tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/factories-34378/articlesFactories – La Conversation2023-01-11T09:37:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1957302023-01-11T09:37:21Z2023-01-11T09:37:21ZChinese imports could undermine Ethiopian manufacturing - leaving women workers worst off<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503992/original/file-20230111-24-1gx11f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman works in an Ethiopian textile factory</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Michael Tewelde/Xinhua via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>China is now the African continent’s <a href="https://qz.com/africa/2123474/china-africa-trade-reached-an-all-time-high-in-2021">largest trading partner</a>, accounting for US$254 billion in 2021. It’s also the main country of origin for African manufacturing imports, providing <a href="https://www.globalcompliancenews.com/2022/06/14/africa-chinas-trade-ties-with-the-continent-continue-to-strengthen-31052022/#:%7E:text=Africa's%20most%20important%20suppliers%20of,%2C%20including%20India%20(14%25).">16% of Africa’s total</a> in 2018. </p>
<p>In most African countries <a href="https://www.iatp.org/news/demand-and-supply-chinas-sale-of-cheap-finished-goods-overwhelms-african-nations-struggling-eco">the influx of Chinese products</a> has become a major concern because of the implications for industrialisation.</p>
<p>A flood of cheaper Chinese products could set back Africa’s infant or domestic industries. Domestic manufacturers that couldn’t compete would be forced to exit the market and would not create jobs.</p>
<p>There are serious implications for the continent’s economic development, because<br>
<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2017/11/22/3-things-to-know-about-africas-industrialization-and-the-continental-free-trade-area/">industrialisation is widely seen as critical to improving living standards</a>. </p>
<p>There are also <a href="https://bigdatachina.csis.org/the-china-shock-reevaluating-the-debate/">concerns</a> about the impact Chinese manufactured exports are having on wages in importing countries. </p>
<p>We explored these issues in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jae/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jae/ejac026/6833328?redirectedFrom=fulltext#382321566">a recent paper</a>. We analysed the relationship between Chinese import competition and labour market outcomes as they related to women and men workers in Ethiopia. We merged a rich data set on manufacturing firms with trade data between 1997 and 2010.</p>
<p>We mapped out the effect of import surges on labour force participation and compensation. The impact of the influx of Chinese products in Ethiopia on employment and wages differed for men and women, we found. </p>
<p>Employment levels declined overall for male and female manufacturing workers. But women bore a disproportionate burden. Manufacturing firms exposed to increased Chinese competition employed fewer female production workers than men.</p>
<p>Our findings matter because equality in the labour market is a starting point to improve women’s economic and social status. It also helps to improve their bargaining power in households.</p>
<h2>Chinese imports and gender</h2>
<p>The rise of Chinese imports has come at a time when most African countries have very low industrialisation levels. </p>
<p>Manufacturing’s share of GDP in sub-Saharan Africa declined from <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.ZS?locations=ZG">17% in 1995 to 10% in 2010, before recovering slightly to 12% in 2021</a>. Participation in global value chains is another measure of industrial development. The continent’s <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2017/08/11/figures-of-the-week-african-participation-in-global-value-chains/">is still very low</a>. Africa participates in global trade mostly by <a href="https://oecd-development-matters.org/2022/02/22/value-chains-in-africa-what-role-for-regional-trade/#:%7E:text=Africa's%20relatively%20weak%20performance%20in,on%20effect%20of%20external%20shocks.">exporting natural resources and primary products</a>.</p>
<p>It’s therefore important to look closely at the impact of Chinese trade relations on employment in the manufacturing sector. The comparison between male and female employment and wages is particularly notable for policy makers.</p>
<p><a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/minding-gender-gap-training-sub-saharan-africa-five-things-know">Evidence shows</a> African women lagging behind men in most measures of economic opportunity. <a href="https://www.ilo.org/infostories/en-GB/Stories/Employment/barriers-women#smarter-solutions">Women’s participation</a> in the labour market is lower than men’s. And women workers <a href="https://www.ilo.org/infostories/en-GB/Stories/Employment/barriers-women#smarter-solutions">earn less</a> than men.</p>
<h2>China and Ethiopia</h2>
<p>China is the largest source of imports for Ethiopia. </p>
<p>Figure 1 shows that Ethiopia imports more manufacturing commodities from China, in terms of percentage of GDP, than any other sub-Saharan African country. Ethiopia’s share of GDP spent on Chinese imports shot up from almost zero in 1996 to 15% in 2015.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500808/original/file-20221213-22031-rbisur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500808/original/file-20221213-22031-rbisur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500808/original/file-20221213-22031-rbisur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500808/original/file-20221213-22031-rbisur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500808/original/file-20221213-22031-rbisur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500808/original/file-20221213-22031-rbisur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500808/original/file-20221213-22031-rbisur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 1: African Manufacturing Trade with China.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under competitive pressure from imported goods, Ethiopian firms usually lay off female production workers rather than males. Also, in labour-intensive jobs, <a href="https://ied.eu/project-updates/gender-equality-in-physically-demanding-occupations/">firms have a preference for men because of their physical strength</a>. </p>
<p>Total male employment hasn’t been adversely affected by the Chinese import competition. But wages of men in firms facing greater import competition from China have decreased. This implies that Ethiopian manufacturing firms cope with competition by cutting down on female employment and reducing male wages. </p>
<p>As low-wage competition from China has increased, Ethiopian manufacturing firms have reduced female production workers. This is most pronounced in firms that rely heavily on labour-intensive methods of production.</p>
<h2>Lessons from the Ethiopian case</h2>
<p>Africa’s trade relationship with China isn’t entirely negative for the continent. African countries have the potential to benefit from their trade relationship with China as well. Cheaper imports from China have the potential to generate jobs in wholesale and retail trade. Chinese import competition can potentially boost the incomes and job opportunities of women in informal retail trading in Africa.</p>
<p>In addition, if imports from China are dominated by inputs such as capital goods or heavy industrial machines, this could potentially boost the manufacturing sector in Africa.</p>
<p>But lessons from the Sino-Ethiopian relationship point to the need for African policymakers and leaders to be strategic in their interaction with China, to achieve mutual benefit.</p>
<p>African industrialisation must not be sacrificed on the altar of cheap consumer goods from China or a one-sided trade relationship. The <a href="https://au-afcfta.org/">Africa Continental Free Trade Area</a> can be used to achieve Africa’s industrialisation, economic integration and transformation. </p>
<p>The free trade area can address market fragmentation, the small size of national economies, the lack of industrial capacity and the exportation of primary commodities to traditional markets of the north.</p>
<p>The industrial policies of African states must ensure that Chinese manufacturing investment diffuses technology to local manufacturing firms. It is especially important for African leaders to prevent the use of Chinese investment as a conduit to flood the market with cheap Chinese manufacturing imports that undermine local manufacturing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Manufacturing firms exposed to increased Chinese competition employed fewer female production workers than men.Sylvanus Kwaku Afesorgbor, Associate Professor, Agri-Food Trade and Policy, University of GuelphRuby Acquah, Research Fellow, Economics of Trade, University of Sussex Business School, University of SussexYohannes Ayele, Research Fellow in Economics, University of Sussex Business School, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1880042022-08-15T08:30:51Z2022-08-15T08:30:51ZAuto manufacturing is changing: how South Africa can adjust to protect workers and jobs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478912/original/file-20220812-18-ifj9vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Employees work on manufacturing a car at a Volkswagen plant in Uitenhage, South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Michael Sheehan/picture alliance via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Technological changes in industry have given rise to contending schools of thought about their impact on work and workers. Automation is rapidly deepening and widening, reaching new areas of work. What’s being produced is also changing. In the automotive manufacturing industry, for example, there is a global shift to vehicles that don’t produce emissions. </p>
<p>The ongoing industrial revolution is defined by new work methods, ways of organising production, and advances in technology. </p>
<p>At the one extreme is the view that this is the end of work. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322421669_Still_Think_Robots_Can't_Do_Your_Job_Essays_on_Automation_and_Technological_Unemployment">This argues</a> that the technological changes will lead to mass unemployment through retrenchments. At the other end are optimists who <a href="https://www.ilo.org/employment/Whatwedo/Publications/WCMS_553682/lang--en/index.htm">argue</a> that the changes will increase overall employment. Disrupted jobs will be replaced by others. </p>
<p>Evidence from my <a href="https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/collective-bargaining-during-and-after-apartheid-economic-and-so/19982518">research</a> on the <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Economic-Social-Upgrading-Global-Chains/dp/3030873196">automotive global production networks</a> in South Africa calls for a cautious approach anchored in sector specific realities.</p>
<p>After South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, employers in the automotive assembly sector <a href="https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/206728/1/1678476684.pdf">increased capital expenditure or investment</a> in new production technology. They also reduced their direct employment by thousands of jobs. They <a href="https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/206728/1/1678476684.pdf">benefited</a> from trade and industrial policy incentives offered by the state. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the number of jobs in automotive component manufacturing increased. This wasn’t driven by new production technology but by increased demand for domestically produced components. Some of it was for export. </p>
<p>A key finding is that technology need not result in job losses if domestic production is high enough. </p>
<h2>Evolution of the sector</h2>
<p>There are seven lead firms that make up the automotive assembly sector in South Africa. Another 430 firms make up the automotive component manufacturing sector.</p>
<p>The automotive manufacturing lead firms significantly increased their capital expenditure from R0.8 billion in 1995 to R9.2 billion in 2020. Much of this went into automation in the form of new production machinery and plant equipment, including an increased population of production robots. </p>
