I work in automotive manufacturing. it’s a huge world. there are tons of people involved in designing, building, and running these cells.
also, the human part is pretty much always the most basic shit - loading and unloading feeders, moving material around with a forklift, loading parts by hand into the machine from material bins because it’s cheaper to hire someone to do that complex task (that is not sarcastic, picking something up from a loose bin and placing it in a known orientation is a difficult task to automate) than to teach and operate a robot for that
I don’t know how line operators stay sane. I’ve designed cells where it’s somebody’s job to do the same dozen motions every minute for an entire shift. many cells like that.
I’ll have to look into those and see what level of autonomy is happening, thanks for the info. a quick search says they do some welding as well. usually the fully automated stuff is just final assembly stuff and paint, which is simpler to automate because everything is in known locations.
that’s also kind of why I always find it funny when people brag about where the final assembly of a vehicle happens - okay but like where did all the parts come from? there’s four $5 million cells in Mexico, designed and built by Canadians, making the rear subframe and employing hundreds of people; why is a car “American” because you put the last pieces together in the US?
FANUC was the dark factory manufacturer I was thinking of when i originally responded, but that was many years ago. No doubt more of the supply chain has been integrated into the automated process and many companies are providing services.
eh, sort of.
I work in automotive manufacturing. it’s a huge world. there are tons of people involved in designing, building, and running these cells.
also, the human part is pretty much always the most basic shit - loading and unloading feeders, moving material around with a forklift, loading parts by hand into the machine from material bins because it’s cheaper to hire someone to do that complex task (that is not sarcastic, picking something up from a loose bin and placing it in a known orientation is a difficult task to automate) than to teach and operate a robot for that
I don’t know how line operators stay sane. I’ve designed cells where it’s somebody’s job to do the same dozen motions every minute for an entire shift. many cells like that.
When I wrote that I was thinking in particular about the automated car factories in Japan that run without lights to save electricity.
But I take your point, there are still humans involved in the process.
I’ll have to look into those and see what level of autonomy is happening, thanks for the info. a quick search says they do some welding as well. usually the fully automated stuff is just final assembly stuff and paint, which is simpler to automate because everything is in known locations.
that’s also kind of why I always find it funny when people brag about where the final assembly of a vehicle happens - okay but like where did all the parts come from? there’s four $5 million cells in Mexico, designed and built by Canadians, making the rear subframe and employing hundreds of people; why is a car “American” because you put the last pieces together in the US?
FANUC was the dark factory manufacturer I was thinking of when i originally responded, but that was many years ago. No doubt more of the supply chain has been integrated into the automated process and many companies are providing services.
Note that at the high end the automation is reversed. Tour the Factory Where Bentley Handcrafts Its Luxury Rides. Similarly with expensive sports cars.
Made in X is mostly just for marketing now.