Future of Manufacturing

Hi Ketan, I read your post with both interest and trepidation.

Within my career I was 15 years in one of the worlds largest generator manufacturers and exporter.

While I welcome tech and AI advancement, what I have found throughout my career is the remarkable adaptability, problem solving on the ground with engineering skill learned and passed on from father to son and by which I mean physical skill with hands and mind, not just design on paper or computers and built through total automation and or robots/AI.

My fear is true skills knowledge and ability to work with hands will be to everyone's detriment in the not so long march to what some see as AI......topia.

Even with basics now as it is , how many can fix a puncture in a push bike wheel , re-wire a plug, drill a hole in a wall or even change a car wheel. 

I'm not exactly an oldy at 48 reminiscing of olden days gone by, the young are guided by what goes before them if all they see and know is tech who builds? repairs & fixes and maintains if all they know is keyboards?. 

With my own background and main career in electrical engineering, my father a welder all his life, I can weld, 1 uncle a joiner, I do my own joiner fitting kitchens hanging doors etc, other uncle a fitter/plumber,yes I can do plumbing work fitted bathrooms installed boilers, central heating wood burning stoves. 

What I try to highlight Is basics from one generation to the next that is being eroded and which for the most they'll be pushing forward in a world being reliant and dependent or others/tech for all .

There is irony in there somewhere that the further the world around progresses with tech and AI, the less individual life skill /ability/responsibility for self reliance which to my mind isn't a great recipe for ordinary workers for the future. 

That raises another point, that of 'hollow knowledge' where folk only 'know' what they can look up on the web.  You'd be a bit worried if that was your doctor ;-)

Actually I think folk who "can do stuff" without needing a youtube video to show them how,  are quite safe in terms of employment for the foreseeable future - my earlier comment about  a robot to unblock a loo is a bit tongue-in-cheek but the ability to make stuff work is if anything in shorter supply than ever.
As an aside I help with Scouts, and a large part of what we do is things like cooking on fire, how to build a shelter and general handy skills  like simple DIY and so on - and changes are very evident,  over the years, it now is remarkable how many 11 year olds have never struck a match, or have no idea how to wash up without a dishwasher. And they cannot hike as far as their equivalent could  20 years ago. It is a concern - as these are presumably the children of parents who are interested enough to send their children along, so you rather wonder what the rest might be like.

It strikes me that we are accidentally building a very brittle society, where it is all optimized and wonderful, until there is a power cut or the network is jammed and then it all falls apart as no body really knows what to do. 

Mike.

Hello Mike:

It should be noted that some things that one could fix years ago have now progressed to the point where you need special tools and test equipment to fix. As an example the latest automobiles (both electric and gas powered). 

Peter  

Totally agree, and heaven forbit no internet for them lol. the same i was brought cubs, scouts and BB, Duke of Edinburgh awards etc basic life skills and have to say devoted but strict parents. Anyway tech and advancements good losing skill sets bad news.  

*forbid 

*forbid