<p>This was accompanied by workplace restructuring. Companies introduced new work methods and ways of organising and co-ordinating production. These followed company production systems introduced globally.</p>
<p>In 1995, <a href="https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/206728/1/1678476684.pdf">the automotive assembly sector</a> directly employed 38,600 workers who produced 388,442 motor vehicles. Following the changes in production technology, work methods and ways of organising and co-ordinating production, the seven lead firms gradually reduced their direct workforce. This <a href="https://naacam.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/AutomotiveExportManual2021.pdf">went down to 29,926 in 2020</a>. </p>
<p>However, the reduced assembly sector workforce produced more motor vehicles per annum. In 2019, for example, <a href="https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/206728">about 30,000 workers produced 631,983 motor vehicles</a>. Units per worker, referring to motor vehicles produced divided by the workforce, were 10.1 in 1995. This productivity indicator more than doubled. It reached approximately <a href="https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/206728">21 units per worker in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>The automotive component manufacturing sector <a href="https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/206728">increased</a> its direct employment from 60,000 workers in 1995 to 80,000 in 2019 to support increased domestic motor vehicle production and export programmes. </p>
<p>This illustrates its employment creating potential, which needs to be harnessed in policy direction. It also shows that it will be beneficial to job creation to raise the levels of automotive vehicle assembly localisation substantially, and to deepen and diversify domestic component manufacturing value addition.</p>
<p>The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa put this forward in 2021. It followed the union’s rejection of a <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202105/44606gen308.pdf">Green Paper</a> on the advancement of new energy vehicles released by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.</p>
<p>The Green Paper proposed changes to the way in which components manufactured abroad for new energy vehicles should be handled. It proposed that these components, once imported for assembly in South Africa, should be deemed to have been manufactured domestically. The proposal sought to make these imported components eligible for industrial policy incentives meant for domestically produced components. </p>
<p>This went against the imperative of employment creation as a key element of social upgrading. </p>
<p>In rejecting the paper, the metalworkers union stressed the importance of securing a just transition in automotive manufacturing. The transition in the sector involves a shift from carbon dioxide emitting internal combustion engine vehicles to new energy vehicles. These include hybrid, electric, fuel cell electric and hydrogen vehicles.</p>
<p>The union’s action led to the department initiating a research-led inclusive consultative process on the transition to new energy vehicles.</p>
<h2>A just, versus unjust, transition</h2>
<p>It would be unjust for the transition in automotive manufacturing to occur without two ingredients. Firstly protecting existing employment. And secondly creating additional work to reduce unemployment. This is particularly true given that South Africa is ravaged by an unemployment crisis.</p>
<p>To achieve a just transition, it will be essential to localise and diversify domestic manufacturing value addition in new energy vehicle components. South Africa mustn’t go back to colonial-type assembly of imported components and mustn’t adopt strategies that can ruin employment creating opportunities in the components manufacturing sector.</p>
<p><em>The subject of workers’ power is essential to giving this process a direction from labour’s perspective. This is the focus the University of the Witwatersrand-based Southern Centre for Inequality Studies’ Future of Work(ers) Research Group policy dialogue on “<a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/scis/">Emerging forms of worker power in the digital economy</a>”.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo (PhD) is affiliated with the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies as a visiting researcher. </span></em></p>South Africa should ensure that changes to energy efficient vehicles is done in a way that creates jobs and protects workers.Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, Visiting Researcher, Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1651092021-07-27T12:25:28Z2021-07-27T12:25:28ZFactories of the future: we’re spending heavily to give workers skills they won’t need by 2030<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413319/original/file-20210727-17-75us2f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'The only living worker left'.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/industrial-technology-concept-communication-network-industry-1633937677">metamorworks</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“This government is obsessed with skilling up our population,” said Boris Johnson in his <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-prime-ministers-levelling-up-speech-15-july-2021">recent speech</a> on “levelling up”. There is still a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-actually-is-levelling-up-what-we-know-about-boris-johnsons-agenda-and-what-we-dont-164886">fair amount</a> of uncertainty about exactly what the UK prime minister’s plan to level up the regions will involve, but manufacturing and skills seem close to the heart of it. </p>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/factories-of-the-future-were-spending-heavily-to-give-workers-skills-they-wont-need-by-2030-165109&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p>The government is trying to achieve a renaissance in vocational education with its industry-focused <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/introduction-of-t-levels/introduction-of-t-levels">T-level</a> courses for students, “Skills Bootcamp” retraining programmes for adults, and <a href="https://www.fenews.co.uk/fevoices/68373-press-release-government-to-publish-levelling-up-white-paper#!/ccomment-comment=307">increased funding</a> for further education in general. Together with the recent announcement of a new <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-57962364">Nissan “mega-factory”</a> in Sunderland, some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/sep/30/education-secretary-announces-plans-for-vocational-training">might argue</a> that the UK is finally becoming a high-skill vocational manufacturing economy to rival Germany and Japan. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the world is moving on. In the factories of the future, the role of skills will be dramatically different. We are in the early stages of what is known as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/09/02/what-is-industry-4-0-heres-a-super-easy-explanation-for-anyone/?sh=2a960fa09788">industry 4.0</a>: digital manufacturing that attempts to automate and regulate every aspect of production, including the human. There is little sign that the UK government is thinking about this, or what it means for the youngsters looking to work in manufacturing in future. </p>
<h2>How factories are going digital</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://staging-us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-sage-handbook-of-learning-and-work/book267999#contents">three-year study</a>, I found that learning in factories is fundamentally shifting from human workers to machines. In high-tech manufacturing, machines are being connected to one another in what is often referred to as the <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-the-internet-of-things-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-iot-right-now/">internet of things</a> – using sensors to gather information and send signals back to the production process. In the study, we <a href="https://gow.epsrc.ukri.org/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/R021031/1">refer to</a> factories and even products becoming “chatty” through all this communication of information, and predict that this will lead to profound changes in manufacturing by 2030. </p>
<p>Airbus is a <a href="https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/stories/iot-aerospace-great-new-connector.html">good example</a>. It has considerably improved the efficiency of the assembly lines for aircraft and helicopters by gathering information and continually feeding it back. Along with <a href="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/246745/Aeris%20Industry%20Brief%20-%20Smart%20Airplane%20Monitoring.pdf#:%7E:text=comes%20into%20play.-,IoT%20functionality%20enables%20airlines%20and%20airplane%20manufacturers%20to%20monitor%20planes,also%20gather%20non%2Dcritical%20information.">other aircraft manufacturers</a> it also carries this approach into the product, using data from aircraft in the field to find ways to improve the next generation. </p>
<p>Increasingly, such systems will optimise themselves using machine learning with a view to maximising sales and profits. In a break from the age-old system of human manufacturers deciding what to produce in response to what consumers want, machines are starting to play a role in these decisions, taking on a life of their own. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413320/original/file-20210727-26-bm1840.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Fully automated futuristic assembly line" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413320/original/file-20210727-26-bm1840.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413320/original/file-20210727-26-bm1840.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413320/original/file-20210727-26-bm1840.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413320/original/file-20210727-26-bm1840.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413320/original/file-20210727-26-bm1840.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413320/original/file-20210727-26-bm1840.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413320/original/file-20210727-26-bm1840.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Robots and AI are moving from supporting the workers to taking over.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/automation-aumobile-factory-concept-3d-rendering-1469602679">Phonlamai Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Humans will increasingly be used in factories mainly to train robots and AI (artificial intelligence). <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/self-learning-systems-to-replace-humans-in-manufacturing/">Robots are</a> being developed <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/06/robots-are-learning-complex-tasks-just-by-watching-humans-do-them">that can</a> observe what humans do and learn from it, replicating simple movements and patterns. Such technologies are still very limited, even in advanced manufacturing, but this will soon change. </p>
<p>Once learned, of course, these human skills will no longer be necessary. Workers will find that their ability to teach or at least work around robots and AI will become the most valued component of their skill base. Some employers <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319551098">are already</a> emphasising the need for workers to use their shop-floor skills differently to make what they do “machine readable” for AI. </p>
<p>Finally, the same technologies that allow social media companies to build up a picture of their users will allow manufacturers to not only monitor and simulate their workers but to build up a global picture of work and skill in general. </p>
