The world of business is changing with technology as we see the rise of automation, especially in today’s manufacturing sector. We have seen how automation has brought about the accurate production of goods in large quantities at a breathtaking pace. The Boston Consulting Group projects that automation in industries is going to increase by 10% in the next 10 years amongst the top 25 nations that export in large quantities.
On the other side, the Bureau of Labor Statistics undertook a research where workplace injuries amongst workers who are in the private sector are at a high rate. The Bureau stated that approximately 2.9 million injuries were reported in 2015 amongst employees in the private sector. Since industrial manufacturing is deemed to be a dangerous environment, approximately 700,000 workplace injuries were accounted for in the same year, which was 25% of the occupational injuries that took place in the private sector.
Personal injury attorney Tampa indicates that these statistics translate to a lot of losses when it comes to trained manpower and compensation claims for workers. Does this mean that automation is making the workplace environment safer?
Benefits of automation
The statistics stated above are a wakeup call for companies to find ways they can make the workplace a safer environment for employees. One of the most significant contributors to workplace safety is automation. When you automate manual tasks that are repetitive, workers can be assigned to other important tasks where they can apply their decision-making skills, imagination, and adaptability.
The World Economic Forum correctly pointed out that robots are ideal for tasks that are physically demanding and dangerous for humans, and to add to it, robots are economical because they can work 24/7 at a much lower cost compared to human labor.
Risky tasks can be handled by automation
Robotic lifting mechanisms and industrial tasks like automated vehicles that can be driven remotely or by use of artificial intelligence take a huge load off humans when it comes to handling transport or packaging of products. These machines are programmed to pick and deliver products in a warehouse accurately and at a fast pace. This results in manufacturing companies improving workflow procedure and reducing the cost of production.
In today’s world, benefits of automation in manufacturing are far reaching, like the use of robotics in welding to keep humans away from sparks, noise, and fumes of the welding torch. In a company that packs cheese, Arla Foods, they introduced a robot that helps to eliminate the injuries workers get from packing cheese. Now, instead of the workers packing cheese manually, they monitor the robots.
Cut costs as your prioritize safety in the workplace
It is important to know that robots are not here to solve the issues businesses have with control measures at the workplace and the need to design work tasks that are user-friendly. However, personal injury attorney Tampa correctly state that the installation of automation technologies in manufacturing industries helps to eliminate injuries that could become expensive in the workplace.
The desire for companies to continuously depend on robots to beat their competition helps employees to be deployed in much safer business environments and tackle jobs that are less demanding. Another added advantage of robots is that they can collaborate more with humans instead of replacing them, and this yields a happier employee who can handle much more challenging tasks that can be done in a safe place.
Ideally, when you improve the work safety of an employee, your company is going to save more because the company won’t incur costs on insurance and injury claims, and it is not going to suffer when it comes to production because of employee absenteeism. The company will not only benefit from its savings, but employers will also benefit from the precision and efficiency of automation because customers will be getting ideal products that are well packaged. Customers will end up coming for more quality products in your company and these results benefit everyone across the board.
