Technology, Manufacturing, Robotics, and the Future
The Current State of Technology
Technology is being used in every aspect of manufacturing today. Today’s technology allows manufacturers to advance in ways unheard of in the past 50 years. To give an example, the shipbuilding industry requires large spaces, many workers, and heavy equipment to move things. The latest welding equipment is being used in shipbuilding. Not only is the new laser welding technology excellent for precision welding, but the laser is also being used equally as well in shipbuilding for precision cutting of steel plates. Precision laser cutting has replaced workers spending hundreds of person-hours designing, marking, maneuvering, and cutting steel plates. Today, the steel needs to be put on location, and the design is loaded into the computer graphics program, and the job begins and ends unattended.
What is a Wear Plate and Why Is It Important?
A wear plate is a modern invention whose purpose is to resist the wear and tear of anything which is under constant use. Machines and inanimate things are given wear plates to protect the surface from wearing out. An example of wear plate use is to place wear plates inside the scoops or shovels of a bulldozer, cranes, and other heavy machinery that are coming into contact with a large object that needs moving. For example, a large crane is lifting massive boulders from a quarry to be placed in containers to be hauled away.
The crane will have wear plates lining the inside of the crane’s bucket to keep the wear of the steel from weakening the steel. A large manufacturing plant moves vast reams of steel to the production floor by industrial pulleys or cranes. Placing wear plates onto the skids protects the skids. The multi-ton steel reams can cause damage to the skids if not protected by a wear plate. A plant that makes millions of screws, nails, and other sharp or heavy objects have wear plates welded to the manufacturing shutes. When millions of products flow daily in a fast and non-frictionless environment, the wear plate secures the shutes and protects them from wear and tear.
Robotics on the Factory Floor
Large factories like Tesla®, are using robotics to do all the work done used to be done by hundreds of human capital on the production line. Production lives have come a long way from Henry Ford’s conception. Today, there is a unique need for robotics on the production floor. A robotic machine can operate more precisely, faster, and more robustly than any person. A computer doesn’t need to break for coffee, lunch, or call out for a sick day. Robots and machines are replacing workers. Analysts are looking at the fact that this trend of computer workers will continue for the next 100 years. Robots are looked upon now as cutting edge.
Things Unchanged
Where large machinery and workers meet, some practices have not changed. The reason certain methods do not change in the manufacturing process is a form of security and safety net for workers. A worker is a precious asset for business, so everything is done to keep the worker in a safe environment. Technology makes a safer environment for workers. This is one of the advantages where technology has changed the way human workers are treated. Machines are excellent heavy lifters.
More Power to Smart Machines
Seeing a minimal 5-foot operator in a mega-machine is just the right combination. Where will the future of technology take the level of safety and cooperation between man and machine? There are many things that technology is helping to advance such as the way computers, devices, and humans interact. For example, it is now possible today for a person to remain in one place all day in a large manufacturing site and the machine does all the work for the employee. For example, in an Amazon warehouse, the employee is posted at one place. The robotic pickers and sorters go throughout the warehouse and gather items that are to be delivered and bring them to the worker. No one knows what robots will do next. Will they be able to perform Hamlet for us in the future?
It doesn’t take much imagination to figure where large manufacturers are going with this idea of robotics over human workers. The bottom line is social workers will always be needed. Robotics has allowed human capital management to figure out what humans can accomplish best. Social workers are good at planning and execution while machines and robots are better at repetitive tasks that need to be done with precision and constancy.
Today, the steel needs to be put on location, and the design is loaded into the computer graphics program, and the job begins and ends unattended.
All thanks to the refined and cutting-edge technologies that have made it possible for the players to experience real-world figures with a lot of action and drama in an extraordinary graphics through their phones or via video wall screens.