<p>Digital companies <a href="https://blog.workday.com/en-us/2020/foundation-workday-skills-cloud.html">are forming</a> “skills clouds” in which they build up an electronic library of ideal employee profiles in different industries that can be used in recruitment and training. This might be used to choose job applicants based on to what extent they fit these ideal profiles, for example. Skills clouds are already being used by recruitment agencies <a href="https://www.altura.consulting/blog/workday-skills-cloud">such as Workday</a> in allocating workers to manufacturing and logistics jobs.</p>
<h2>Levelling up who?</h2>
<p>Apprenticeships and vocational qualifications used to be a route to a reasonably secure factory job – even in a nation like the UK that has lost so much of its manufacturing capability over the years. But with industry 4.0 the picture looks far less certain, at least in the years after 2030. </p>
<p>Of course, there will still be opportunities for workers who can work with the new technology – “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43259903">robot wranglers</a>” as they’re being described. New jobs may be created in these areas, and those who are able to fit the criteria stored in skills clouds may be able to fill them. </p>
<p>However, digitising and automating manufacturing may reinforce a dual skills market that prizes (a small number of) high-level technical skills, while everything else ends up being done by machines. It appears that the factory and its associated infrastructure will be levelling up rather than the workers. </p>
<p>The worry is that the UK government is not talking about this, and seems to be developing a strategy that is naïve to it. The golden age of manufacturing and vocational skill no longer exists, if it ever did: the next shifts are about anti-human technologies and organisational forms rapidly depreciating human skills. </p>
<p>This raises complex questions about what kind of society we want, which can’t necessarily be answered easily. At the very least, any discussion about levelling up needs to anticipate the future and factor it into the plan. </p>
<p>One point to make is that for all the talk of levelling up and working-class jobs, a missing component is the voice of the workers. Governments and opposition parties may not like it, but if factories are going to “level down” skills, some form of collective ownership or at least social partnership is necessary to ensure that human skills and employment are secured – perhaps by limiting the extent to which AI and robotics are used in production. </p>
<p>Unions, social movements and workers’ cooperatives have a role to play in this. We need to face what is coming and start thinking about how we respond to it – in ten short years, it may be too late.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165109/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Preston received funding from the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) ( EP/R021031/1)</span></em></p>The government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda seems to be taking no account of coming automation.John Preston, Professor of Sociology, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1591872021-06-15T12:25:39Z2021-06-15T12:25:39ZArtisan robots with AI smarts will juggle tasks, choose tools, mix and match recipes and even order materials – all without human help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406225/original/file-20210614-125373-qckcwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C7988%2C4479&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Factory robots could soon acquire a range of skills, including the ability to choose how to make things.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/smart-industry-production-process-royalty-free-illustration/1282209924">studiostockart/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Failure of a machine in a factory can shut it down. Lost production can cost millions of dollars per day. Component failures can devastate factories, power plants and battlefield equipment. </p>
<p>To return to operation, skilled technicians use all the tools in their kit - machining, bending, welding and surface treating, making just the right part as quickly and as accurately as possible. But there’s a <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/manufacturing/manufacturing-industry-diversity.html">declining number of technicians with the right skills</a>, and the quality of things made by hand is subject to the skills and mood of the artisan on the day the part is made. </p>
<p>Both problems could soon be solved by artificially intelligent robotic technicians. These systems can take measurements; shape, cut or weld parts using varied tools; pass parts to specialized equipment; and even purchase needed materials – all without human intervention. Known as hybrid autonomous manufacturing, this process involves automated systems that seamlessly use multiple tools and techniques to build high-quality components where and when they are needed.</p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KzTuzhkAAAAJ&hl=en">professor of metallurgical engineering</a>. My colleagues and I design the recipes to make materials and components with just the right internal structure to create properties like strength and fracture resistance. With a network of colleagues at Ohio State and other universities, I have been developing a plan to give birth to these autonomous artisans. </p>
<h2>How things are made</h2>
<p>Components are either mass-produced or custom-made.</p>
<p>Most things people touch daily have been mass-produced. Quality is assured by using well-honed processes based on testing and monitoring large numbers of parts and assuring the process is done the same way every time. </p>
<p>Custom fabrication – making components on demand – is often essential, sometimes to conform to a patient’s specific anatomy or to replace aircraft landing gear that was forged and is no longer being made. Processes for making metallic parts – material removal, deposition, deformation, transformation, inspection – can all be done with small tools, with incremental actions rather than the kind of bulk processes, usually with big tools and dies, used in mass production. </p>
<p>Automation has long been a part of mass production, which includes sophisticated robots that handle parts and weld on automobile assembly lines. Additive manufacturing, often referred to as 3D printing, is increasingly being used with a variety of materials <a href="https://www.spotlightmetal.com/where-does-additive-manufacturing-stand-in-2021-a-1003729/">to make components</a>. </p>
<p>Now in development are <a href="https://theconversation.com/robotic-blacksmithing-a-technology-that-could-revive-us-manufacturing-125428">robotic blacksmiths</a> – robots that can hammer metallic parts into shape instead of cutting, building up or molding them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405991/original/file-20210611-19-ezdgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Robotic arms reach into the frame of a car being manufactured" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405991/original/file-20210611-19-ezdgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405991/original/file-20210611-19-ezdgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405991/original/file-20210611-19-ezdgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405991/original/file-20210611-19-ezdgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405991/original/file-20210611-19-ezdgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405991/original/file-20210611-19-ezdgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405991/original/file-20210611-19-ezdgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Robots have been building cars for decades, but they typically carry out simple, repetitive tasks that don’t require decision-making.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/jHZ70nRk7Ns">Lenny Kuhne/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Automated customization – not an oxymoron</h2>
<p>To automate custom fabrication, my colleagues and I are developing an automated suite of tools that can carry out all the steps for making a wide range of components, using multiple processes without human intervention. Sensors will also be central to hybrid autonomous manufacturing to control the processes and maintain and assure quality. </p>
<p>Such autonomous manufacturing systems will make the myriad decisions needed to create a component of the right strength, size and surface finish. Artificial intelligence will be required to handle the enormous number of choices of materials, machine settings and process sequences. Rather than finding a mass production recipe and never deviating, these autonomous manufacturing systems will choose from a very large set of possible recipes to create parts, and will have the intelligence to assure that the chosen path produces components with the appropriate material properties.</p>
<p>Robots could either position small tools on manufactured component or transfer the component from one piece of equipment to another. A fully autonomous system could manufacture a wide range of products with a versatile set of tools. The systems could source materials and possibly even send work out to specialized cutting and deformation tools, just like a human artisan. </p>
<p>The production rate of such systems would not rival those of mass production, but because robots can work continuously they can be more productive than human technicians are. Data from sensors provide a digital record of all the steps and processes with critical temperatures, machine settings and even images. This record can assure quality by, for example, making sure the material was deformed the right amount and cracks were not produced during the process and covered up. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406223/original/file-20210614-125373-hkh0q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An X-ray of a knee shows elaborate hardware including four long screws in the lower bone and a series of staples near the hardware" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406223/original/file-20210614-125373-hkh0q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406223/original/file-20210614-125373-hkh0q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406223/original/file-20210614-125373-hkh0q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406223/original/file-20210614-125373-hkh0q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406223/original/file-20210614-125373-hkh0q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406223/original/file-20210614-125373-hkh0q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406223/original/file-20210614-125373-hkh0q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Surgeons sometimes have to double as metalworkers when dealing with bad fractures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/broken-leg-royalty-free-image/171586126">PEDRE/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Manufacturing at or near the operating room is one example of a process that can be enabled with hybrid autonomous manufacturing. Often when patients with bone fractures undergo trauma surgery, metallic plates of varied shapes are required to hold bones together for healing. These are often created in the operating room, where the surgeon bends plates to fit the patient, sometimes using a 3D-printed model created from medical images of the patient as a form to bend the metal against. </p>
<p>Bending by hand is slow and imprecise, and stressing the plate in the wrong place can cause it to fracture. A robotic technician could cut and bend and finish a plate before surgery. Patients do better and save money if they spend less time in the hospital.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 106,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<h2>The road to robotic artisans</h2>
<p>Numerous companies are now showing the way forward in autonomous manufacturing, including three venture-funded startups. <a href="https://www.formlogic.com">FormLogic</a> is developing automated high-quality machine shops. <a href="https://www.path-robotics.com">Path Robotics</a> is putting the skills of a welder into a robot. And <a href="https://agilityprime.afwerxshowcase.com/exhibitor/machina-labs/">Machina Labs</a> is out to create robotic blacksmiths. Other companies are developing systems to automate design and logistics.</p>
