There has been a monumental change in the manufacturing industries in the past couple of centuries. Especially if we look around from a modern perspective. With every passing year the production line has been improved to produce more efficiently along with maintaining the quality. Automation in manufacturing industries is one of the remarkable changes, and it has completely revolutionized the model of manufacturing by making it more reliant.
Automation production lines by making them better, improving safety and productivity. The efforts of producing a product have been reduced. You get the best finished products without much manual work. As for years it has seen that industries were largely reliant on the efforts of flesh and blood workers. They used to work for hours, there was a problem of fatigue and not all workers are equally abled as well. These kinds of concerns shifted the interest of industries towards automation.
Labour Intensive Manufacturing
Before the period of modernization and machinery, labor was regarded supreme in the manufacturing industry. It is because industries had no other or better option. Especially, when we talk about India. India is still known as a labor-intensive country, because it has a huge population of labors. They are the fundamental resource for industries, and for years they are able to convert this resource into a source for continuous production and sustainability. But now as we see the wave of mechanization in the world and the priority of industries has shifted towards capital goods. Artisan workers are today seen as both uncommon and often targeted at the low volume, high-cost end of the market. In the history of human artisanal origin is the essence of manufacturing and this was the only type of manufacturing that existed. Towards the end of the 18th century manufacturing started to grow from a home-grown artisanal approach towards something more recognizably modern. The era marked the establishment of modern methods of manufacturing, and after which the methods kept on growing.
Modernization and Mechanization
Soon after industries realized better ways of performing mass production, they started to shift their interest from bloodshed workers to machines and smart equipment. The wave of modernization in the world is huge and it has changed everything. It has given manufacturing industries a huge push in production. Now, the same output that they used to produce through labor intensive method can be now produced with capital method. But why the capital method? Machines are recognized for their efficiency in doing work and the minimum amount of time that they take to finish the work. Machines can work around the clock without taking a break. Most importantly they help the innovators to improvise and innovate. The first half of the 21st century marks remarkable changes in the industries so far. The electrification has made older steam-powered equipment obsolete, and true mass production is a viable option through electrification. However, as we move deep into its modernization, the industries have shown some demerits as well. The biggest of all is it badly hampered the occupation of artisanal workers, as they are replaced by machines. So even if modernization is giving fruitful results in production but on the flipside, it is hampering the livelihoods of many.
Computerization
In the latter half of the 20th century computers started to play a role in the manufacturing industry, by monitoring the line of production. The digital system enacted the process directly making it more efficient. Moreover, with the introduction of computers industries started to enhance their production by means of E-businesses and online marketing, they are able to sell surplus stock through heavy discounts and product bundling. Besides, the digital system gave them possible opportunities to grow and foster their sales operation by meeting customers from worldwide. Thus, it has become easy for them to tap into the market and customers. The new model of business is smart and cost saving, as a single digital system is capable of handling multiple operations at once. Moreover, digital solutions have been developed to solve a range of challenges, the fresh approaches of solving the challenges keep on adding. Thus, this is arguably one of the most important developments of the current generation and has scope for everything be it manufacturing, construction or aerospace.
How is change important?
The environment in which we live is dynamic. A dynamic environment is one which keeps on changing. As something which is in trend now, won’t be in trend in the future. Which means the evolution is continuous. Thus, it’s highly important that we adapt to the ever-changing environment in order to grow. The changes may seem good or bad, but they always prepare us for something new. External changes make you more flexible, that means you constantly adapt to your surroundings and are able to match the pace of it. Being flexible is essential for industry business, as policies, laws or technology keep on changing. As we have seen in the case of industrialization, some of the important changes significantly accelerated the growth in manufacturing. Similarly, there are certain new laws and policies different from prior and they are meant to strengthen the local industries so that they can stand in competition with large-scale industry. All these changes are associated with meeting the ever-changing demands, so if you fail to accept the changes then it will be tough to survive.
Conclusion
The changes in the history of industrialization are remarkable; these changes enhanced the production and operation of the industries. Through automation everything is easy and fast and industries can keep a check on their operations through a robust digital system. The end goal of any manufacturing industry is to achieve great production capacity or reduce input costs. However, automation is able to provide the industries with increased production but the cost for input has also increased. As we can’t deny the fact that labor is cheaper than capital inputs but their demand has been decreased. Automation is known for using machines in place of humans. Thus, now one single machine is sufficient to produce a variety of products and all this can be done in a few minutes. So, we can say that we are living in a whole new era of industrialization, where capital intensive techniques are more magnified.
