Category Archives: Productivity

Pros and Cons of Automation

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Today I’m going to discuss the Pros and Cons of Automation, from my own personal experiences.

First, what do I mean by Automation?

My definition of Automation is:  the use of technology to substantially increase accuracy, decrease the process time for the given task and at the same time having no human involvement needed to perform the task.

The way that automation does this is by enabling a business to take a current product and make it cheaper than what the competition can make it for thru both increased efficiency (enabling reduced production time by a significant factor), and in the elimination) of the need for human capital to be involved in the process.

Automation

 

The Pros of Automation – My Automation Experience

While my day job isn’t really to automate things at where I work at, I usually see ways to automate processes at work that others.  For example, I’ve taken a process that use to take about two days (16 hours) to complete, and reduced the execution time for the person involved in that process down to 5 seconds (I’ve timed it over 5 samples, and even the 5 second number is conservative, usually it takes 3 seconds).  This particular task could be totally automated, but the management team of the business process still wanted to be in control of the process, so it’s not “totally” automated, but it can and probably should be.

Another example is that I had a friend at work that had a task that took between 30 minutes to an hour each and every day.  I examined the task and told her that I could totally automate the task and even have a confirmation of completion, and a summary of what was updated emailed to her afterwards.  While 2 1/2 to 5 hours per week doesn’t seem like much, it was great for her since she hated the mundane task and even inputted improper numbers as she tabulated the end results.  So now she no longer has to do a task that she dreads, and the accuracy has been dramatically improved!

Based on my experience, automation is a huge win for businesses since such automated systems are much cheaper than employing a human to do the process.  Automation is also great for repetitive tasks that are tedious and painful to perform for individuals.

List of the Cons of Automation

The worst thing about Automation is the job loss for individuals!  Over the years, I’m sure I created enough automated solutions that I prevented someone from being hired to do work in my company.

    • Reduced need for human capital.  Automation also makes unemployment a huge battle for society in general.
    • Reduced tax stream for government (all types, federal, local and city).  The government losses tax revenue on robots and automated computer programs because they don’t pay taxes and anything else for that matter;
    • Automation adds to wealth inequality that’s already too prevalent in the world.
    • If the task being replaced is not documented, once the task is automated, it’s the only way that the task can be done.

Most of the typical automation has been with automated computer programs, but expect more machinery and robots do more and more of the tasks that humans use to sole do.  Even law and medicine areas can be replaced (google has a car that can almost drive itself)!  It will be interesting to see the way the evolution of 3D printers and automation interact together in the future.  Who know, once a item in inventory sells, it might be instantly replaced by some automated 3D printer process without human involvement.

I think we are seeing the effects of automation already, possibly automation along with offshore job migrations could be the reasons unemployment is always kind of on the high side in the united states.

For better or worse, pro or con is a matter of opinion and if you own the business or work for the business.

Bests,

Don

 

Thoughts on Mastering Time

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Time use to be something that I never thought I needed to master…

Mastering Time

Time by ToniVC

When Time Could Be Wasted

As a kid, time would just be rolling along, as I would read my comic books, or watch the 2nd or 3rd rerun of some no-value TV show, perhaps Seinfeld?  I use to let Time just tick away as I hoped the my money in investments would benefit from the near-magic effect of compound interest.

I would often naively try to kill time by playing video games both at my house and playing with, and against my friends.  The weekend would come, and I remember sleeping in until almost lunch sometimes, sleeping my way through three or four extra hours, just wasting time (jumped out to check the stock market results from yesterday, DOW is up 272, WOW!).

Yep, back then, time was a thing that took too long, and something that I wanted to slip by so I could drive, drink alcohol, vote, or forget about bad relationships of the past.

Now Time Needs To Be Controlled

This summer, while I accomplished many things that I wanted to fix or do, most of my “to-do” list didn’t get done.  Oh, I get the high priority tasks done (like fix the car so it runs), but some of the small cosmetic tasks had to get benched in my life.  I’ll probably be the crazy guy out in November mulching around my house.  (I just jumped out of this blog post to check my fantasy football score from this past weekend, I won, yay).

So why has time become a wild stallion in my life that I’m now trying to tame? 

As time passes, things and responsibility quietly accumulate (I heard a sounds in my son’s room, I investigate, but it was nothing) and start to steal some of your precious time.  Raising kids the best that you can take time, maintaining your house, reading the “Accept this terms” and other legal document reading requirements, maintaining friendships, and keeping hobbies , all require time (our dog heard me and is whimpering, so off I go downstairs to let her out).  Kids require a lot of time, but they are worth it.  I took my daughter to piano lessons yesterday, making sure that I took a book while I waited in the waiting area.

How To Mastering Time

For reasons above, I’ve decided to try to get a grip around time and to master it.  Below are some of the things I do to maximize both my life and time.

  • During commute work time, I either 1.) Listen to audio books, 2.) Think about blog topics or 3.) Try to develop a task list for things to be accomplished during the day.
  • As I mentioned above, (just let the dog back in), I like to take things to do during waiting time such as doctor office visits or taking the kids to practice and other such time sucking requirements in life.
  • When mowing or doing other low thought chores, I like to think.  It’s a good way to come up with new ideas for hobbies (in my case it’s blogging).
  • Pass-by tasking.  As we get ready to go somewhere and I need to wait on one of my kids to get their shoes, cloths, etc on, I’ll take out the trash or do some other quick non-important task.
  • Lunch is no longer just about eating as I focus on things going on like blogging, or my fantasy football lineup, or reading programming and finances.  A close-by library has made this possible.  (My alarm clock just went off, I wonder why I even set it anymore…  I never sleep…)

These are the new ways that I’ve learned to both master and juggle time.

Readers, do you have any tricks for making the most of time, in situations where time would seem to be wasted?

Bests,

MR