Robots will replace 75 million jobs – what will happen to frontline workers?

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　　A recent report by the World Economic Forum indicates that humans currently undertake 71% of the world’s work, while by 2025, machines will carry out more work than humans. With the rapid development of machines and algorithms in the workplace, 133 million new jobs can be created to replace the 75 million jobs that will be lost from now until 2022. 　　In recent years, as labor costs have risen, the demographic dividend for manufacturing enterprises in our country has gradually disappeared. Upgrading traditional industries through modernized and automated equipment to replace the \"demographic dividend\" with a \"technological dividend\" has become an inevitable choice for these enterprises aiming for optimization and upgrading. 　　To accelerate industrial development and improve the production efficiency and quality of enterprises, an increasing number of provinces are adopting an innovation-driven development strategy, actively encouraging businesses to implement plans to replace human labor with machines and to promote technological upgrades and innovation within these enterprises. For example, in provinces such as Jiangsu and Guangdong where the manufacturing industry is well-developed, **the relevant departments are providing subsidies to enterprises for replacing workers with machines, to help them purchase automated equipment including robots, thereby promoting the intelligent upgrading of traditional manufacturing industries. 　　In the instrumentation industry, some manufacturers of instrumentation devices have also joined the trend of replacing human labor with machines in order to improve their manufacturing capabilities and competitiveness, thereby promoting the development of automation. For example, in 2016, Winsun Group put its human-robot collaboration system into use; by combining the latest seven-axis robots with human labor, it managed to increase production efficiency by 45%, reduce labor costs by 50%, and raise the product qualification rate by 40%. 　　Furthermore, some manufacturing companies no longer view the use of machines to replace workers merely as a way to address labor shortages; instead, they aim to leverage such machine replacement, along with the associated automation, digitalization, and intelligence technologies, to further improve production efficiency and product quality, thereby enhancing their competitiveness in the market. 　　Moving away from labor-intensive models toward intelligent manufacturing, the replacement of workers with machines in the manufacturing sector has become an irreversible trend. It is foreseeable that in the near future, factory production will look like this: all processes will be carried out by robots controlled by computers, CNC machining equipment, unmanned transport vehicles, and automated warehouse systems, while technicians will sit comfortably at their computers, monitoring the production information in the workshop in real time through a central control system. 　　However, as manufacturing companies accelerate the replacement of workers with machines and the expansion of \"human-free factories,\" this means that many workers’ jobs will be taken over by robots. This raises concerns: will factories still need workers in the future? Will many workers lose their jobs? 　　A report from the World Economic Forum states that around 50% of companies expect automation to lead to a reduction in their full-time workforce by 2022, nearly 40% expect to expand their workforce, and over a quarter expect automation to create new jobs within the companies. 　　“While \"replacing humans with machines\" brings benefits to enterprises and positive effects on industrial transformation and upgrading, it also poses new challenges to the labor market in the field of technical skills. According to the \"2017 Report on the Development of China’s Robot Industry\" released by the Chinese Institute of Electronics, China has been the world’s largest market for industrial robots for five consecutive years. However, many manufacturing companies are facing difficulties when recruiting frontline robot operators. 　　When the manufacturing process no longer requires human intervention, it still needs manual adjustment of the production line, manual programming of the robots, and regular maintenance of the robotic equipment. Throughout the entire production process, workers are not present at the manufacturing stage; instead, they are involved in monitoring to ensure the smooth operation of the whole production process. 　　Therefore, in the process of replacing humans with machines, what happens is a reduction in the number of workers for repetitive tasks, while there is an increase in the number of skilled workers with specialized knowledge, who are needed to program and maintain the robots. Currently, many manufacturing companies complain of a shortage of workers; in fact, what they lack most are technical personnel. Skilled workers such as robot technicians and robot engineers are especially hard to find. 　　“\"Replacing humans with machines\" has created new job positions, and those working on the front line need to consider how to keep learning in order to adapt to the needs of societal development, transforming from traditional blue-collar workers into \"gray-collar\" workers who operate robots. Otherwise, it’s truly possible to end up with no work to do. 　　Faced with the impending wave of machines replacing humans, Feng, a frontline worker at a factory in the south, resolved to transform himself in order not to be eliminated by this change in the manufacturing industry, and to become the master of robots. After receiving robot training, Feng was able to change his job; his basic salary increased from over 2,000 yuan to over 4,000 yuan. He successfully transformed from a traditional blue-collar worker into a \"gray-collar\" worker who operates robots, thus finding a direction for his future career development. 　　Therefore, for front-line workers in the instrumentation industry, \"replacing humans with machines\" represents an opportunity to rediscover and understand themselves. Frontline instrument professionals need to be clear about the shift in their roles and enhance their skills. 　　For example, through in-house corporate training or professional certification programs offered by training institutions, one can learn skills such as robot operation, robot maintenance, and robot programming, thereby equipping themselves with new abilities to move from front-line roles to behind-the-scenes positions, and transforming from workers into engineers. Only in this way can one avoid being eliminated in the wave of replacing humans with machines, and can one obtain more high-paying and high-quality job opportunities.