The Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation in Factories

The ways that we produce products has changed over time. Automation is “the use of largely automatic equipment in a system of manufacturing or other production process,” or the process of producing something with the use of machinery and electronics. Some believe that automation has helped society today, but others think that automation has done more hurt than help. Take a look at these advantages and disadvantages of automation in factories today.

Advantages

• One advantage of automation is that there has been increased productivity in the making of products. Machines are able to work longer with fewer breaks, and that means that there are more products being produced in a given day.
• Another advantage of automation is that the products being made have higher quality.
• An additional advantage of automation is that machines can do jobs that people aren’t capable of doing. For example, people can’t work at the top of a skyscraper in horrible weather conditions.
• With automation, there are cheaper labor costs. Since there are machines that are there to do jobs that people do, this saves money by not having to pay people.
• Increased safety is another advantage of automation because sometimes there are jobs that are too dangerous for people to do. This helps to increase the safety of people by removing dangerous jobs from their schedule.

Disadvantages

• One disadvantage of automation is that technology doesn’t know human logic. It could make mistakes that people would consider common sense.
• Another disadvantage of automation is that you can only teach technolgy to do so many things. Technology can’t do all that we want it to do today. If it could, we would have flying cars like in The Jetsons.
• An additional disadvantage of automation is that technology is expensive. There might be excused labor expenses, but before doing that, you have to purchase the technology and that can take a huge chunk of cash out of your wallet.
• Another disadvantage of automation is that it creates more pollution. Depending on the piece of technology and how it runs, it can be a contributor to climate change and pollution.
• One big disadvantage of automation is that there is a huge increase of unemployment throughout the United States. The change in automation has caused a huge shift into replacing humans with machines.

There are disadvantages to consider, and some companies are working to change their automation habits. But in the society that we live in today, automation is definently necessary.

About the Author: Steve is a guest contributor from Proficient Machine & Automation, a company that specializes in creating automation machines.

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