Which Role Will Human Workers Play in Future Production?

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2018 im Fachbereich BWL - Unternehmensforschung, Operations Research, Note: 2,0, Macromedia Fachhochschule der Medien Hamburg, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Currently we are witnessing the fourth industrial revolution in which factories become more digital and self-governing. Production lines should find themselves according to the order. This raises the question whether human labour will still be necessary in the future?

This will be the main research question of this paper.

Car development goes far back in history. The first cars were produced nearly by hand and hard work. Furthermore, there were not many different models and cars were expensive because of a long time of production. With the development came the relief. Industry 2.0 makes the car production easier. For example, vehicles could be mass-produced for a wide range of the population. Cars were now more affordable for the most people. However, the diversity and individualization of the vehicles were still limited. Henry Ford, for example, one of the founders of mass production said: ¿Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black¿ (cf. Schulz, 2014, p.7 i.a.w. Ford, 1922, p.72).

With the beginning and the establishing of the 3rd industrial revolution in the production and the company, it became possible to take the first steps in individualized mass production. Vehicles are still made on the assembly line but now with a few individualizations like for example the interior or the colour selection.