<p>Hybridization – the ability to carry out different tasks in different ways with multiple tools – is the next step. The key pieces of hybrid autonomous manufacturing exist now, and fully autonomous systems could be common in a decade. Companies adopting this approach to custom fabrication will need to draw on a new generation of students with the skills to combine these technologies. </p>
<p>The investments proposed in the <a href="https://www.rpc.senate.gov/legislative-notices/s1260_the-united-states-innovation-and-competition-act">United States Innovation and Competition Act</a> <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/06/08/senate-passes-technology-research-bill-compete-china/7415962002/">passed by the Senate</a> on June 8, 2021, and those in the Biden administration’s proposed <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/">American Jobs Plan</a> could support the development of these kinds of advanced manufacturing technologies. Funds for the development of advanced manufacturing technologies and the associated skills base could <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pandemic-has-revealed-the-cracks-in-us-manufacturing-heres-how-to-fix-them-143407">make U.S. manufacturing more competitive</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159187/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn S. Daehn has received funding from the National Science Foundation and serves on the Advisory Board of FormLogic. </span></em></p>Custom fabrication involves taking measurements, choosing tools, deciding on sequences of steps and ordering from a menu of materials. AIs under development promise to take humans out of the loop.Glenn S. Daehn, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1254282019-12-11T13:17:46Z2019-12-11T13:17:46Z‘Robotic blacksmithing’: A technology that could revive US manufacturing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305965/original/file-20191209-90597-1gauksg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Robots already assemble and weld products in factories. Can they make the components parts themselves, too?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/automate-industrial-robots-welding-automotive-part-593179760">Factory_Easy/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Although it may not be obvious, there’s a close link between manufacturing technology and innovation. Elon Musk often talks of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9uveu-c5us">“machines that build the machines”</a> as being the real enabler in both his space and automotive businesses.</p>
<p>Using less-expensive, more scalable processes allows Space X to launch missions on budgets and with speed that would be unthinkable using NASA’s old-school manufacturing methods. And the new <a href="https://www.motortrend.com/news/tesla-cybertruck-electric-pickup-engineering-manufacturing/">Tesla Cybertruck’s unorthodox design</a> appears to take advantage of a <a href="https://electrek.co/2019/11/24/teslas-cybertruck-looks-weird-because-otherwise-it-would-break-the-machines-to-make-it/">simplified manufacturing process</a> that does away with “<a href="https://www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/article/stamping/die-basics-101-intro-to-stamping">die stamping</a>” metal in favor of bending and folding metal sheets.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305680/original/file-20191206-90609-163jsvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305680/original/file-20191206-90609-163jsvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305680/original/file-20191206-90609-163jsvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305680/original/file-20191206-90609-163jsvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305680/original/file-20191206-90609-163jsvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305680/original/file-20191206-90609-163jsvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305680/original/file-20191206-90609-163jsvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tesla has invested heavily in manufacturing as a way to build products faster and more efficiently. The design of newly unveiled Cybertruck is driven in part by Tesla’s production plans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.tesla.com/cybertruck">Tesla Motors</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now a new manufacturing method dubbed “<a href="https://www.tms.org/portal/PUBLICATIONS/Studies/Metamorphic_Manufacturing/portal/Publications/Studies/MetamorphicManufacturing/MetamorphicManufacturing.aspx?hkey=35f836be-083d-470a-8cc9-df1b47bf3fee">robotic blacksmithing</a>” has the potential to revolutionize the way high-quality structural parts are made, resulting in a new class of customized and optimized products. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KzTuzhkAAAAJ&hl=en">I</a> am part of a loose coalition of engineers developing this process, a technique I believe can help revive U.S. manufacturing.</p>
<h2>Today’s technologies</h2>
<p>Metal parts are used in all kinds of high-performance and safety-critical applications in transportation, mining, construction and power-generation equipment such as turbine engines. Most are made using one of a small number of classical manufacturing processes that haven’t changed much in decades.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/custom-manufacturing-fabricating/types-machining/">Machining</a> cuts away raw material to get a desired shape; <a href="https://www.rfsystemlab.us/glossary/metal-casting/">casting</a> involves pouring molten metal into a mold; and <a href="https://thelibraryofmanufacturing.com/forming_basics.html">forming or forging</a> deforms and squeezes metal into new shapes. Casting and forging to shape usually needs custom molds or dies that can take considerable time and expense to design and manufacture, but once running are very productive; parts are inexpensive with highly reproducible properties. This is why nuts and bolts can be cheap and reliable.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305458/original/file-20191205-39014-jm00ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305458/original/file-20191205-39014-jm00ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305458/original/file-20191205-39014-jm00ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305458/original/file-20191205-39014-jm00ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305458/original/file-20191205-39014-jm00ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305458/original/file-20191205-39014-jm00ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305458/original/file-20191205-39014-jm00ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305458/original/file-20191205-39014-jm00ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Traditional metal manufacturing techniques.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Glenn S. Daehn</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Starting shortly after World War II, digital manufacturing ushered in more agile production, first with computer numeric control machining that cuts components of all kinds of shapes from metal blocks. Producing a different component was as simple as launching a new computer program. One common downside of computer numeric control machining is a low “fly-to-buy” ratio, where a 1,000-pound titanium block might be carved away to produce a 100-pound aerospace component. This is expensive and environmentally wasteful, but no new investment is needed and lead times are short.</p>
<p>Right now, there is also deserved enthusiasm about making such parts by <a href="https://hbr.org/2015/05/the-3-d-printing-revolution">3D printing</a>, also referred to as additive manufacturing. This process also makes parts from a computer file on demand by building a part one layer at a time. Shapes that are impossible to make by machining can be printed, allowing new shapes that, for instance, have internal passages for cooling or communication.</p>
<p>While these techniques have their advantages, they also have drawbacks. They often don’t produce the highest levels of strength or toughness and these processes are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jiec.12664">wasteful</a>.</p>
<h2>Robots plus blacksmithing</h2>
<p>Metal implements made by blacksmiths oftentimes have <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1981/09/29/031177.html?pageNumber=41">legendary strength</a> because the working of the metal, like kneading of dough, makes its structure finer, more homogeneous. As the material is shaped, it develops directional strength, much like wood is stronger along the direction of its grain. However, no human blacksmith can deal with parts the size of aircraft landing gear or have the reproducibility and stamina to make the parts needed for our economy.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QflVRXLwsAw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A proof-of-concept demonstration of a robotic device forming a raw material by closely controlling deformation of the material and position of the machine.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The idea of robotic blacksmithing is to extend the blacksmith’s art with new digital capabilities. Parts are shaped by repeatedly and incrementally forming a piece of metal which is precisely positioned into a press. This powered press or hammer system will interchange tools depending on the shape needed.</p>
<p>By automating the process of shaping a part, but using the basic approach of a blacksmith, a machine can treat larger parts and be more efficient and reproducible than a human ever could.</p>
<p>This new approach has the potential to efficiently and consistently make the structural ‘bones’ inside aircraft, ships, submarines and locomotives. Or the concept could be scaled down to make small individualized medical implants. </p>
<h2>Where will technology take hold?</h2>
<p>The basic concept for robotic blacksmithing, formally called metamorphic manufacturing, was demonstrated in 2017 when a <a href="https://honeybadgerosu.wordpress.com">team of undergraduates from The Ohio State University</a> added hardware and software to a conventional computer numeric control milling machine to adapt it for controlled deformation. The work was in response to a US$25,000 challenge by the government-funded consortium <a href="https://lift.technology/">LIFT</a> (Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow) to demonstrate the key concepts of digitally controlled deformation-based shaping.</p>
<p>But that was just a start. Today, much research and development remains before we have autonomous machines shaping metal into unique safety-critical items.</p>
<p>Fully developing the robot blacksmith requires a synthesis of technologies. The system must be able to know the shape, temperature and condition of the material at each location of the part being formed. Then it must be able to control the temperature to produce the right structure and properties. The press must squeeze the component where needed with robotic control, deforming the part bit by bit. And, a computer must make decisions on how to move and strike the part next in order to optimize shape and properties, often learning from how previous parts were made.</p>
<p>All of these base technologies are progressing rapidly, and there is no reason they cannot be quickly melded together as a useful and practical manufacturing technology, <a href="http://tms.org/metamorphicmanufacturing">as a recent roadmapping study has shown</a>.</p>
<p>History shows that when diverse groups come together to form a new industry, the birthplace of that innovation (turning the idea into businesses) <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/innovation-should-be-made-in-the-u-s-a-11573833987">reaps the long-term benefits</a>. Detroit with automobiles and Silicon Valley with computers are obvious examples but there’s also glass manufacturing in Toledo, polymer engineering in Akron and medical device engineering in Minneapolis. The more recent examples of thriving technical clusters are often outside the U.S., with personal electronics manufacturing centered around Shenzhen, China, and advanced semiconductor devices in Singapore. The early clusters were serendipitous. The later ones are usually the result of deliberate and smart policy decisions.</p>
