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Vanessa Van Rujipatanakul

Mr. Abel Cadias

English 10 / 10:02

May 16, 2017

Influences of Robotics Innovations on Manufacturing Jobs

According to researches, the innovation of industrial robots will cause humans to lose

most of their manufacturing jobs, which will make the unemployment rate rises within the

next decade. The purpose of this research is to identify the effects of robots on manufacturing

jobs in the near future. The importance of this research report is to provide information on

how robotic development increases the roles of robots in the society, and how it affects job

opportunities of humans. The pieces of information found in this research are based on ten

sources. First, an article entitled Where machines could replace humansand where they

cant (yet) points out the current potential of robots. Second, Johanna Walln mentions the

original features of robots in her article named The history of the industrial robot.

Following from that, the improvements through the first few years of robotics are described

in an article with a similar name called The History of Industrial Robots. Next, Marguerite

Mcneal writes about the innovation of intelligent machines from their earliest generation in

Rise of the Machines: The Future has Lots of Robots, Few Jobs for Humans. Also, in an

article entitled The Remarkable Future of Industrial Robotics, Michael Lindley discusses

the signs of the advancement of robots in manufacturing field. After that, new abilities of the

upcoming robots is described in an article A new class of collaborative robots may be the

future of industrial remanufacturing. Moreover, an article entitled Bet You Didnt See This

Coming: 10 Jobs That Will Be Replaced By Robots by Michael Grothaus shows some of the

jobs that robots can already outperform humans. In addition, Dan Shewans Robots will
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destroy our jobs and we're not ready for it reveals statistics of jobs replacement by robots

that will happen in

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the time before 2020. Furthermore, the impacts of the rise of industrial robots in

manufacturing are stated in an article called Advanced Robotic Systems: The Manufacturing

Labor Force of Tomorrow. Lastly, Oscars William-Grut explains how the rise of robots in

workplace is almost unpreventable in Robots will steal your job: How AI could increase

unemployment and inequality.

The Innovation of Industrial Robots

In the past decade, scientists have been developing technology and robotics to help

carry out some of the human activities. Therefore, artificial intelligences, robots and

machines can be seen nearly everywhere in the everyday life of people in the 21 st century,

whether in the parking lot handing out tickets, in mobile phones, or in a place where most

people never thought it could be like underwater. As pointed out in an article entitled Where

machines could replace humansand where they cant (yet), robots are already innovated to

the point that they can outperform humans on some physical activities that often happen in a

routine and dont usually have to deal with any drastic changes, such as loading materials,

and packaging products (Chui, Manyika, & Miremadi, 2016). Most of this kind of predictable

activities take places in factories or in the service sector, and one of the outstanding result

from robotics development is the replacement of human labors with industrial robots in the

manufacturing industry. Since almost every station in the manufacturing factory are

practically operated the same everyday, robots can easily be programmed to perform those

steps of processing along the line of production in the factory.

The idea of using robots in the industrial field hasnt just came across the modern

factory owners minds. According to Walln (2008), the earliest version of industrial

robots was introduced in 1954, but they were only capable of picking and placing objects at

that time. Back in the early 1960s, robots were not adjustable enough to be programmed with
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such complicated actions as they are today. However, the industrial robotics continued to

evolve in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. From being able to perform only one task, they

started to be more sophisticated, and was programmed to be able to multitask. Though, when

the robots were newly introduced, they were seen as scary objects, so the usage of industrial

robots increased only slowly at the beginning. Later then, the industrial robotic industry

thrived, and their annual growth rates were about 30% by the middle of 1970s. But it wasnt

until 2010 that the people in the industry become more aware of the benefits of industrial

robots (The History of Industrial Robots, 2016).

The Future of Robotics

Compared to other similar industries, the robotic industry takes just a few years to

become more advanced and specialized, and it still continues to grow more in the future. As

mentioned by Marguerite McNeal (2016) in the article entitled Rise of the Machines: The

Future has Lots of Robots, Few Jobs for Humans, robots had developed and innovated

dramatically from their first generation. They were predicted by many to keep growing

rapidly since there is an increasing amount of specialists who are more expert in this field,

and the progression of associated technologies is driving. In addition, people are more aware

that robots became one of the top solutions for completing repetitive or high risk works, such

as lifting heavy objects and welding pieces together (Lindley, 2016). Within the next few

years, they probably will be programmed with more new capabilities, and the robot

developers wont just stop with that.

According to the article A new class of collaborative robots may be the future of

industrial remanufacturing (2016), Tijo Thayil, section manager for robotics development at

the A*STAR Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre, stated that the new

generation of robots will be able to perform a repeated task after it is demonstrated once by
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humans. The robots' ability to interact specially to each particular part is necessary for the

manufacturing procedure. In the progress of making new parts, there are prototypes that

defined the exact shape and steps for the labors. However, in repairing and remanufacturing

processes, the part's shape or properties are different each time. So, when it is out of service,

human labors wont know how it should actually look. But, with the improvement in

robotics, added up with the current technologies such as vision modules and 3D scanning

systems, robots can be adjusted to respond according to the varied conditions of inputs.

