Does anyone know How it's made?

Question

I watched that show "How its made" and machine do pretty much all the work and then there will be factory workers doing some small task that the machines could easily do. Aside from giving people employment, I don't understand why they don't have machines do the whole process. Does anyone know why?

Answer 1

Well, the "machine", really CANNOT do what you think it can.  At some point the "transfer" points are more efficiently managed by humans.  When things go wrong, machines don't care and don't respond.  YOU MUST have humans near the entire process to intervene when problems occur.  And you might as well have them doing some of the transfer work, so you know they will be watching.  I think that's the philosophy.  (Many yrs at large manuf. plant)

Answer 2

In a lot of processes there is still a need for people there just to sweep up trash and clear the machine if it goes wrong and jams up.

There are also some jobs that are still cheaper to hire a person for than build another machine for.

If you look at those simple jobs you often find they combine several simple jobs that are easy for people but complex for machines.

For example there is a job in a 5 gallon plastic pail factory still done by humans. People put the handles on the pails after the injection molding machine ejects them.

As they are putting the handles on they are expected to check the indicator nib on the bottom of the pail. This lets them know that the injection process filled the mold properly and the plastic in the pail is thick enough. They are also watching for other defects, counting and stacking and colour sorting.

Each of these jobs would require a separate machine and the space and maintenance crew for it.

Yet the job only seems to be popping the handles into the slots on the pail.

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Luv Dylan makes a very good point that I missed too.

Answer 3

yeah i've seen that show!! i think they use more machines cause its cheaper?!? you dont have to pay a machine to work... well at the beginning u gotta pay for it, but in the end it would probably less expensive.