Research in Advantages and Disadvantages of Automative Technology

With the advancement in Science and Technology, the environment of manufacturing has been totally changed. Before 21st Century, manufacturing and fabrication were all done by humans. But, nowadays computers and technology have replaced man-made jobs. ‘Automation’ is the key word which has proven to be more advantageous in today’s manufacturing world. Automation has allowed the companies to manufacture products at greater speeds, with great repeatability and quality. Automation has become a major factor which determines that a company will remain competitive within the manufacturing industry or not. As every coin has two sides, similarly automation has its pros and cons as well.

The advantages of automation are reduction in production time, downtime is reduced, increase in accuracy and repeatability with less human errors, less employee costs, increased safety factors and high productivity. On the other hand, disadvantages of automation are some machines create more pollution, initially large investment is required for set-up, increase in unemployment, less flexibility and require maintenance and training which is very costly.

We have investigated the research on pros and cons of automation for Centennial College designed by Advanced Manufacturing and Automation Technology (AMAT)Department, Scarborough, Ontario. We found that before 21st Century, manufacturing was done by people but nowadays humans are replaced by machines or in simple word ‘Automation’. Automation gives better results with less errors and less downtime. Nowadays, manufacturing industries no longer require humans to do pick and place and palletizing on production line. They have been replaced by Six Axis ‘Industrial Robots’. Even every small company uses ‘Robots’ to do their tasks as they are more efficient, they never get tire, can work non-stop, execute commands faster than humans, saves energy, no vacation, no sick calls and excellent repeatability to do tasks. This is all the result of Automation. However, despite its pros, it has cons as well which are increase in unemployment, some machines create more pollution, large initial investment, require maintenance and training, cannot do their tasks on their behalf as they have to be programmed first and are very costly.

Advanced Manufacturing and Automation Technology (AMAT) department of Centennial College, are always working on Automation Projects in which they can completely replaced humans and let machines and Robots interact with each other to do tasks so that they can teach and give practical industrial experience to their students. But these projects are very costly and require lots of efforts that can be made by students as well as faculty members. So, they asked Innovative Minds and Associates, that how they can implement those projects in which they require information about pros and cons of automation. Specifically, they asked us to describe pros and cons of automation which are;

• reduction in production time, downtime is reduced, increase in accuracy and repeatability with less human errors, less employee costs, increased safety factors and high productivity are advantages of automation,

• disadvantages include are increase in unemployment, some machines create more pollution, large initial investment, require maintenance and training, cannot do their tasks on their behalf as they have to be programmed first and are very costly.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation

In the past 20 years, technology has changed the environment of manufacturing. In the past days, manufacturing and production were all done by human-beings. But. now computers and technology have dominated the industry. ‘Automation’ is a key word that has become the competitive benefit in today’s manufacturing era. Automation can be defined as the technology by which a process is performed with minimum human assistance. Automation is the use of various control systems for functioning equipment such as machinery, processes in factories, boilers and heat treating ovens, switching on telephone networks, steering and stabilization of ships, aircraft and other applications and vehicles with less human interference. Some productions have been made completely automated which requires no assistance of human-beings. As every coin has two sides, Automation has its advantages as well as disadvantages too.

The advantages of automation are reduction in production time, increase in accuracy and repeatability, less human error, less employee costs, increased safety factor and has increased the volume production. Foremost, it reduces the production time as by having a machine that is automated can speeds up the production time since there is no thinking that is required by the machine and which gives better results in form of excellent repeatability with less human error. Secondly, it increases accuracy and repeatability of tasks as when an automated machine is programmed to perform a specific task over and over again, the accuracy and repeatability compared to human-beings is much better. It gives results with less human error as no one is perfect and we are all prone to making mistakes. That’s why a machine that performs repeated tasks is less obvious to make mistakes than human-beings.

Benefits of Automation includes that it requires less employees which saves their costs and they can invest that cost on automated machines, therefore less manpower is needed to get the specific tasks done. It also ensures less safety hazards, which leads to financial savings. With having less employees, there are several costs that are reduced such as payroll, benefits and sick days. Next, human-beings are not supposed to work, or environments which is harmful for their health, however with automation solves this issue as automated machines can work in any environment. Therefore, there is a decrease in workplace hazards and also in number of workers which died in heavy duty industries. Automated Machines never get tired easily which in result can perform repetitive task with excellent accuracy and precision. Last, it also increases the production volume which means investing in automated equipment results in valuable resource for large production volumes and more profitability.

However, on the other side of the coin, the story is completely different as it as negative impacts too which are less versatility, some machines create more pollution which is an environmental issue, initially large investment is required, massive increase in unemployment, unpredictable costs, require maintenance and training and cannot perform complicated tasks. Firstly, automated machines are less versatile as a machine that can perform a certain task in their work-range only which makes them less flexible whereas an employee could do that with more flexibility. Secondly, some automated machines create pollution which is threat to environment as different types of machines are operated using motor which may need harmful gases or chemicals in order to function which can result in pollution in the workplace ass well as in environment. Initially, large investment is required as automated machines are very costly. For instance, if one manufacturing company wants to buy an Industrial Six- Axis Robot, its minimum price starts from $25,000 which can go to maximum $400,00. Automation requires large amount of investment depend on the equipment that a company required. With a rapid increase in Automation and Technology, it has increased the unemployment rates.

Moreover, there are some unpredictable costs which includes research and development costs to automate a process, preventative maintenance costs, and the cost of training employees to operate automated machines. Automated machines cannot perform complicated or non-repetitive tasks as an automated machine is programmed and they can only perform those tasks repetitively that are programmed in them. Automated machines cannot think as they do not have brain and cannot do tasks on their own unless human-beings gives them instruction in the form of programming or by other means. Last, automated machines require maintenance and training as for their proper functioning workers need training in which they can learn how to operate these machines.

In nutshell, with increase in world’s population, demands of people are increasing day by day which directly puts pressure on manufacturing industries to manufacture more products. In order to survive, Automation plays a very important role in automotive, health, electronics and military industries. As automation has its pros and cons, so it is entirely dependant on company or manufacturer how they utilize the automated machines.