<p>There are already <a href="https://marianamazzucato.com/entrepreneurial-state/">many examples of great technology that is born in the United States, then manufactured elsewhere</a>. For example, many of the core technologies in smartphones were developed in labs in the U.S. but production is now spread across the world. The next wave of innovation will likely be located where skills are deep due from staffing and improving current factories. Robotic blacksmithing provides an <a href="http://mforesight.org/download/7817/">opportunity for the United States to be the leader</a> if it wants to. The core in keeping this virtuous cycle going in any location is in developing the factories, or the machines that build the machines.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn S. Daehn's research group receives funding from Federal (National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and LIFT Manufacturing USA Institute), State of Ohio (Ohio Development Services Agency) and Industry (Ford, Honda), but none of that funding is directly relevant to the ideas presented here. </span></em></p>A manufacturing engineer describes the concept for a technology that could lead to more efficient production – and perhaps a tool to revive US manufacturing.Glenn S. Daehn, Fontana Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1023102018-09-05T09:32:22Z2018-09-05T09:32:22ZEnormous amounts of food are wasted during manufacturing – here’s where it occurs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234798/original/file-20180904-45143-1hipqxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/truck-working-landfill-birds-looking-food-169420184?src=Zq_0OU-AlerGmkCzkAvJRg-1-26">Huguette Roe/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The volume of edible food that is wasted is staggering. In 2017, the UN <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/food/sites/food/files/safety/docs/fw_eu-platform_20170331_fao-activities.pdf">estimated</a> that almost a third of all food that is produced is discarded. Edible food makes up approximately 1.3 gigatonnes of this (one gigatonne is a billion tonnes). For comparison, one tonne of wasted food is about the equivalent of 127 large plastic bin bags. This not only represents a phenomenal loss in terms of food that could feed people, but also a loss in resources such as water, labour power, soil nutrients, transportation energy and so forth.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/tackling-1.6-billion-ton-food-loss-and-waste-crisis.aspx">Recent analysis</a> shows that about one third of the edible food that is wasted globally comes before the farm gate and about one fifth comes from people’s plates and refrigerators. This means that just under half of all edible food that becomes waste does so during manufacturing, distribution and retail. </p>
<p>Food manufacturers tolerate about 5% waste within their food processes under normal production. And in the UK alone, there are more than <a href="https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2015/08/19/Food-and-drink-manufacturing-industry-set-for-3-4-growth">8,000 food producers</a> operating at 9,500 production sites.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234800/original/file-20180904-45151-dz03e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234800/original/file-20180904-45151-dz03e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234800/original/file-20180904-45151-dz03e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234800/original/file-20180904-45151-dz03e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234800/original/file-20180904-45151-dz03e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234800/original/file-20180904-45151-dz03e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234800/original/file-20180904-45151-dz03e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pasta manufacturing plant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pasta-manufature-conveyor-1167621685?src=Oamsr_TFIh6EMgUOuDYx7w-1-38">Evru/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Food manufacturing waste</h2>
<p>One main reason food is wasted within the manufacturing process is due to what some researchers refer to as <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.360.951&rep=rep1&type=pdf">inefficiencies</a>. But we need to consider where these inefficiencies lie, and if they are avoidable. </p>
<p>For example, on an assembly line producing ready meals, there may be several machines operating to produce different parts of the meal. If something happens to one of the machines, rather than stop the whole system while the machine is reset, the food keeps coming but is redirected into waste. It is more efficient both in terms of both money and food resources to lose this food than it is to stop the production for a few minutes. So what is technically inefficient may also be a food and labour efficiency.</p>
<p>In addition, there is always food loss associated with machinery start-up. Volumes described on the label are calibrated based on normal speed of production, and it takes a few minutes for the machinery to meet this speed. As a result, the first few pallets of packaged food are also not able to be sold because the volume in each package is less than the calibrated standard. This is why stopping the production line when faults occur is actually more wasteful: restarting produces more <a href="https://theconversation.com/capitalism-has-coopted-the-language-of-food-costing-the-world-millions-of-meals-90780">unsellable edible food</a> than redirection does. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234803/original/file-20180904-45178-mhuiy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234803/original/file-20180904-45178-mhuiy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234803/original/file-20180904-45178-mhuiy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234803/original/file-20180904-45178-mhuiy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234803/original/file-20180904-45178-mhuiy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234803/original/file-20180904-45178-mhuiy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234803/original/file-20180904-45178-mhuiy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Part of a complex system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/working-process-production-cucumbers-on-cannery-565877869?src=H7DOIUf6kMovrVsAcKEzLg-1-19">Max Maier/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And if, for example, a manufacturer produces something associated with a food allergy, like breakfast cereal with nuts, and they want to switch the line to produce a cereal without nuts, the production line must be run for a significant time with the new product before it is actually nut free.</p>
<p>New product development also creates a lot of potential food waste because the production processes must be calibrated and training carried out to ensure that when high volumes are produced the taste and quality matches what was developed at a smaller scale in the testing kitchen. Machinery must also be run for some time to ensure volumes are correct, packaging is printing properly and so forth.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234802/original/file-20180904-45169-1l6wsse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234802/original/file-20180904-45169-1l6wsse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234802/original/file-20180904-45169-1l6wsse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234802/original/file-20180904-45169-1l6wsse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234802/original/file-20180904-45169-1l6wsse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234802/original/file-20180904-45169-1l6wsse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234802/original/file-20180904-45169-1l6wsse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Contents must accurately match the packaging.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sao-jose-santa-catarina-brazil-september-277055678?src=H7DOIUf6kMovrVsAcKEzLg-3-53">Alf Ribeiro / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dealing with surplus food</h2>
<p>Due to increasing public concern about the scale of this waste, surplus redistribution is becoming more common. But it is a comparatively new activity and so still somewhat experimental. There are many issues to work out.</p>
<p>It is true that new tax policy, regulation and industry standards might encourage food manufacturers to help feed people with this surplus food, rather than waste it or send to <a href="http://www.wrap.org.uk/category/subject/anaerobic-digestion?page=8">anaerobic digestion</a>. Despite this, focusing on regulations and policies is not enough to ensure that this food can reach mouths.</p>
<p>This is because movement of surplus requires a lot of coordination between a whole range of people and organisations. Surplus food, for example, cannot be accepted by a food redistributor if there are not enough people in the warehouse to unload the food from the delivery truck. Machinery is needed to move and in some cases repackage the food so that contents match labelling. When volumes are particularly large, spaces are needed to store and break down pallets into amounts that a community cafe, food pantry, or children’s holiday or breakfast club can store and use while the food is still good.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234806/original/file-20180904-45135-1lajjfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234806/original/file-20180904-45135-1lajjfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234806/original/file-20180904-45135-1lajjfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234806/original/file-20180904-45135-1lajjfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234806/original/file-20180904-45135-1lajjfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234806/original/file-20180904-45135-1lajjfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234806/original/file-20180904-45135-1lajjfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Obtaining the resources to transport surplus food in time can be tricky.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/plastic-box-61895965?src=GBkgFfmgA-Riw4sLTVawww-1-31">Oliko/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Surplus food distribution has a number of other challenges not faced in a commercial system. A food manufacturer can throw money at a problem if there is a financial benefit. But those operating in the surplus system are generally reliant on unpredictable resources and face problems that do not necessarily have a financial return on the investment. They often also rely on volunteers to fill their labour needs. Food arriving in the surplus system from food manufacturers is very unpredictable both in terms of type and quantity. Food redistributors must therefore work out how best to redistribute the food under time pressure.</p>
<p>This is not to say the problem is impossible. Those engaged with moving surplus along for social good rather than financial gain are working out <a href="https://olioex.com">new ways</a> to use technology to communicate <a href="https://food.cloud">food availability</a>. Some are experimenting with <a href="https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-blockchain-technology/">blockchain</a> technology to encourage <a href="https://www.facebook.com/foodhallproject/">voluntary participation</a> and others to <a href="https://alice.si">facilitate donations</a> from individuals and corporations. Meanwhile, organisations like the <a href="https://fareshare.org.uk">FareShare</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-bread-butter-thing-mark-game/">The Bread and Butter Thing</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16058275">His Church</a>, <a href="http://www.cityharvest.org.uk">City Harvest London</a>, <a href="http://thefelixproject.org">The Felix Project</a>, <a href="https://therealjunkfoodproject.org">The Real Junk Food Project</a>, <a href="https://www.companyshop.co.uk/community-shop/">Community Shop</a> and others are experimenting with different models for collecting and distributing this food.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234804/original/file-20180904-45172-15hu9b5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234804/original/file-20180904-45172-15hu9b5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234804/original/file-20180904-45172-15hu9b5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234804/original/file-20180904-45172-15hu9b5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234804/original/file-20180904-45172-15hu9b5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234804/original/file-20180904-45172-15hu9b5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234804/original/file-20180904-45172-15hu9b5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The food production process is full of competing inefficiencies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/factory-production-process-industry-food-521099563?src=H7DOIUf6kMovrVsAcKEzLg-1-27">Marxstudio/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We are currently in a situation where there are hungry people in places where food is abundant. But we haven’t yet worked out how best to organise the surplus food distribution system or under what circumstances each method works best. </p>
