(Drivebycuriosity) - It seems that we are in a supply crisis. Prices for goods and services are rising steeply. The US inflation rate climbed to 6%. This is mainly caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Lockdowns, quarantines, sick leaves & the fear of infections reduced the labor force. The shrinking labor force slows industrial production, reduces services and fractionates the supply lines.
CNBC reports that "workers quit jobs in record number" ( cnbc). The reduced supply of goods & services meets a sharp rise in demand, fueled by trillions of Federal Reserve dollars and generous government checks. People want to come back to normality and started spending again. The result is a widening gap between demand and supply which is getting filled by rising prices.
How can we get the economy to produce more? Apparently we need more robots and similar machines to replace the missing labor force. Robots don´t get sick. They don´t spread diseases, they don´t strike, they are not unhappy with their jobs, they are trustworthy & reliable.
Machines, including computers, have been substituting labor for a long time. There has been a continuing automation trend since the 19th century at least. Machines overtook many dangerous, dirty, heavy, tedious and unhealthy tasks. Even farmers are using more and more robots, for instance for harvesting strawberries or milking cows (wikipedia). Machines - often steered by software - are reducing the costs of producing things significantly, making them cheaper and more affordable. Hence robots have been raising the living standard of everybody by reducing the costs of most things considerably.
Apparently the secular automation process was not fast enough to compensate for the Covid-19 shock. I assume that companies are now ramping up their investments in software and machines to get more productive & flexible and to compensate for the scarcity of labor and pre-products. A recent Federal Reserve survey of chief financial officers found that at firms with difficulty hiring, one-third are implementing or exploring automation to replace workers ( time.com).
The CEOS of Microsoft and other Internet/software based companies report that their customers are boosting their investments in cloud computing, AIs and other software applications to get more productive and efficient. Robots "improve speed and accuracy of routine operations, particularly in warehousing and manufacturing" notes the consulting firm deloitte. And Forbes writes that "autonomous technology is seen in warehouses and stores, on highways and in mines, and in last mile deliveries". They also report that "drones are being used in warehouses and yards for inventory management. Using a combination of computer vision technology, artificial intelligence, and RFID sensors, drones are able to perform inventory management tasks within the warehouse or yard faster and more accurately than the human eye".
Amazon invests a lot of money into robots which help to optimize the supply chains, they also reduce the infection & accident risks for workers. Robots also help restaurants to deal with the scarcity of labor. "Domino’s Pizza Inc. is putting in place equipment and technology that reduce the amount of labor that is required to produce our dough balls", reports time.com. 3D-printers also can replace workers, even in constructing. "A 3D printer can build the walls of a house in as little as two days versus weeks or months with traditional construction materials" notices today.com.
Robots are the answer to the supply crisis.
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