The Human Side of Factory Automation: Managerial and Human Resource Strategies for Making Automation Succeed

Litman, Todd. Autonomous vehicle implementation predictions. Victoria, Canada: Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2017.

The author explores autonomous car on its benefits, impact, cost and transportation planning issues in the future. The author explores the development of the self-driving cars and their adoption in the society as a result of technology advancement. The author also highlights the benefits, challenges as well as their impact on the travel sector. The author asserts that self-driving cars will affect the demand and supply in the public transit supply, levels of infrastructure due to them requiring specialized infrastructure for them. Other benefits identified include; pollution reduction, increased safety, affordability and energy conservation. The source was crucial to the research as it provides an in-depth analysis thus understanding the benefits, challenges and effects of self-driving cars.

Anderson, James M., et al. Autonomous vehicle technology: A guide for policymakers. Rand Corporation, 2014.

The author of the journal seeks to explore how technology is capable of bringing about products such as self-driving vehicle and how the internet plays a crucial key in the realization of the same. The author introduces the concept of autonomous and automated vehicles and the reasons why autonomous vehicle technology is important. Additionally, the author presents the decisions that policymakers have to face and the benefits as well as perils of the technology. The author for example, talks about the creative mode of transportation where sensors are used to drive the driverless cars to their destinations without a hitch. Furthermore, they explore the benefits of such a mode of transport where environmental pollution will be greatly reduced. In the third chapter of the book the author presents the various policies, laws and regulations that are needed to effectively implement the technology. The author’s work greatly influenced my research hypothesis as it makes it almost certain that technology is the future which will rapidly affect many sectors including that of transport. The author was instrumental in increasing my understanding of the concepts regarding the topic understudy.

Vanderbilt, Tom. “Let the robot drive: The autonomous car of the future is here.” Wired Magazine, Conde NAST, www. wired. com (2012): 1-34.

The author highlights some of the potential dangers of self-driving vehicles. The author argues that Self-driving vehicles might be hacked by skilled hackers just like any other computing device. The hacker may figure the means to control the vehicle’s major apparatus including steering and acceleration, thereby endangering lives of the users. For instance, the hacker may access control of the car and access the owner’s information that could be wrongful. A terrorist might also use the vehicle after its access, as a weapon and end up attacking innocent people.

Another potential challenge that is highlighted is the autonomous car is exposed to is that they are bound to cause increased exposure to radiation on its riders. This is because most tools such as GPS tracking, remote controls, powered accessories, radio and music, Bluetooth and wi-fi connectivity all use the electromagnetic field radiation. Constant exposure to this kind of radiation can cause headaches, migraines, exhaustion, and sleeplessness, thereby deteriorating one’s health. The source was instrumental in providing the relevant materials regarding the dangers of the use of self-driving cars.

Narla, Siva RK. ”The evolution of connected vehicle technology: From smart drivers to smart cars to… self-driving cars.” Ite Journal 83.7 (2013): 22-26.

The author provides an analysis of the evolution regarding the technology behind self-driving vehicles which is instrumental in understanding as well as providing an in-depth knowledge regarding the underlying research topic. The author highlights that several researches about the future and potential of self-driving cars already done found out that motorized vehicles faced the challenge of getting through traffic. To accomplish this, the self-driving car’s speed had to be adjusted including the distance from the car in front of it, and by making an estimate of the speed of the vehicle in front of it Also, apart from assisting in the traffic control, self-driving vehicles have greatly helped in reducing fuel consumption and haphazard breaking. Even though self-driving cars are years away from being fully implemented, the researchers concluded that similar controls could be applied on the existing automobiles such as adaptive cruise control, intelligent infrastructure and connected vehicles which could reduce congestion of traffic flow.

Research Topic 2: THE IMPLICATIONS OF INCREASING NUMBER OF JOBS BEING AUTOMATED

Majchrzak, Ann. The human side of factory automation: Managerial and human resource strategies for making automation succeed. Jossey-Bass, 1988.

The author of the book studies the issues of job automation, its effects and implications on humans as well as the overall socio-economic wellbeing of the society in regards to the same. The author is dedicated to analyzing the significant benefits that automation has brought about and the downside of it too, needless to say, job automation has been on the rise in the near past and has been predicted to take over millions of jobs previously performed by the humans. The book was very relevant in my research as it helped to shed light on how related the topic is and what the future holds for human labor. Automation of jobs, also known as technological unemployment, is the loss of employment due to technological change. This kind of change includes the introduction of labor-saving machines or more efficient processes. For instance, the banking industry has automated machines where people can dispense money instead of the long queues in the banking halls. Thus, it means that people get to be served more quickly and efficiently but also, more people lost their jobs as the machines overtake them.

