Towards the Unmanned Factory
| Pages | 10-12 |
| Published date | 01 March 1983 |
| Date | 01 March 1983 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057303 |
| Author | Ray Shaw |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Towards the
Unmanned Factory
by Ray Shaw
Managing Director, Industrial Division,
Systems Programming Limited
Ever since the industrial revolution in the eighteenth
cen-
tury, the proportion of the population engaged in
argriculture has been steadily falling while the number of
industrial workers has increased; that is, until the mid
1960s. In 1966, employment in UK manufacturing peaked
at 8.6 million and since then about two million have left the
industrial sector. At one time in 1981, the engineering in-
dustry was losing 1,000 jobs a day.
Alongside this decline has been the inexorable rise of the
services sector, including finance and computing. Conse-
quently, manufacturing which in 1965 represented 34 per
cent of total national output by value, now accounts for
less than 25 per cent, while sadly, the army of unemployed
continues to grow. This is not purely a UK phenomenon.
Indeed,
de-industrialisation is general enough for it to have
been dubbed "the post industrial society". Obviously,
strong influences are at work for such widespread trends
to be created, many of which seem unlikely to be reversed
in the near future.
Outside Forces
One heavy pressure is international competition. It is
relentless and the UK has been falling behind for many
years.
In 1955, our share of world trade was 25 per cent:
now it is less than ten per cent. Paralleling this decline, the
productivity of UK manufacturing has not kept pace with
that of its major competitors. For example, between 1962
and 1977 Italy's and Germany's productivity indices im-
proved by 170 per cent, whereas Britain could only
manage a soggy 60 per cent. Even the improvement in our
performance since then still leaves us needing an in-
travenous productivity injection.
Nor is British industry all that easy to automate anyway; 70
per cent of producers make in batches of 50 or less and
most companies employ less than 500 people. Never-
theless firms which have been through the refining fire of
the recession and have suffered the traumas of redeploy-
ment and redundancy are now looking for ways of increas-
ing their production capacity while still avoiding the pitfalls
of the past. Some are attracted to adverts like "robots
don't strike or take tea breaks". Others will have noted
productivity improvement exhortations from the high
technology electronics and computer suppliers.
Automation Technology
The pressures of "electronics technology push" are
everywhere. Electronics has grown with an awesome 26
per cent annual learning curve on the back of the micro-
chip whose electronic power doubles every two years. In
fact, the market expansion necessary to sustain cash flow
for the electronics industry, with its insatiable appetite for
research funds, is such that these ever cheapening
microchip devices must be sold aggressively into every
aspect of society, both industrial and domestic: there is
also the "me too" syndrome which itches when com-
petitors are seen to be investing in the latest equipment.
Aware of all these factors, the automation and production
machinery suppliers are hard at work developing their pro-
ducts for the unmanned factories of the future. Com-
puterised process control, quite new in 1957 when Texaco
installed it in their Port Arthur refinery, now uses at least
ten per cent of the world's ten million computers, and can
be found in virtually every industrial sector. One such
typical computer system introduced by SPL International
in 1978 has already been used in a range of industries. This
"Robots don't strike or take
tea breaks"
turnkey package specifically designed for monitoring,
alarm control and operator display, can be applied to the
automation of such diverse processes as brewing, coal
mining,
warehousing, public utilities, effluent treatments
works, dyestuffs, chemical,
food,
gas, pharmaceutical,
plastic and steel making.
The world robot population is now doubling every two
years and is heading for 200,000 by 1990: In the UK, robots
even in their present mindless, blind, dumb and immobile
10
IMDS • MARCH/APRIL • 1983
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