New research has been conducted in to the use of robotics in manufacturing. Despite common fears, the trend of the research shows that robots are not in fact stealing British jobs, they could actually be creating them.
The data has shown that the majority of industrial professionals have not seen job losses occur as result of the introduction of robots or automated processes. 63.3% of the industry experts that were included in the research have not seen any reduction in jobs as the use of robots has increased. On top of this more than a third of those asked has stated that robots have also led to the creation of jobs within their workplace.
The Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors carried out the research that was conducted on more than 1,000 manufacturing professionals. The non-profit body for ergonomists as well as human factors practitioners has been working in collaboration with CV-Library which is the UKâs leading independent job site. The research has attempted to find out the true perception and the reality of automation and robotics from those who have experienced it first-hand.
The most important findings from the study are that 72.6% feel that society are taking part in scare-mongering that robotics and automation are a negative step forward. It has also been revealed that 78.9% feel that more should be done in order to promote the benefits of automation and robotics within the workplace in order to reduce this negative societal view. Nearly half, 45.8% of the industry experts that were spoken to for the research have also claimed that the business they work for does not present the benefits of automation to their staff, especially those in first-hand production which is the group that could feel most threatened by the surge in automation. Perhaps it is due to this that 52% have then said that there is resistance from their employees when automated processes are being implemented.