Olson, Margrethe H., and Henry C. Lucas Jr. ”The impact of office automation on the organization: some implications for research and practice.” Communications of the ACM 25.11 (1982): 838-847.

The author of the publication seeks to find out about technology and its effects in an organization, how useful and responsive it would be. They try to uncover how relevant technology is in the running of an organization and how efficient it is compared to human labor. The study was quite crucial in my research as it helped me understand the effect of technology and how much benefits that are attributed to jobs automation include high production rate and increased productivity, materials being used efficiently, higher quality of products, shorter working hours for human labor, and improved safety. The primary justification for automation of jobs is the high output and increased productivity. The author asserts that although good workmanship results in high-quality products human labor, automated machines are better as they are more efficient, consistent and have greater control.

Frey, Carl Benedikt, and Michael A. Osborne. ”The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation?.” Technological forecasting and social change 114 (2017): 254-280.

The author of the study highlights the contributing reasons that lead to automation. The author still highlights the effects of automation in the work industry. The materials provided were instrumental as they increased my understanding regarding the subject matter regarding the positive and negative perspectives that workers hold concerning machines. The reasons highlighted were worker safety is another reason for job automation as it safeguards the workers from hazards in the factories. Some factories have hazardous processes during manufacturing that could easily injure the workers or endanger their health through exposure to gases or chemicals. Thus, machines help in safeguarding them against these calamities. Automation has also brought about the reduction of working hours on average per week by factory employees. The source was instrumental as it provided a historical approach to understanding the research topic understudy.

Schwab, Klaus. The fourth industrial revolution. Crown Business, 2017.

The author discusses technology development as the fourth industrial revolution. In the source, he provides an in-depth analysis of how technology is transforming the society. The material was instrumental in increasing my understanding regarding the subject matter. Some of the negative implications of job automation include a high level of unemployment. This is because most of the job will be done by automated machines thereby decreasing the need for human labor. This will affect many people as sources of livelihoods will be disrupted, and this may lead to a series of consequences including poverty, depression, and a high cost of living.

Currently, most countries are on the verge of incorporating robotics into the major industries to replace human labor. These machines are said to have improved productivity and lowered labor costs, hence enhancing the economies of many countries. Automation has greatly impacted the transportation, finance, and defense sectors. Greater advancement in artificial intelligence has been facilitated by high-speed networks as well as remote sensors which have increased connectivity thus impacting the society. However, despite the numerous benefits, the majority of the population still have fear that robots would take their jobs which increase the levels of unemployment and poverty.

Reflection

Technology has greatly impacted society, and as a result, humankind is on the verge of transformation. The research utilized sources from both scholarly and non-scholarly materials which proved instrumental in the collecting materials for the research topics understudy. The challenges that I faced while conducting the research entail. The first challenge was harnessing information. Good research entails having to spend a lot of time finding and reading journal articles, databases, books as well as other information sources.

Technology has greatly improved retrieval of information as the introduction of web-based resources is a time saver thus eliminating the need to visit the library. However, the acquisition of information particularly scholarly works from databases was hard in comparison to Google and other search engines. Running out of time as being a student one has to take many classes simultaneously as well as face many deadlines. Therefore, it was difficult to allocate time to perform good scholarship as well as present the sources accurately as performing good research usually takes time.

Although time-consuming, research sources from the databases proved to be the most useful as they were backed up by empirical evidence thus any claim ascertained was true. Additionally, they also provided in-depth information regarding the research question under study. The information provided was also on a broad scale which meant that only the relevant information regarding the underlying study was presented. The future of technology is automation. However, although technology presents numerous benefits, it also presents negative implications that might affect the aspects of society.

Work Cited

Anderson, James M., et al. Autonomous vehicle technology: A guide for policymakers. Rand Corporation, 2014.

Frey, Carl Benedikt, and Michael A. Osborne. ”The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation?.” Technological forecasting and social change 114 (2017): 254- 280.

Litman, Todd. Autonomous vehicle implementation predictions. Victoria, Canada: Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2017.

Majchrzak, Ann. The human side of factory automation: Managerial and human resource strategies for making automation succeed. Jossey-Bass, 1988.

Narla, Siva RK. ”The evolution of connected vehicle technology: From smart drivers to smart cars to… self-driving cars.” Ite Journal 83.7 (2013): 22-26.

Olson, Margrethe H., and Henry C. Lucas Jr. ”The impact of office automation on the organization: some implications for research and practice.” Communications of the ACM  25.11 (1982): 838-847.

Schwab, Klaus. The fourth industrial revolution. Crown Business, 2017.

Vanderbilt, Tom. ”Let the robot drive: The autonomous car of the future is here.” Wired Magazine, Conde NAST, www. wired. com (2012): 1-34.