<p>Consumers have a role to play in this. We need food producers to remain committed and engaged in finding ways to redistribute their surplus and consumer pressure is influential. Food redistributors are often not the first place where people think to volunteer, but regular and committed volunteers are needed as are financial donations. Food is not waste until its wasted – and we all can contribute to moving it along.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Blake is currently on a part-time ESRC IAA funded secondment with FareShare UK. In addition she also collaborates regularly with Food Hall, Community Shop, City Harvest London and The Bread and Butter Thing. She is a trustee of Good Food Doncaster, a member of the Greater Manchester Food Poverty Alliance Reference Group, and a member of Sheffield Self-Organising Action for Food Equity. In addition to the ESRC IAA award, she currently has funding through the Medical Research Council with the Alexandra Rose Charity and Barnsley Council. She also works with a number of small scale food using organisations.</span></em></p>Food is not waste until it’s wasted.Megan Blake, Senior Lecturer in Geography, Director of the MA Food Security and Food Justice between 2014-18, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/898852018-01-10T14:13:14Z2018-01-10T14:13:14ZSoft robots could be the factory workers of the future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201493/original/file-20180110-46728-rdk42f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/robot-soft-toy-365356346?src=tGkpvOBdyStECbcxKmvHSA-2-63">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Killer robots are already among us. Not weaponised drones, but industrial robots working alongside humans in factories that can cause significant injuries and occasionally deaths if an accident occurs. In 2015, an employee at a Volkswagen factory in Germany was killed when a robot <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3146547/Robot-kills-man-Volkswagen-plant-Germany.html">picked up and crushed him</a>.</p>
<p>Factory workers are typically separated from robots by a physical barrier to minimise accidents. But this prevents all except the most basic of cooperation. A simple way of trying to make robots less dangerous is to coat them in foam to absorb the impact of any collision. But this method has had only <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1310939/">limited success</a>. An alternative that could be much more effective is to make the robots themselves soft and squishy, so they’re more like a fleshy animal than a cold, hard machine.</p>
<p>These soft robots would be made from lightweight and deformable materials such as plastic and rubber. If they collided with someone the effect would be like bumping into another person – annoying but unlikely to cause injury. So there would be no need for safety barriers and robots and humans could work more closely together. A robot might do the hard work of supporting a heavy component while the human performs a complex assembly task on it. The machine provides the brawn and the person provides the brains, significantly improving what human-robot collaboration currently can achieve. </p>
<p>Some efforts have already been made to reduce the impact of collisions by placing <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7759189">springs between the motors and mechanical links</a>. But robots that are springy instead of stiff are much more difficult to control accurately. Imagine trying to hit a target with the end of a long, flexible fishing rod. Other systems have been developed that can switch from being very <a href="http://viactors.org/objectives.htm">springy to being stiff</a> when more precise control is needed. But these kind of robots still tend to be heavy so can cause significant injury if they do collide with people.</p>
<h2>Animal-inspired robots</h2>
<p>Instead, the latest research is focusing on flexible robots inspired by animals that do not have skeletons, such as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167779913000632">caterpillars, worms</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37169109">octopuses</a> or an elephant’s trunk. These would have some unique abilities such as grasping delicate objects without damaging them or wrapping themselves around obstacles. And because they would be lightweight, the force of impact if there were a collision would be low. Plus a soft robot would deform on impact, spreading the force over a larger area and reducing the chance of injury.</p>
<p>So far, soft robots have generally been small and unable to carry large amounts of weight. Without a rigid skeleton larger robots, and indeed animals, would not have enough strength to support their own weight. This has limited the application of soft robotics to devices such as grippers and hands.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I at the <a href="http://www.salford.ac.uk/computing-science-engineering/research/autonomous-systems-and-robotics/soft-robotics">University of Salford’s</a> <a href="http://www.salford.ac.uk/computing-science-engineering/research/autonomous-systems-and-robotics">Centre for Autonomous Systems and Robotics</a> have built a <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/soro.2016.0066">variable stiffness robot arm</a> that we hope will make progress towards larger soft robots. This new arm weighs around 1kg but can lift and move a 5kg load. This is a much higher power-to-weight ratio than traditional stiff industrial robots. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201490/original/file-20180110-46715-1ev1lkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201490/original/file-20180110-46715-1ev1lkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201490/original/file-20180110-46715-1ev1lkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201490/original/file-20180110-46715-1ev1lkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201490/original/file-20180110-46715-1ev1lkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201490/original/file-20180110-46715-1ev1lkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201490/original/file-20180110-46715-1ev1lkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How the new robot might operate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.salford.ac.uk/computing-science-engineering/research/autonomous-systems-and-robotics/soft-robotics">University of Salford</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whereas traditional robots are built around a skeleton with joints that enable it to move, our device uses a series of pneumatic muscles made from lightweight rubber and plastic sacs that contract when filled with air – essentially an inflatable robot. Its shape and size are determined by which muscles are inflated, and it can bend, flex and stiffen like an elephant’s trunk.</p>
<p>Just like in our bodies, some of the robot’s muscles act in the opposite direction to others. If the robot increases the output force of all the muscles, the robot becomes more stiff. We can see the same effect in our own bodies, if we tense our triceps and biceps our elbow stays in the same position but the joint becomes more rigid.</p>
<figure>
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<p>This isn’t the only way to make larger soft robots. For example, another approach involves using artificial tendons to transmit forces from heavy and rigid motors (located well away from people) to a <a href="https://project.inria.fr/softrobot/examples-features/">soft arm</a>. Different approaches are likely to be needed for different kinds of robots.</p>
<p>Despite this research, developing large and useful soft robots remains a challenge. The larger a robot gets, the heavier it will likely be and the more dangerous it will become. But new materials may be able to help here. For example, the two-dimensional form of carbon <a href="https://theconversation.com/harder-than-diamond-stronger-than-steel-super-conductor-graphenes-unreal-5123">known as graphene</a> is very strong but lightweight and flexible. So perhaps we could one day see large graphene-based soft robots. With these kind of advances, factory workers could soon see the barriers lifted and find themselves working side by side with their robotic colleagues.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89885/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Davis receives funding from Innovate UK, EPSRC and EU. He works for the University of Salford. </span></em></p>Why we’re developing a soft robot inspired by an elephant’s trunk.Steve Davis, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/763562017-05-17T08:10:06Z2017-05-17T08:10:06ZWatch this documentary to understand the working poverty of the sweatshop<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168143/original/file-20170505-19116-xmbp7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dogwoof</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I have spent the last decade researching the global textile and garment industries and the harshness of the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=szGmDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA118&lpg=PA118&dq=sweatshopregime+page+99&source=bl&ots=REh--_CRqV&sig=oBgu7emQNKylo8lLEPNVgXYn8ic&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjigI3rmKvTAhUEbhQKHacYCxsQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q=sweatshopregime%20page%2099&f=false">sweatshop regime</a> they shape for millions of workers worldwide. While researching my book, I followed the clothing production line across the whole Indian subcontinent. I met a very diverse army of labourers: male migrants endlessly circulating between factories and villages; young women commuting daily to the factory gates; children and youths facing a life of toil in home-based workshops. </p>
<p>Despite their diversity, India’s garment workers share a similar fate. All trapped inside the sweatshop regime, their own bodies are turned into commodities – yet another crucial input of production, like threads and cloth. </p>
<p>One image above all captures the working poverty of sweatshops for me: Amelia Peláez’s painting <a href="http://intranet.malba.org.ar/www/coleccion_artista.php?idartista=149">La Costurera</a>, which can be admired at the Malba museum in Buenos Aires. It is a simple sketch of a woman in the act of stitching. Crucially, the bundle of cloth she is using is her own body. In the act of toiling, she is also “manufacturing” herself into a worker. Peláez powerfully reminds us what is at the very centre of production: the body, which, as the feminist Silvia Federici reminds us, is the first ever machine invented by capitalism.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vm0gxjao36E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Indeed, in labour-intensive manufacturing industries such as those of textiles and garments, the body is the first machine used, and also the first machine depleted, and relentlessly so, by the process of production. This is why I enjoyed watching the new documentary by Rahul Jain so much. Machines is set in a textile factory in Surat, Gujarat, India. In Jain’s vision of the textile factory, the body takes centre stage.</p>
