Competitive Advantage in the Information Age

Abstract

Present-day robots can work tirelessly, and they are rapidly growing cheaper. For relatively simple tasks, they are already facile enough to be competitive with high-cost workers in the OECD countries. Their impact on the industrial process is strikingly conveyed by a European textile executive’s description of a night visit to an automated textile mill in Japan:

It is pitch dark… Robots have no eyes, so they need no light. Malfunctions are signalled to a control centre. The problem spot is then lit and a qualified engineer fixes the snag… No more than ten people, boss included, are needed per shift to run the 30,000 ring spindles that represent $22 million in investment.