It depends a lot on the type of factory. For example, for the last couple decades semiconductor manufacturing is fully automated except for maintenance (including installation here) and contingencies when maintenance is happening (people moving wafers around with carts when the automated handling system is down). Part of this is certainly that the advanced processes can’t be done by humans anymore, due to precision, scale, contamination, and safety reasons.
Most manufacturing does not need to be done at the same level of precision or cleanliness that advanced electronic components require though. I used to work at a small injection molding factory making storage totes and we had ONE press that could automatically put stickers on a large tote. Every other press required the operator to put the sticker in by hand while they inspected for issues with the product.
And I’m not saying that all automation is useless, as most food packaging plants are fairly well automated with operators just ensuring that everything goes correctly, but it will never be viable to replace those workers with a robot since they will never be able to adapt to a sudden change like a human can.
It depends a lot on the type of factory. For example, for the last couple decades semiconductor manufacturing is fully automated except for maintenance (including installation here) and contingencies when maintenance is happening (people moving wafers around with carts when the automated handling system is down). Part of this is certainly that the advanced processes can’t be done by humans anymore, due to precision, scale, contamination, and safety reasons.
BUT the humanoid robots would be useless.
Most manufacturing does not need to be done at the same level of precision or cleanliness that advanced electronic components require though. I used to work at a small injection molding factory making storage totes and we had ONE press that could automatically put stickers on a large tote. Every other press required the operator to put the sticker in by hand while they inspected for issues with the product.
And I’m not saying that all automation is useless, as most food packaging plants are fairly well automated with operators just ensuring that everything goes correctly, but it will never be viable to replace those workers with a robot since they will never be able to adapt to a sudden change like a human can.