How do companies choose between hiring human labor or installing robotic labor?

Hunter Belvis

Source: ATS Automation

First I will address the question: “what is the cost of robotic labor?” In the article "Motivated to Automate" Phil Davies discusses how his welding company called “OEM Fabricators” purchased an automated welder priced at 330,000 dollars. While the numbers seem quite high for a purchase, OEM President S. Mark Tyler believes that it was the right move considering the difficulty of “bringing people on board to the company” now. Tyler stated that waiting process for a filling a position could take several weeks or months compared to shorter wait times in the past. Tyler also claims that the welder has “reduced costs and has boosted productivity” and has allowed the company to pursue “new lines of business.”

It seems that the installation of robotics has helped OEM Fabricators, but what impact has this had its more lifelike workers? According the article, fears have been raised by the media and labor advocates due to the possibility that automated labor will put people out of work. While this is true for low-skilled jobs, the good news is that it is short term. Also it is likely that automated labor can create more, higher salary jobs which require “higher education and advanced skill” according to Philies. In fact due to the higher production rates and profits, some firms have hired additional workers.

this is only a mere taste of automated labor and its potential costs, there is more research that can be done. In my next blog post I will be talking about the efficiency of automated labor compared to human labor.