Robots work better than humans
Imagine having an army of robots to work for you. They work 24 hours a day. They do exactly what they are programmed to do. There are no complaints, no questions. They work at a constant pace and they don’t make mistakes.
The input required from you is a known quantity: initial cost, regular maintenance, power supply, replacement programme.
For tasks that are repetitive, consistent and predictable robots are fabulous. They are super reliable. They are way better than humans.
But then a delivery of materials is late and they sit idle because they aren’t programmed to do the other useful tasks you would like doing. Or you have a VIP customer with a special requirement but the robots won’t change their speed or process to accommodate your new, once off requirements.
Humans have none of the predictability of robots. They work well for a maximum of 50 hours a week. They require food and comfort breaks as well as weekends and holidays. They take time to learn new tasks and they make mistakes. They are emotional and variable.
We aren’t designed for predictability. We are designed to think, learn and adapt. We are designed for innovation. When resilient our strength lies in adjusting to variations of input, to seeing potential problems, to averting disasters, to finding solutions to new problems, to constantly adapting to a very rapidly changing world. We have unlimited potential.
All providing the conditions, the environment, allows for our needs as humans.
Humans make really lousy robots so let’s stop assigning them to robot tasks. Let’s automate all that can be automated and let’s create environments where we as humans can thrive and discover our real potential.
(I know that automation cuts jobs, especially for unskilled and semi skilled workers, but for that part of the population our current work solutions aren’t working very well either – the people are for a large part dissatisfied and the business owners bemoan the costs vs results. We need a different solution.)
(Originally published as a Bumble Bee Insight in Dec 2015)
