From: OPE-L Administrator (ope-admin@ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu)
Date: Fri Jan 10 2003 - 15:41:42 EST
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Davis" <jdav@gocatgo.com> Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 10:38 AM Subject: Re: Electronics and Value (for OPE-L list) [Please consider posting this to the OPE-L list, in response to 8278. Thanks, jd] In response to clyder@gn.apc.org [8278]: > The revolutionary quality of the mule was just that it replaced > the command and control function of the spinner with an automated > sequence of actions. All of this was done with gears and cams. > Again look at Fords mechanically automated factories of the > 30s I think that there is a qualitative difference between a human-operated or even human-tended machinery and robotics. The notion of a machine that replicates a relatively limited set of human functions (as in the case of any piece of machinery, even as complicated or sophisticated as modern spinning mules) is a different from systems of machinery w/ self-activating processors, feedback systems and a decision-making ability that can act on that feedback to adjust processes. When networking or communications capability is incorporated in the machinery and a digital infrastructure is installed, then a whole system of labor-less production becomes possible. The Ford River Rouge plant at it's peak in the 1930s employed some 100,000 workers; today UAW Local 600, which represents the Rouge plus additional areas, has 14,000 some members. Granted this is something of apples and oranges, but obviously whatever process was begun in the 1930s in the area of automation had a long-way to go in squeezing out labor from the production process. The Rouge plant is now being re-cast as a showcase for modern "green" manufacturing: "The new assembly plant is designed to be flexible, allowing up to three different platforms to be made on a single assembly line. This flexibility will allow Ford to respond to market conditions by switching rapidly and economically between products. Synchronous material flow provides the right parts and materials when needed to produce vehicles that incorporate a wide variety of options and features. "Inside the assembly plant, workers will be separated from machinery by overhead walkways. Web-enabled computer terminals will be located on the assembly line floor to allow workers to contact suppliers in real time about quality or supply issues. Skilled trades and production workers are involved in the _simultaneous engineering_ of the production equipment for the assembly line." (http://www.ford.com/en/ourCompany/corporateCitizenship/buildingRelationship s/corporateCitizenshipInAction/rebirthAtRouge.htm) I agree that miniaturization is one of the key things that makes electronics revolutionary -- as Asimov has said, practical robotics was not possible without a small, cheap, light, relatively energy-efficient microprocessor. Those properties enabled electronics (in this case, microprocessors) to be quickly and widely deployed. Charles Babbage, in the early 1800s, could envision the basic components of modern computers -- e.g., a "mill" to process numbers, a "store" to hold interim calculations; but practical machines were not possible until modern electronics. jd
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