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Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation

Advantages of automation include higher production rates and productivity, more efficient use of materials, better product quality, improved safety, shorter workweeks, and reduced factory lead times. Automation typically performs manufacturing processes more consistently than humans, resulting in greater quality control. It also makes more efficient use of materials and reduces scrap. Another benefit is reducing the average workweek from around 70 hours in 1900 to about 40 hours currently. However, disadvantages include worker displacement causing emotional stress, high upfront capital costs, increased maintenance needs, and lower flexibility compared to human workers.

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557 views2 pages

Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation

Advantages of automation include higher production rates and productivity, more efficient use of materials, better product quality, improved safety, shorter workweeks, and reduced factory lead times. Automation typically performs manufacturing processes more consistently than humans, resulting in greater quality control. It also makes more efficient use of materials and reduces scrap. Another benefit is reducing the average workweek from around 70 hours in 1900 to about 40 hours currently. However, disadvantages include worker displacement causing emotional stress, high upfront capital costs, increased maintenance needs, and lower flexibility compared to human workers.

Uploaded by

Maxwell Mabhikwa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Advantages and disadvantages of automation

Advantages commonly attributed to automation include higher production


rates and increased productivity, more efficient use of materials, better
product quality, improved safety, shorter workweeks for labour, and
reduced factory lead times. Higher output and increased productivity have
been two of the biggest reasons in justifying the use of automation. Despite
the claims of high quality from good workmanship by humans, automated
systems typically perform the manufacturing process with less variability
than human workers, resulting in greater control and consistency of product
quality. Also, increased process control makes more efficient use of
materials, resulting in less scrap.
Worker safety is an important reason for automating an industrial operation.
Automated systems often remove workers from the workplace, thus
safeguarding them against the hazards of the factory environment. In the
United States the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA) was
enacted with the national objective of making work safer and protecting the
physical well-being of the worker. OSHA has had the effect of promoting
the use of automation and robotics in the factory.
Another benefit of automation is the reduction in the number
of hoursworked on average per week by factory workers. About 1900 the
average workweek was approximately 70 hours. This has gradually been
reduced to a standard workweek in the United States of about 40 hours.
Mechanization and automation have played a significant role in this
reduction. Finally, the time required to process a typical production order
through the factory is generally reduced with automation.
A main disadvantage often associated with automation, worker
displacement, has been discussed above. Despite the social benefits that
might result from retraining displaced workers for other jobs, in almost all
cases the worker whose job has been taken over by a machine undergoes
a period of emotional stress. In addition to displacement from work, the
worker may be displaced geographically. In order to find other work, an
individual may have to relocate, which is another source of stress.
Other disadvantages of automated equipment include the high capital
expenditure required to invest in automation (an automated system can
cost millions of dollars to design, fabricate, and install), a higher level of
maintenance needed than with a manually operated machine, and a
generally lower degree of flexibility in terms of the possible products as
compared with a manual system (even flexible automation is less flexible
than humans, the most versatile machines of all).

Also there are potential risks that automation technology will ultimately


subjugate rather than serve humankind. The risks include the possibility
that workers will become slaves to automated machines, that the privacy of
humans will be invaded by vast computer data networks, that human error
in the management of technology will somehow endanger civilization, and
that society will become dependent on automation for its economic well-
being.
These dangers aside, automation technology, if used wisely and effectively,
can yield substantial opportunities for the future. There is an opportunity to
relieve humans from repetitive, hazardous, and unpleasant labour in all
forms. And there is an opportunity for future automation technologies to
provide a growing social and economic environment in which humans can
enjoy a higher standard of living and a better way of life.

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