This is the sort of backward-ass thinking that drives me nuts... "Ford's digital engineering manager Mark Goderis said, "by having the robots scan our facility, we can see what it actually looks like now and build a new engineering model. That digital model is then used when we need to retool the plant for new products." "We used to use a tripod, and we would walk around the facility stopping at different locations, each time standing around for five minutes waiting for the laser to scan," Goderis said. "Scanning one plant could take two weeks. With Fluffy's [the robot dog's name] help, we are able to do it in half the time." A typical digital scan of a plant costs around $300,000. Ford claims the robot dogs can do it for a "fraction of the cost." K, so two question blare out here... A.) So you are able to do the job in one week, instead of two, with the robot. While the engineers are standing around for 5 minutes waiting for the laser to scan, what are they doing in the meanwhile? Picking their ass, or working? B.) What will those "scanning engineers" be doing when the robot is doing the work? So while the robot dog is doing it's thing, the humans are still getting paid to do nothing, right? The FACK, this will just reduce productivity and cost the company MORE money in the long run.
Ford can recoup the cost expenditure in less than 1 year. UAW wages plus benefits vs. a $75,000 robot that doesn't come back from break late, call in sick, use FMLA, has nohealth insurance premiums, doesn't have to get paid a bonus and has no legacy cost and no retirement account that has to be paid to a surviving spouse. Profits are paramount to survive Akuma A
They'll all be let go and be replaced by a single minimum-wage clerk whose job will include supervising 50 robot teams (essentially reporting on breakdowns.) Why would it cost the company more? Were Edison's light bulb shops required to employ the coal lamp lighters that they displaced?
When I was working at Hughes Aircraft, I was a member of Local 1553 (Electronic and Space Tech union); didn't even know such a thing existed until I had some trouble with management and a fellow lab worker clued me in. They got that little problem straightened out in a New York minute. But when times got tough and we as a country gave away the millimeter-wave space tube business away to China, all of us lined up and headed for the door just as if we weren't members. When the job goes away, so do the people working it... although there may be separation benefits, etc. Unions can pad stuff here and there, and be the 10k lb gorilla in the room when you just don't have the leverage but do have a legit grievance. But "surplus to requirements" just gets you "redeployment if possible and retraining costs otherwise", if I recall the wording.