Robotic Technology And Labour Force

The aim of this report was to investigate the robotic technology that are used in the diverse sectors of manufacturing and the impact of it on labour force. Current research showed the impact of robots in the major factories across China and the world. Overall, the results indicated that the majority of companies in the world and especially in China, are replacing their labour force with robotic technology for the purpose of saving money while increasing production. The report concludes that robotic technology has had a major impact on the labour force in certain industry.

Introduction

The first industrial robot was introduced and developed by the American George Devol and Joseph Engelberger in 1961. Then the industrial robot was used by the American car manufacturing General Motors in the late 60s after opining a new car manufacturing plant in Ohio and asked to install 66 industrial robots to the new car plant. According to Kurfess (2004) robotic technology helped humans to accomplish heavy duty jobs such as car assembling and manufacturing, mining, discovering space and using robots to uninstall bombs in police force and the military known as bomb disposal robot. However, this technology was making revolution in manufacturing industry due to the increasing of productions and the diverse manufacturing sectors. At the same time, some consider robotic technology a negative impact towards labour force especially in the last decade related to losing the jobs according to Wakefield, 2016 and Bland 2016. This report will present the major side effects of robotic technology with a specific focus on China.

Findings

The research revealed several interesting statistics about major factories in China redundant labour with robots. According to Wakefield (2016), Foxconn company that supplies technology parts for Apple and Samsung reduced the capacity of labour from 110,000 to 60,000 due to robotic technology that has replaced repetitive tasks. The company admit to make the human do a better job. At the same time, about 505 factories across China have already invested £430m in robots. According to Bland (2016) the main factors contributing to increase robotic technology:

• Cheaper
• More precise
• Reliable
• Work in Hazards.

In contrast, robots are used to increase the production, reduce the labour cost and accomplish the heavy and the dangers duty. On the other hand, robotic technology can be used in most dangers task that human afraid to deal with “bombs”. According to Alison (2016) bomb disposal robot were used for more than 40 years in different type of tasks and in safe way and use a thousand of them.

Figure 1 illustrates the increased supply of industrial robots in major manufacturing countries in the last 3 years.

Discussion

Research found that many companies in China are replacing employees with robots mainly because of the labour cost. According to Bland (2016) and Wakefield (2016) China is having a revolution in manufacturing, due the new technology. Many companies are replacing their employees with Robots. However, this revolution is considered a disaster for many workers. For example, one of the major factories in China that supplies technology parts for Apple and Samsung that have the capacity of 110,000 reduced their employees to 50,000. On the other hand, another factory bought nine robots and program them to accomplish the job instead of 140 employees which is making the employers saving millions of dollars. Further to this many factories around the world are taking the same action and replacing their labour. In contrast, many people consider this a good way instead of the repetitive tasks and many people not. Therefore, this is making the economy in crisis condition not only China but the entire world. In contrast, robotic technology can be used in different field not only manufacturing and that known as bomb disposal robots. According to Alison (2016) bomb disposal robots used over 40 years in the military and police force. That gives this technology an advantage to exist in different fields.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the current research suggests robotic technology has had an impact on the labour force. This is mainly due to the increasing costs of labour and the demand of production. Despite the fact of the impact it can be also said robotic technology has helped human to accomplish challenging tasks such as space exploration, removal of roadside bombs and assembling heavy parts in car manufacturing. The impact of robotic technology is expected to increase in purpose to more production and use for heavy tasks.