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There are two basic paths for automation. One is to replace the people, ideally reducing cost assuming the bot, and it's programming, maintenance, etc... are less than the labor cost was. The other is to augment the people, maybe replace a few, but for the most part the people get repurposed to tasks they can do much better than the automation can. In the first case, it's all about optimization, and the cost is generally a more rigid organization, but a very lean, efficient one. This leads to much lower costs, assuming the scale and savings make sense. In the second case, it's all about quality and or expanding the scope of business. The potential for rigidity is still there, depending on how the robots and people work. In general, resources are there for the people to work smarter, and or on other tasks, products, improvements, and the like. |