Industrial automation has rapidly become a cornerstone of modern manufacturing and production processes as advancements in technology have continued to transform the production environment. Before With the benefit of automation, processes have been streamlined and improved resulting in increased efficiencies, improved product quality, and a safer operating environment. With a change of this magnitude, manufacturing’s most important resource, the employee, has also been significantly impacted.
Do We Ever Limit Automation Advances for The Sake of the Employee?
Forsaking improvement is a slippery slope that could lead to extinction for a business. If automation brings improvement and the payback is there relative to the cost, businesses must choose to automate. If not, the competition will. Businesses operate in a free market and competitive environment where there is a scoreboard with winners and losers. Businesses must play to win, which means you have to improve and automate when it makes sense.
Besides winning or surviving, the utilitarian concept of the greatest good for the greatest number also dictates that businesses should make automation and improvement decisions on a stand-alone basis. If a business wins, the employees also win. However, that does not mean that businesses should not consider the impact of the decision on the individual employee. It just means that the negative impact on certain employees should not override the best decision for the greatest number of stakeholders.
What Are the Potential Impacts to The Employee?
The impacts are both positive and negative with the greatest good for the greatest number hopefully winning the day. If this theory holds, that means the glass is more than half full and most employees in a business where automation is successfully deployed will benefit (compensation, knowledge, and responsibility). However, for those employees displaced by automation improvements, the impact is real, devastating, and cannot be understated. These employees face the prospect of unemployment or underemployment as their less skilled and repetitive tasks are replaced by machines.
No matter if a single employee is affected or if thousands of employees are affected, the displacement decision is personal to each employee, and therefore it needs to be personal to the business. Thoughtfulness and compassion in the execution are of the highest importance.
How to Best Address Employee Displacement?
The straightforward part for most businesses is the decision in and of itself to automate. Where businesses differentiate themselves is in how they handle the negative impact of those decisions on their most valuable resource, in this case the displaced employee. Communication and feedback are the key both prior to and during the displacement.
If there were performance issues that were corroborating factors in the displacement, the employee should have been made aware of them, and the employer should first evaluate and determine if the affected employee can meet or exceed expectations in another area of the business given the pre-existing performance issues. In the case of employees that are meeting or exceeding expectations, they truly are the business’ most valuable resource as they are a proven contributor and should hopefully impact the success of the business in another area, with or without additional training.
In the unfortunate and final event of displacement, the employer should consider and address the negative and personal impact on the displaced employee in determining severance policy. There is no right policy, but compassion and helping position the employee for a successful transition are the “whats” to the policy, while the “how” is where the rubber meets the road for each individual employer and depends on the specific circumstances of the situation.
The Future with Automation and AI
The pace of technological advancements in industrial automation has been truly amazing, and the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will exponentially increase the pace in the years ahead. Thus, businesses will continue to be challenged to an even greater extent in navigating the transition to investing in automation improvements at the expense of displaced employees. These types of decisions with a potential negative human impact are never easy, but they must be made in the context of “the greatest good for the greatest number” while also balancing and incorporating the consideration and evaluation of “the greatest good for the lesser number” for those employees that are unfortunately displaced as the lesser number still deserves compassion and professionalism from the business in executing the displacement decision.
At EFP, we put the greatest good first. This means that we are always thinking about the impact of our decisions on our partners, our customers, and our employees before we make them. To see more about the good we are doing in our community and across the world, visit our about us page!