Happy New Year!

It’s not often I feel compelled to write to the media, but on this one,

I had to…

This article incorrectly, in my opinion, states that the pandemic was a double whammy for low paid employees as businesses rushed to automate yet further. Whilst, obviously, machines can’t catch Covid, therefore eliminating the need for ‘machine distancing’ and making automation ‘work from home’ not necessary, what is significant is that people just don’t care about machines, and I am saying that as an Engineer!

One of the huge saving graces for many companies has been the furlough scheme, and, where appropriate, redundancy. Whilst not great for many employees in the short to medium term, we are lucky in this country to have a system whereby we do care about people and the safety nets put in place, have cushioned the blow ready for the upturn in the economy, when it comes (sooner rather than later in my opinion – roaring 20’s all over again, but that’s another story for another day).

For any business that invested heavily in automation prior to the pandemic, to then see a downturn in their business, the past year must have been devastating. No robots were put on furlough, or were able to be made redundant. The loans taken out to buy these machines will have remained repayable, and the only option for a company in such a position was to take out another loan…

Which brings me nicely to my concern with the article as it was written. People truly are our most valuable resource. They are easy to ‘program’ to undertake multiple tasks, they are not subject to the constraints of AI, which is still being developed, they are able to think freely, provide enjoyable social interaction etc. etc. Yes, there are downsides to people – to err is human. Yes, some people can be challenging with their little quirks and annoyances, but with many years of working with as many people as I did robots, I soon learned the pros and cons of both, and great machines make a huge difference, but ultimately, the people is what it’s all about…

• So, what are your thoughts on the race for automation?
• Post Covid, are we going to see greater investment in automation, driving unemployment up higher?
• Or are the risks of investment, and the human need for social interaction going to make us view the employment of people much more favourably?

Please do make your comments on the LinkedIn article, I am very interested in your thoughts. What is the word on the street in your business/sector?

During the past few months I have attended many a webinar, keeping myself abreast of Brexit, Covid, industry best practice etc. Here too I was very surprised to pick up on another slight on the value of people. It was a webinar on lean and the people value stream, something I was very excited to engage with. However, I was very surprised in the webinar, to hear from highly respected experts in lean, talking about how lean itself de-valued people, and how there was a need to build people into lean processes. To say I was shocked to hear this was an understatement. Whilst I understand there has been digression in thought on lean, I hadn’t appreciated that some had gone this far. Lean is about eliminating waste and thus enabling people to become more effective. Lean is all about people, they are at the core of everything we should be doing and are trying to achieve…

Every cloud has a silver lining, and I am very much hoping that in the coming months, as we emerge from the pandemic, thanks to the vaccines rolling out at an ever quicker pace, we truly do start to appreciate the true value in people once more. Many times now I have seen posts on social media, talking about this year, with comments like – ‘when we asked ‘how are you’ and truly meant it’ – so let’s hope that’s one of those changes that sticks.

Happy New Year from MCDBT!