<p>Workers’ bodies ––always on the move like well-behaved, docile bees building their hive – are the heart, soul and sound of Jain’s factory. They create the soundtrack of labouring, which merges with the steady rhythmic pace of the machines, and that of cloth endlessly pouring from the press. </p>
<p>Jain perfectly captures the image and tone of labour-intensity with close-ups of exhausted workers subjected to thankless 12-hour shifts. We often see them struggling to remain awake. They are all male migrants – no women feature in the documentary – who need to leave their villages and farms to survive. Our own last <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/reports/file106927.pdf">project report</a> on the garment industry completed last year indicates that 12- to 16-hour shifts are the norm in the sector for this type of worker.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exhaustion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dogwoof</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Relentless harassment</h2>
<p>There are many misunderstandings about poverty. People are not poor because they are excluded from the processes of production. They are poor because of the ways in which production absorbs them, literally sucking their labour out of their limbs. The poor cannot afford to sit idle. As one worker interviewed by Jain puts it: “poverty is harassment”. Poor working conditions – long working shifts, sleep deprivation, exposure to toxic substances, cloth particles and smoke, matched with meagre and discontinuous salaries (all touched upon in this documentary) – constantly harass the poor inside the factory. </p>
<p>And this constant harassment that accompanies working poverty is often enabled by violence. Unions are powerless because employers are swift in targeting union leaders. The unions are often quickly retrenched. Eventually, workers may also be exposed to physical violence. Undoubtedly, India’s textile industry has a long history of violence against trade unionists. In 1997, over ten years after heading <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bombay_textile_strike">Bombay’s legendary textile mills strike</a>, Dutta Samant, the workers’ leader, was gunned down by contract killers outside his house.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Still from Machines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dogwoof</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If unions have little power over workers, who are too scared and poor to fight for their rights, labour contractors are their undisputed masters. They not only have the power to choose the workers’ destiny by brokering their labour from villages to textile factories, but they are also the workers’ lenders of last resort, providing advances in cash. </p>
<p>The contractor interviewed by Jain for Machines knows this all too well. He knows he is the workers’ real boss. On the other hand, workers have no idea who owns the factory – who the “actual” boss is. In the words of another worker interviewed by Jain: “I don’t even know who the boss is, what he does (…) I know my section, I know my room, that’s it.” </p>
<p>Much of the textile and garment industry in India is characterised by such “<a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/workingpoor/file118684.pdf">triangular labour relations</a>”, where intermediaries interrupt any relationship between workers and factory owners.</p>
<h2>Industrial violence</h2>
<p>In the age of global capitalism and the attendant questions of labour conditions and rights, we can learn an awful lot from this documentary. A particular issue is that current debates are often framed around ideas of modern-day slavery. This language is misleading. It suggests extreme forms of exploitation may be something new and exceptional. This is hardly the case. </p>
<p>First, the intensity of exploitation experienced by workers is nothing new, in India’s textile factories or elsewhere. Workers’ harsh subjugation to the rhythms of production is timeless. The violence they endured has crossed space, time and generations, from the early development of Britain’s “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/poetryseason/poems/jerusalem.shtml">dark satanic mills</a>”. For instance, in Jain’s factory, the presence of child labour is not a one-off violation of labour regulations. Rather, growing up in the factory is part and parcel of the workers’ industrial life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Production.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dogwoof</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, this type of exploitation is hardly exceptional. After the fourth anniversary of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Savar_building_collapse">Rana Plaza tragedy</a>, we should remind ourselves once more how this terrible disaster was not the outcome of exceptional circumstances. It was driven by the normal pace of an industry systematically unable to guarantee decent working conditions for its workforce. Exhaustion, as well as the constant, inexorable depletion of the labouring body, is a fundamental aspect of factory life for millions of working poor worldwide, even in the absence of major industrial disasters. </p>
<p>Rahul Jain’s Machines shows us the restless movements leading to that process of exhaustion; their repetitive sounds, dark colours, and the fading hopes of India’s proletariat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandra Mezzadri receives funding from ESRC-DfID and from the British Academy. Heartfelt thanks to Joe Stormer, for showing me La Costurera.
</span></em></p>Machines by Rahul Jain reveals how some industries turn bodies into commodities.Alessandra Mezzadri, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/700332017-01-04T03:37:10Z2017-01-04T03:37:10ZThe factories of the past are turning into the data centers of the future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151599/original/image-20170103-18679-1y38re7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">At one time, Bibles and Sears catalogs were printed here. Now, this building is known as the Lakeside Technology Center, one of the largest data centers in the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/teemu08/10556760306/in/photolist-4aW1vH-h5Sa3J-oucKCN-ngkFoP-7BvZi9-NHfZp-8nW7WW-c4pXnJ-3nNbui-8snbvj-8sj7Gp-4gni4P-h1PSB-6THe18-bWPhG2-2iA5c1-5X2LWe-51UaSK-51UaLV-e31Upn-oSLm6z-p9Z1oF-p8dzrL-inCXw-Bz8js-6mzro8-x74sd2-GU1u9K-x79jBF-8GrPAF-Bz8k2-Bzc1v-Bz8jJ-Bzc1K-eb6frA-6DvybV-3exr34-6DvybM-bV2Yxw-7ECaS-6g8PKH-81dUW3-2C8CH-nER3LU-8Q1rE7-3UmoUj">Teemu008/flicker</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We live in a data-driven world. From social media <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/14/fact-sheet-administration-announces-new-smart-cities-initiative-help">to smart cities</a> to <a href="https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/the-internet-of-things-bigger/">the internet of things</a>, we now generate huge volumes of information about nearly every detail of life. This has revolutionized everything from business to government to the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shelly-palmer/big-dating-its-a-data-science_b_6919594.html">pursuit of romance</a>. </p>
<p>We tend to focus our attention on what is new about the era of big data. But our digital present is in fact deeply connected to our industrial past. </p>
<p>In Chicago, where I teach and do research, I’ve been looking at the transformation of the city’s industrial building stock to serve the needs of the data industry. Buildings where workers once <a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20110108/ISSUE01/301089986/-200-million-data-center-planned-for-former-northern-trust-building-in-chicago">processed checks</a>, <a href="http://1547realty.com/datacenters/chicago-il/">baked bread</a> and <a href="http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/special-report-the-worlds-largest-data-centers/worlds-largest-data-center-350-e-cermak/">printed Sears catalogs</a> now stream Netflix and host servers engaged in financial trading. </p>
<p>The buildings themselves are a kind of witness to how the U.S. economy has changed. By observing these changes in the landscape, we get a better sense of how data exist in the physical realm. We are also struck with new questions about what the rise of an information-based economy means for the physical, social and economic development of cities. The decline of industry can actually create conditions ripe for growth – but the benefits of that growth may not reach everyone in the city. </p>
<h2>‘Factories of the 21st century’</h2>
<p>Data centers have been described as <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/climate/2011/Cool%20IT/dirty-data-report-greenpeace.pdf">the factories of the 21st century</a>. These facilities contain servers that store and process digital information. When we hear about data being stored “in the cloud,” those data are really being stored in a data center.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150392/original/image-20161215-26062-4psy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150392/original/image-20161215-26062-4psy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150392/original/image-20161215-26062-4psy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150392/original/image-20161215-26062-4psy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150392/original/image-20161215-26062-4psy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150392/original/image-20161215-26062-4psy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150392/original/image-20161215-26062-4psy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150392/original/image-20161215-26062-4psy6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Servers inside a data center.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">By Global Access Point, via Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But contrary to the ephemeral-sounding term “cloud,” data centers are actually incredibly <a href="https://eta.lbl.gov/publications/united-states-data-center-energy">energy- and capital-intensive infrastructure</a>. Servers use tremendous amounts of electricity and generate large amounts of heat, which in turn requires extensive investments in cooling systems in order to keep servers operating. These facilities also need to be connected to fiber optic cables, which deliver information via beams of light. In most places, these cables – the “highway” part of the “information superhighway” – are buried along the rights of way provided by existing road and railroad networks. In other words, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/how-railroad-history-shaped-internet-history/417414/">the pathways of the internet are shaped by previous rounds of development</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150395/original/image-20161215-26068-1xp4mim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150395/original/image-20161215-26068-1xp4mim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150395/original/image-20161215-26068-1xp4mim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150395/original/image-20161215-26068-1xp4mim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150395/original/image-20161215-26068-1xp4mim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150395/original/image-20161215-26068-1xp4mim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150395/original/image-20161215-26068-1xp4mim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150395/original/image-20161215-26068-1xp4mim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The interior of the Schulze Baking Company facility in 2016 showing some of the utility connections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graham Pickren</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An economy based on information, just like one based on manufacturing, still requires a human-made environment. For the data industry, taking advantage of the places that have the power capacity, the building stock, the fiber optic connectivity and the proximity to both customers and other data centers is often central to their real estate strategy. </p>
<h2>From analog to digital</h2>
<p>As this real estate strategy plays out, what is particularly fascinating is the way in which infrastructure constructed to meet the needs of a different era is now being repurposed for the data sector. </p>
