Is Your Automation Technology Delivering on Expectations?

For the most part, the increased use of automation in industry has delivered exceptional advances in terms of productivity and profit. This has been especially true for large company early adopters with the deep pockets to prove out the capabilities of these technologies. It’s also been true for most mid-tier companies that have been able to follow in the footsteps of the larger companies and implement their best practices without having to experiment as much. Of course, automation technology continues to advance and companies continue to benefit. But there is growing disagreement and with it, some confusion, as to which technologies can provide the most value based on how far along the digital transformation path a company may be. As pointed out in a recent MIT Management Sloan School article, “Historically, new technology has led to greater productivity as displaced workers shift to new tasks—typesetters might become graphic layout artists, while bank tellers focus on more complicated banking services. The current era of automation has been different…as new digital technologies become commonplace, productivity has stagnated and fears about unemployment have become widespread.”