From: d@d.d   
      
   Hello...   
      
      
   Here is the advantages and disadvantages of automation:   
      
   Following are some of the advantages of automation:   
      
   1. Automation is the key to the shorter workweek. Automation will allow   
   the average number of working hours per week to continue to decline,   
   thereby allowing greater leisure hours and a higher quality life.   
      
   2. Automation brings safer working conditions for the worker. Since   
   there is less direct physical participation by the worker in the   
   production process, there is less chance of personal injury to the worker.   
      
   3. Automated production results in lower prices and better products. It   
   has been estimated that the cost to machine one unit of product by   
   conventional general-purpose machine tools requiring human operators may   
   be 100 times the cost of manufacturing the same unit using automated   
   mass-production techniques. The electronics industry offers many   
   examples of improvements in manufacturing technology that have   
   significantly reduced costs while increasing product value (e.g., colour   
   TV sets, stereo equipment, calculators, and computers).   
      
   4. The growth of the automation industry will itself provide employment   
   opportunities. This has been especially true in the computer industry,   
   as the companies in this industry have grown (IBM, Digital Equipment   
   Corp., Honeywell, etc.), new jobs have been created.   
   These new jobs include not only workers directly employed by these   
   companies, but also computer programmers, systems engineers, and other   
   needed to use and operate the computers.   
      
   5. Automation is the only means of increasing standard of living. Only   
   through productivity increases brought about by new automated methods of   
   production, it is possible to advance standard of living. Granting wage   
   increases without a commensurate increase in productivity   
   will results in inflation. To afford a better society, it is a must to   
   increase productivity.   
      
   Following are some of the disadvantages of automation:   
      
   1. Automation will result in the subjugation of the human being by a   
   machine. Automation tends to transfer the skill required to perform work   
   from human operators to machines. In so doing, it reduces the need for   
   skilled labour. The manual work left by automation requires lower skill   
   levels and tends to involve rather menial tasks (e.g., loading and   
   unloading workpart, changing tools, removing chips, etc.). In this   
   sense, automation tends to downgrade factory work.   
      
   2. There will be a reduction in the labour force, with resulting   
   unemployment. It is logical to argue that the immediate effect of   
   automation will be to reduce the need for human labour, thus displacing   
   workers.   
      
   3. Automation will reduce purchasing power. As machines replace workers   
   and these workers join the unemployment ranks, they will not receive the   
   wages necessary to buy the products brought by automation. Markets will   
   become saturated with products that people cannot afford to purchase.   
   Inventories will grow. Production will stop. Unemployment will reach   
   epidemic proportions and the result will be a massive economic depression.   
      
      
      
   Thank you,   
   Amine Moulay Ramdane.   
      
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