<p>In Chicago’s South Loop sits the former R.R. Donnelley & Sons printing factory. At one time, it was one of the largest printers in the U.S., producing everything from Bibles to Sears catalogs. Now, it is <a href="http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/01/06/chicagos-data-fortress-for-the-digital-economy-2/">the Lakeside Technology Center</a>, one of the largest data centers in the world and the second-largest consumer of electricity in the state of Illinois. </p>
<p>The eight-story Gothic-style building is well-suited to the needs of a massive data center. Its vertical shafts, formerly used to haul heavy stacks of printed material between floors, are now used to run fiber optic cabling through the building. (Those cables come in from the railroad spur outside.) Heavy floors built to withstand the weight of printing presses are now used to support rack upon rack of server equipment. What was once the pinnacle of the analog world is now a central node in global financial networks. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150393/original/image-20161215-26032-e4y62x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150393/original/image-20161215-26032-e4y62x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150393/original/image-20161215-26032-e4y62x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150393/original/image-20161215-26032-e4y62x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150393/original/image-20161215-26032-e4y62x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150393/original/image-20161215-26032-e4y62x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150393/original/image-20161215-26032-e4y62x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150393/original/image-20161215-26032-e4y62x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Photograph of printing press #D2, 1949. R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company. Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just a few miles south of Lakeside Technology Center is the former home of Schulze Baking Company in the South Side neighborhood of Washington Park. Once famous for its butternut bread, the five-story terra cotta bakery is currently being renovated into the Midway Technology Center, a data center. Like the South Loop printing factory, the Schulze bakery contains features useful to the data industry. The building also has heavy-load bearing floors as well as louvered windows designed to dissipate the heat from bread ovens – or, in this case, servers. </p>
<p>It isn’t just the building itself that makes Schulze desirable, but the neighborhood as a whole. A developer working on the Schulze redevelopment project told me that, because the surrounding area had been deindustrialized, and because a large public housing project had closed down in recent decades, the nearby power substations actually had plenty of idle capacity to meet the data center’s needs. </p>
<p>Examples of this “adaptive reuse” of industrial building stock abound. The former <a href="http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/content-tracks/design-build/qts-opens-data-center-at-former-chicago-sun-times-printing-site/96547.fullarticle">Chicago Sun-Times printing facility</a> became a 320,000-square-foot data center earlier last year. <a href="http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2016/08/10/digital-realty-buys-campus-in-tight-chicago-data-center-market/">A Motorola office building and former television factory</a> in the suburbs has been bought by one of the large data center companies. Even the once mighty retailer Sears, which has one of the largest real estate portfolios in the country, has <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2013/05/31/sears-replaces-retail-stores-with-data-centers/#29af472f6b0a">created a real estate division tasked with spinning off some of its stores into data center properties</a>. Beyond Chicago, Amazon is in the process of turning <a href="http://www.independent.ie/business/commercial-property/amazon-to-take-ireland-spend-past-1bn-with-new-data-centre-34143142.html">an old biscuit factory in Ireland</a> into a data center, and in New York, some of the world’s most significant data center properties are <a href="http://seeingnetworks.in/nyc/#places">housed in the former homes of Western Union and the Port Authority</a>, two giants of 20th-century modernity. </p>
<p>What we see here in these stories is the seesaw of urban development. As certain industries and regions decline, some of the infrastructure retains its value. That provides an opportunity for future savvy investors to seize upon.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151471/original/image-20161227-29218-b9q41c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151471/original/image-20161227-29218-b9q41c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151471/original/image-20161227-29218-b9q41c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151471/original/image-20161227-29218-b9q41c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151471/original/image-20161227-29218-b9q41c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151471/original/image-20161227-29218-b9q41c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151471/original/image-20161227-29218-b9q41c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Schulze Baking Company advertisement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Illinois Chicago Digital Collections</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150394/original/image-20161215-26051-5hupwq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150394/original/image-20161215-26051-5hupwq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150394/original/image-20161215-26051-5hupwq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150394/original/image-20161215-26051-5hupwq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150394/original/image-20161215-26051-5hupwq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150394/original/image-20161215-26051-5hupwq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150394/original/image-20161215-26051-5hupwq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150394/original/image-20161215-26051-5hupwq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Schulze Baking Company operated on Chicago’s South Side from 1914–2004. The historic building is being turned into a data center.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graham Pickren</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Data centers and public policy</h2>
<p>What broader lessons can be drawn about the way our data-rich lives will transform our physical and social landscape?</p>
<p>First, there is the issue of labor and employment. Data centers generate tax revenues but don’t employ many people, so their relocation to places like Washington Park is unlikely to change the economic fortunes of local residents. If the data center is the “factory of the 21st century,” what will that mean for the working class?</p>
<p>Data centers are crucial to innovations such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/28/google-says-machine-learning-is-the-future-so-i-tried-it-myself">machine-learning</a>, which threatens to automate many routine tasks in both high and low-skilled jobs. By one measure, <a href="http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf">as much as 47 percent</a> of U.S. employment is at risk of being automated. Both low- and high-skilled jobs that are nonroutine – in other words, difficult to automate – are <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21700758-will-smarter-machines-cause-mass-unemployment-automation-and-anxiety">growing in the U.S</a>. Some of these jobs will be supported by data centers, freeing up workers from repetitive tasks so that they can focus on other skills. </p>
<p>On the flip side, employment in the manufacturing sector – which has provided so many people with a ladder into the middle class – <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/29/news/economy/us-manufacturing-jobs/">is in decline in terms of employment</a>. The data center embodies that economic shift, as data management enables the displacement of workers through offshoring and automation. </p>
<p>So buried within the question of what these facilities will mean for working people is the larger issue of the relationship between automation and the polarization of incomes. To paraphrase Joseph Schumpeter, data centers seem likely to both <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/10/your-money/half-a-century-later-economists-creative-destruction-theory-is.html">create and destroy</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150396/original/image-20161215-26068-1oz8nd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150396/original/image-20161215-26068-1oz8nd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150396/original/image-20161215-26068-1oz8nd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150396/original/image-20161215-26068-1oz8nd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150396/original/image-20161215-26068-1oz8nd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150396/original/image-20161215-26068-1oz8nd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150396/original/image-20161215-26068-1oz8nd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150396/original/image-20161215-26068-1oz8nd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bakers working the conveyor belt at Schulze Baking Company, circa 1920. The new data center will employ significantly fewer workers than the bakery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">By Fred A. Behmer for the Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, via Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, data centers present a public policy dilemma for local and state governments. Public officials around the world are eager to grease the skids of <a href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2013/june_2013/mayor_emanuel_launchesdatacenterexpresstohelpmakechicagothedesti.html">data center development</a>. </p>
<p>In many locations, generous tax incentives are often used to entice new data centers. <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/states-competing-data-centers-extend-1-5b-tax-165147713.html">As the Associated Press reported last year</a>, state governments across the U.S. extended nearly US$1.5 billion in tax incentives to hundreds of data center projects nationwide during the past decade. For example, an <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/hillsboro/index.ssf/2015/03/hillsboro_got_an_enterprise_zo.html">Oregon law</a> targeting data centers provides property tax relief on facilities, equipment, and employment for up to five years in exchange for creating one job. The costs and benefits of these kinds of subsidies have not been systematically studied.</p>
<p>More philosophically, as a geographer, I’ve been influenced by people like <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/64-the-limits-to-capital">David Harvey</a> and <a href="http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/uneven_development">Neil Smith</a>, who have theorized capitalist development as inherently uneven across time and space. Boom and bust, growth and decline: They are two sides of the same coin. </p>
<p>The implication here is that the landscapes we construct to serve the needs of today are always temporary. The smells of butternut bread defined part of everyday life in Washington Park for nearly a century. Today, data is in the ascendancy, constructing landscapes suitable to its needs. But those landscapes will also be impermanent, and predicting what comes next is difficult. Whatever the future holds for cities, we can be sure that what comes next will be a reflection of what came before it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70033/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graham Pickren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Data centers are taking over the factories where workers once processed checks, baked bread and printed Bibles. What will the rise of the information-based economy mean for American cities?Graham Pickren, Assistant Professor of Sustainability Studies, Roosevelt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.