MIT’s Julie Shah was named one of MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2014. In an interview with Will Knight, Shah discusses the possibility of collaboration between human robots:
“In factories there are usually physical barriers between people and robots. Originally, this was for safety—industrial robots were unwieldy and unyielding. Although robots are increasingly designed to safely share human work spaces, even in these settings, people do one set of jobs and robots do another.
Imagine if robots could be truly collaborative partners, able to anticipate and adapt to the needs of their human teammates. Such robots could greatly extend productivity. That possibility is really exciting to me.”
Shah is working companies including BMW, Boeing, and Embraer to develop robots that can interact intelligently with human co-workers.
“If you can develop a robot that’s capable of integrating into the human part of the factory-if it just has a little bit of decision-making ability, a little bit of flexibility- that opens up a new type of manufacturing process more generally.”
Research conducted by Shah has found that teams made up of humans and robots collaborating efficiently can be more productive than teams made of either humans or robots alone. Shah’s experiments have shown that the collaborative process reduced human idle time by 85%. