. A team of attorneys were asked to evaluate a complex contract and after several hours the ten attorneys successfully identified 92% of the errors. An AI program took the same contracts and identified 99% of the errors in less than ten seconds. As with any machine, the robot can be an asset or liability according to how it is deployed. All we know for sure is that the age of technology arrived years ago and has been picking up steam. ■

Chris Kuehl, Ph.D., is FIA’s Economist and co-founder of Armada Corporate Intelligence. You can write to Chris at info@ forging.org. Learn more about Armada at www.armadaci.com

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FIA MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2021 49