“In the race between humans and robots, humans are often winning,” writes The Wall Street Journal (Nov. 3, 2018). Companies like Airstream, the maker of retro-cool, high-end trailers, find it more efficient to use a workforce of people, rather than make sizable investments in automation that risks being wasted if the economy slows.
Airstream’s factory in Ohio is racing to fill a backlog of orders that spans well into next year. It takes 8 workers climbing through an Airstream to bolt a hulking aluminum shell to a steel chassis, and snake fluid lines and wires through walls. To finish the shiny, silver capsule off, workers will need to install 3,000 rivets by hand. There’s not a robot in sight. They may speed production, but the machines require a substantial investment that risks being wasted if the economy slumps.
We’ll continue to see innovation in fields that are traditionally dependent on people. For example, grocery stores, which often struggle to find people to work for lower wages, are experimenting with robots. It could take decades, though, for these initiatives to meaningfully alter the employment picture. Robotics spending is forecast to equal $90 billion in 2018, a considerable increase compared to prior years, but it is only a sliver of the nearly $3 trillion committed to capital investment. An MIT prof adds: “There is a big debate on whether robots are really delivering on the productivity benefits they might promise.”
Companies appear to be trying to “optimize how they use people” rather than install more machines. For example, Ford spent nearly $1 billion converting the factory to go from making small cars to producing pickup trucks. Much of that went toward new tooling for stamping out body parts, but relatively little went toward adding automation. Artificial intelligence is now integrated into the final inspection lines to boost quality. But skilled workers are needed to interact with the AI tools.
Classroom discussion questions:
- Why does Airstream prefer humans over robots?
- Where are robots making big impacts in American business?