That’s because they cannot touch any of those items. Pharma production was one of the first but this is also now mandated for food processing as well. No human contact even with the outside of the container the food will be put into. Watch a modern bottling operation- no one touches anything from the time the plastic embryo arrives at the plant until the product is bottled and palletized ready to ship. Sterilization happens at the embryo level and before the bottle is even formed.
It is more than just manufacturing. Just look at professionals like engineers, accountants, bankers, lawyers.
Computer-aided design has decreased the number of engineers needed with slide rules to design and build anything. Look at how many engineers were needed in NASA to get a man to the moon. Now, that could be down with a fraction of the people that were needed before. Now, anyone that can navigate a CAD program can become their very own designer. I have successfully designed my first small engine adapter and have had prototypes 3-D printed.
Accountants have come a long way from hand writing journal entries on green-bar paper to using sophisticated software. 50 years ago, the jobs of 100 accountants might be done by 5 today. The lower level jobs like accounting clerks have been eliminated.
The ATM, has eliminated bank tellers. This is going the next step further and mobile banking is decreasing the need for ATMs. So technology is replacing older technology.
Just imagine how many staff lawyers would be needed to page through the millions of pages of case law if there was not an advanced search engine.
I was just addressing non professional jobs…but yea…many jobs have been eliminated.
Engineers is kind of a tricky one though since yes jobs have been eliminated due to technology, but the sector has grown larger then those jobs that were eliminated.
It is required because it is possible, and the raw material containers can be handled by humans, yet they aren’t.
I disagree with your assertion about manpower in the space industry. A huge number of people are needed because the number of requirements has grown meteorically since the 1960s. It doesn’t cost much to make just about any component, but the records required to track where each part came from and how it was manipulated create many jobs. The environmental tests required along the way for any major subsystem and then the full assembly are very expensive as well. Remember the $1000 toilet seat? The seat was cheap. The requirements verification and record keeping needed to document verification are what made it so expensive.
Well, it would be kind of foolish to require something that wasn’t possible…
When you’re entire line is automated, why would you have humans doing just one part of it?
I watched this documentary on grain milling. The entire operation was automated except the final step where the bag was filled. There they had some guy grabbing each bag, opening it and slipping it over the feed spout. He pressed a lever to activate the feed and it automatically dispensed the correct amount. He then set the bag onto a machine that automatically sewed it shut. The only reason I can think is is was a protected union job or something they couldn’t eliminate…
Let’s not go too far on that. I can saw wood but I’m not a cabinetmaker. Just working a tool and making a simple construction doesn’t make someone an engineer. The CAD program doesn’t replace education and experience in materials science and mechanical engineering…I already have to deal with engineers fresh out of school that believe everything their modeling software tells them…
1 Like
CAFE requirements are not possible when they are set, yet they are declared anyway.
It’s beginning to feel like a circle…
I was countering your assertion that it is required because it is possible. That’s not the reason. Food safety takes precedence over most everything else related to the production of it.
CAFE is based on projected capability. Industry fights it but they know it is achievable.
RoHS was implemented with the clause that those materials are only allowed if it is technically unfeasible to remove them. Notice it doesn’t say economically. But they allowed an out for products that would not work without those materials. The original mandate came out and 5 years later you had to be compliant. End of story.
Having a solution implies that there is a problem. Communism is great at keeping the population employed with useless busywork. Remember, work is a means to an end, not an end to itself, or, it’s our standard of living, stupid! When mankind can find a way to have his wants fulfilled by automation, our standard of living will go up.
Or, we could go back to primitive agriculture and have every able bodied person toiling from sunup to sundown just to have the basic necessities for survival.
There is a problem…wake up, read a news paper sometime. Jobs are being replaced by technology. I’m all for technology…and don’t mind shifting the workforce from laborers to technical. But were not there yet…and this transition is going to hurt a lot of people.
This is nothing new. It’s been going on since humans worked as a group. There will always be people displaced by the relentless evolution of new technology. When was the last time you had shoes repaired or a television fixed? The people filling those needs were eventually displaced by changes in the business. Automation has not been developed overnight. It’s been a fairly long process and if you don’t see it coming and learn a new trade or go into a dying industry with your eyes closed, you’ll be the one hurting when the need dries up…
1 Like
A month ago my wife had new heals put on her shoes. TV repair - I haven’t had the need to, but there still TV repair shops.
I think a lot of the TV repair shops are for warranty claims. When Panasonic replaced my backlit LCD with a DLP TV, they sent the DLP to their local warranty representative and that shop hauled the old one away and put the new one on the table.
You can still buy buggy whips too…
As jtsanders pointed out, they don’t do much actual repair anymore Mike. I think you knew that.