JohnBike wrote:Most of the construction and fabrication is controlled digitally, so there is virtually no instance where someone is looking over a drawing to figure out what to do next.
As someone who has taken tours of 3 auto plants in Japan (Nissan Oppama, Toyota Tsutsumi and Mazda in Hiroshima) + Ford Rouge and NUMMI (now owned by Tesla after GM then Toyota pulled out), there actually is a surprising amount of manual work after painting and welding by robots, most of it being in the final assembly area. The amount of automation varies by automaker. I've seen in some documentaries Hyundai using robots (e.g. to install entire dashboard assembles) that others would have humans do.
To get a flavor, see below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC7Fse51JBMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El5vpA8wdAshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH-QJLewLnkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyaRCo-PrKw yet at around 2:27 and 2:31 shows robots installing the dashboard and seats. Most other automakers I've seen use humans for this, w/the assistance of mechanical arms.
The below mentions Toyota adding more humans and reducing the # of robots.
http://www.autoblog.com/2014/04/12/toyo ... th-humans/http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/0 ... factories/