Automation vs. People

“One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.” - Elbert Hubbard (Writer, Philosopher)

This quote from Elbert Hubbard from his book- ‘A Thousand & One Epigrams: Selected from the Writings of Elbert Hubbard (1911)’ describes something critical in the relationship between man and machine. Technology has invaded our lives at a mind-boggling speed and converted us into the first cyborg (man + machine) species on Earth. We are closely connected to machines in every aspect of our daily lives and automation has made our lives faster and easier. Businesses have jumped onto the technology train and various industries have been disrupted because of it. Industries such as consumer durables, automobile, aviation, telecommunication, nuclear power and even space exploration have technology at the core of these business. Furthermore, Industry 4.0 and AI (Artificial Intelligence) bring the promise of changing the face of industries around the world. However, the hype around technology and automation has stirred up a widespread debate on whether machines are threat to humanity or not!

This is an endless debate and it delves into the realm philosophy and ethics. However, my purpose is not to discuss the grand question (although I’d love to over a cup of tea!), rather it is talk about how businesses and companies are being affected by it. More specifically, I will touch on two important questions:

• Is automation or technology adaptation synonymous with success? Can we achieve always the best results and superior performance with automation and technology induction?
• Does automation kill creativity in the organization?

The purpose of writing this article is to address a major question that business leaders and organizations face while dealing with technology induction and automation; “Should we do deploy automation now or wait?”, “How much will it cost?”, “Do we have adequate resources to deploy automation?”. Unfortunately, most of the times the answers managers come up with to these questions sounds something on the lines of, ‘Yes, Automation is the answer to our problems and it will completely turn things’. This is a scary thing for the company!

Is Automation synonymous with Success?

Technology is ubiquitous. Except for niche technological areas, everyone has access to most technologies. With niche technologies, you can create a differentiated experience for your customers. In the case of Apple or Google or even Tesla, a differentiated customer experience allows them to become the market leader. They cannot be beaten at this stage as they have created a unique position through technology leadership. But for the rest, they have access to most publically and commercially accessible technologies. Now the question is, if everyone has access to these contemporary technologies and everyone is into automation, then why some companies do better than others?

Being at the core of the industry for so long, I have often been pulled into the discussion revolving around automation and its relationship with success. The most common argument put forth in support of automation is that without it, we may not succeed in today’s environment. I think it’s a very valid argument and I have no different opinions myself. However, I have my own reservation.

Is this the only driver for success?

World class airports like Mumbai or Delhi are built with state-of-the-art infrastructure, modern equipment and advanced technologies. But to really make them stand apart from the other airports of the world, they need to have differentiators that separates them from the rest. Therefore the question here is, how to create these differentiators? One of the ways to measure success of an airport is through customer satisfaction which is linked to the user experience and customer engagement. Similarly, in a war scenario between two rival countries with equal resources and firepower, who do you place your bets on for winning the war? They both have access to best defence technology, the best vehicles and the best guns. The question here is whether buying the best technology guarantees a victory over the competitor or not. There is something missing which is the key to unlocking the potential of technology.

What are we missing?

That missing link are the people! We may often be misguided by our intuition into feeling a false sense of security after getting our hands on the latest piece of technology and automation. If this was the case, our problems would be long solved. While technology is important, it is equally important for us to have the right people for the right job. New technology can only reap rewards if put in the hands of adequately skilled people capable of making important decisions. If not done properly, the consequences can range from mediocre results to catastrophic loss in terms of money, time, customer trust and reputation. The disaster which took place at Chernobyl, Russia, is an example of how insufficient training and reckless mistake of few people led to one of the biggest nuclear disasters in the history of mankind. Millions of people are affected even today due to catastrophic outcome due to mismanagement of technology.

Although the outcome of business rivalry is not as drastic as a war, the company which has more skilled employees, will perform better in the market. In the end, it doesn’t matter what kind of technology you have or machines deployed in assembly lines or artificial intelligence you use, unless there are exceptional people behind these machines, your technology is wasted and you get mediocre at best. In case of a war, the nation with better commanders, soldiers, pilots will win the war. The skills and strategies of the personnel involved in the war give one nation an edge over the others. Hence, in the core of any business, it is people who make the difference. That is the missing link between automation and success in any organization!

Automation vs. Creativity

The next thought I would like to address is whether automation is killing creativity in organizations or not. Automation is very powerful tool that brings reproducibility, consistency, flexibility and scalability to enable faster, safer, more efficient and error-free operation. It helps managers address many recurring and complex problems and also allows for deskilling of operators. These benefits make automation look like the must have for any business. However, to think that automation is a magical formula that would solve all the organization problems, is one of the deadliest sins a decision maker can commit.

As the famous saying goes, ‘With great power, comes great responsibility’. Automation can be a beast if it is carefully planned and well thought through. But that is often not the case.

• The biggest downside of heavily relying on automation is that rational thinking becomes an afterthought and alternate simple solutions are tossed down the drain. This is can be crucial for an organization which plans to leverage the it's automation as they may fail to differentiate between the purpose and the need!
• Automation takes time to implement depending on the situation and complexity. In many situation, the implementation can take days, weeks or even months. If we solely rely on automation for the solution, we let the problem linger on for that amount of time and each day becomes a ticking time bomb.
• Affordability is another important factor. Automation solutions can be very expensive specially for small organizations. That is why, financial planning and search for alternative solutions is a must.
• Throughput is affect in the short term. This seems contradictory to the previous statements, but automation is deployed only when there is problem with the supply and demand. But automation does not make the operations faster overnight. It takes time and in the meanwhile, the throughput has not changed at all.
• In the end, the customer is affected. They face delays and could be subject to defective products or interrupted services in the absence of automation.

A general tendency observed amongst managers and engineers is that once the automation system has been requested, they will wait for its implementation to make the next move. As weeks go by, there is no tangible progress to report and managers express their helplessness in resolving the issues. It is as if there is no other actions that can be taken! Finally, the project is a wreck with lots of money invested, months of time wasted and nothing to show for progress. Even the customers are getting poor services. I feel that the solution to this problem comes from very simple change in the planning process. While looking for permanent solutions and waiting for it’s implementation, we need to work on containment solutions to protect our customers. It is during this time, creative solutions from employees are required and an investigation for simpler solutions should be pursued to maintain the progress. This should come from people’s behavior and linking it with creativity. It is the manager’s role to ignite their mind and encourage innovation to enable success!

Unless our approach towards this is changed, we bury our chances of achieving alternate solutions and overshadow the main objective or intent which was initially being pursued. Before reaching to automation and buying technology, one must explore alternates as well. Decision should be made keeping the customers' needs in mind and time to reach. We need to challenge our teams to look for best possible solution and not think towards automation as the only solution. Blindly automating the processes can be expansive and cost time and money to the organization. The negligent attitude can breed unnecessary complexity and confusion in the organization where simpler solutions might have done the trick. Apart from this, the biggest negative is that the spirit and skill of problem solving is lost in the process. Relying heavily on the idea of automation has reduced people’s creativity and problem-solving skills in some organizations. Some successful companies strike a good balance between automation, semi automation and manual content as they have a major focus on people's skills and creativity.

I would like to conclude by extending Elbert Hubbard quote in this context, “if we need extraordinary machines, we need extraordinary people as well”.

Note: In this article, I am using ‘Automation’ as a term to address the general concept of machine intelligence engaged in performing tasks being performed by human on a routine basis. Humans are required to perform certain tasks, simple or complex. Some tasks demand critical decision making. Hence, mass manufacturing machine which automate production or state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence which automates critical decision making, both come under automation!