In certain industries – manufacturing being one of them – some workers are gaining first-hand experience with what it’s like to have a robot as a colleague… and, so far, let’s just say reviews are mixed.
A 2017 report in the Financial Times acknowledges the positive impact cobots can have on human workers, mainly in their ability to automate more dangerous or repetitive tasks. But there could be a dark side, and the report warns that the process improvements that often come from a lean manufacturing environment – those that come through “constant learning and implementing a better way of working” could be threatened if humans no longer do the work.
There’s another factor that’s a little more transparent, and that’s what we’ll call the “creep out” factor. Workers who find themselves in lockstep with robots within collaborative work environments might experience the effect of having their skin crawl.
The Washington Post recently published a piece where it suggests Walmart’s new in-store robots, which have been installed in around 1,500 locations, are not exactly becoming just one of the gang. In fact, the report says the robots are contributing to a greater sense of “tedium and unease among some human employees.”
The robots are being tasked in various roles, including floor cleaning, sortation, and scanning, and Walmart claims these remove the burden of tedious tasks from human employees, freeing them up to focus on more customer-oriented requirements. But the employees indicate that tending to and working around the robots has actually accelerated the pace of the work and made their jobs increasingly monotonous. And while some employees described the robots as helpful, others said they feel undervalued by their presence, and they ultimately make their jobs less enjoyable.
Even some customers have responded negatively to the presence of the six-foot-tall scanning robot, the Auto-S, which “quietly creeps down the aisles… sweeping shelves with a beam of light” prompting some shoppers to go so far as kicking them.
Walmart responded to the report’s claims by contending that this is not the norm, telling Gizmodo that as it continues to roll out the technology “the feedback [it’s] receiving from associates and customers alike is positive.”