Moreover, as robots become more accessible and more affordable over time, the small

manufacturers who arent able to afford the price of robots will soon be able to apply them to

their factory, and the consequences of that will fall to the human labors who will get replaced.

The Effects of Robotics on Manufacturing Jobs

Since robots are programmed to be automated, they are more accurate and productive

than human labors. Robots dont get tired, or distracted from their work as human labors do,

so those problems wont affect their working potential. Also, they can always be

reprogrammed with new applications in no time unlike humans that require some time to

learn new skills. Therefore, most of the manufacturers are more confident with robots than

humans in the term of amount and quality of working outputs. The jobs replacement by

robots can now be seen in many worlds top manufacturing companies. Grothaus (2017)

pointed out that an example for that kind of situation is the case of Foxconn, which is the

manufacturer who makes everything from iPhones to Xboxes, as they just replaced 60,000

employees with robots. Following from the increasing robots installation in the industry is the

high unemployment rate since most of the human labors lost their manufacturing jobs to

automation.
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In the article called Robots will destroy our jobs and we're not ready for it, it was

suggested by Dan Shewan (2017) that within the next year, almost one-third of

manufacturing labors will be more effective industrial robots, which are capable of working

together with other robots and producing outputs next to humans. Also, a robotics officer will

be employed in 30% or more of the worlds leading organizations by 2019. Though, not every

position will be replaced, the remaining labors will receive 18% to 25% lower wages due to

the rise of robots in this industry (Gonzalez, 2016). Not only the low-skilled manufacturing

jobs that are at risk, but people with skilled jobs cant yet be sure that they are safe from the

rise of automation and robots. The reason for that is because there will be more new

improvements in robotics industry that will cause robots to be able to outperform human in

job positions as described by Oscars William-Grut (2016) in his article entitled Robots will

steal your job: How AI could increase unemployment and inequality.

Conclusion

This research report aimed to provide information about the impacts of the innovation

of robotic industry on manufacturing jobs. As mentioned in the earlier paragraphs, the

industrial robots will continue to be developed, and they will be able to outperform humans in

the near future. Hence, humans will lose their jobs in manufacturing field to automations,

which will cause unemployment rate to rise since most of the worlds population are working

in this industry. This research report recommends further studies on jobs that will be created

in the following years due to the development of robotic industry.

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References

Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore. (2016, August 24).

A new class of collaborative robots may be the future of industrial remanufacturing.

Retrieved April 30, 2017 from https://phys.org/news/2016-08-class-collaborative-
robots-future-industrial.html

Chui, M., Manyika, J., & Miremadi, M. (2016, July 7). Where machines could replace
humansand where they cant (yet). Retrieved March 24, 2017 from http://www.mc
kinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/where-machines-could-
replace-humans-and-where-they-cant-yet

Gonzalez, C. (2017, October 27). Advanced Robotic Systems: The Manufacturing Labor
Force of Tomorrow. Retrieved March 30, 2017 from http://www.machinedesign.com/
robotics/advanced-robotic-systems-manufacturing-labor-force-tomorrow

Grothaus, M. (2017, January 19). Bet You Didnt See This Coming: 10 Jobs That Will Be
Replaced By Robots. Retrived March 24, 2017 from https://www.fastcompany.com /
3067279/you-didnt-see-this-coming-10-jobs-that-will-be-replaced-by-robots

Lindley, M. (2017, April 24). The Remarkable Future of Industrial

Robotics. Retrieved

April 27, 2017 from https://www.automationworld.com/remarkable-

future-industrial-robotics

McNeal, M. (2015, April 7). Rise of the Machines: The Future has Lots of Robots, Few
Jobs for Humans. Retrieved March 28, 2017 from
https://www.wired.com/brandlab/ 2015/04 /rise-machines-future-lots-robots-jobs-
humans/

Shewan, D. (2016, October 27). Robots will destroy our jobs and we're not ready for it.
Retrieved March 29, 2017 from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/
11/robots-jobs- employees-artificial-intelligence

The History of Industrial Robots. (2016, May 20). Retrieved April 23, 2017 from
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https://www.used-robots.com/education/the-history-of-industrial-robots
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Walln, J. (2008, May 8). The History of the Industrial Robot. Retrieved
April 23, 2017

from http://liu.diva-
portal.org/smash/get/diva2:316930/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Williams-Grut, O. (2016, February 15). Robots will steal your job: How AI could
increase unemployment and inequality. Retrieved March 24, 2017 from
http://uk.businessinsider. com/robots-will-steal-your-job-citi-ai-increase-
unemployment-inequality-2016-2