Automation
Hardly a day goes by that I don't have a conversation about automation and its implications to the workforce. The common myth is that automation will result in massive layoffs and the workforce will be permanently sidelined in favor of robots driven by AI.
Like any myth, there are grains of truth within. Yes, automation is coming, and it's coming fast. Yes, automation will cause the dislocation of certain work tasks and processes. No, there will not be massive firings due to automation. The real truth is our work will be restructured around automation where humans play very important roles, critical to the success of the automated system. In this article, I'd like to describe what I see on the horizon for the future world of industrial human capital.
Most people see the automation wave as a binary outcome -- a task will either be 100-percent automated or it will remain manual. That black-and-white view is not how automation will unfold. The first phase of automation is the placement of humans as the masters of decision making and systems supporting those masters in myriad ways. For anyone who has been in a modern medical facility, you have already witnessed this firsthand. A doctor or nurse consults with dozens of machines over the course of caring for a patient, but the human provider still makes the call on treatment decisions.
This is known as "Human in the Loop." In industry, we can see this every day in warehouses where a very small group of people manage the movement of thousands of material items by coordinating machines to perform the repetitive tasks. The subtle implication here lies in the novel skills being applied -- automation is mostly directed at commanding a system to do work at humans' behest. Soldiers in ancient history fared better by learning to ride a horse than they would've by simply running faster. This distinction is critically important in shaping the kinds of skills we need within the automation workforce.
The other consideration is subject matter experts (SMEs). Today's plants rely on SMEs (good news) but many are in the process of aging out of the workforce (bad news). Therefore, another highly sought-after skill to be repurposed by automation is the ability to speak with SMEs in a way that extracts their valuable knowledge and experience and places that logic into an algorithm. It is a rare combination of technical savvy, psychology and poker-like strategy that allows people to do this specialized work. We must act quickly to promote and build these skills, as the SME knowledge is leaving the workforce at an alarming rate.
For operators and other critical human workers in industrial plants, get ready. You will be wired from head to toe, if you aren't already, to track your motions throughout the work day -- not for the purpose of compliance, but rather out of the need to collect more data on how plants are run by their human layer of operations. Need a lesson in how humans will be wired? Watch professional sports -- over the next five years, we will see an unprecedented level of biometrics on athletes during games, from tracking the heart rate of a running back to the eye reflex speed of a race car driver.
The role of human capital will be more important during the oncoming wave of automation, not less.
For this reason, I also believe that "smart" human capital departments, formerly a corporate backwater, will emerge as one of the most important corporate functions, equaling that of the supply chain and production. These groups do not resemble the classic human resources counterparts of old, but are instead tech-savvy agents armed with business acumen to reimagine and reinvent job roles in the age of automation. Far from the mythical perception of future mass unemployment, automation will yield substantial improvements in productivity and value that will benefit everyone.
George E. Danner is president of Business Laboratory LLC, a specialty firm that builds simulation and analytical models to solve complex problems for businesses worldwide. He is the author of two books, "Profit From Science" and "The Executive's How-to Guide to Automation."
For more information, visit www.georgedanner.com.
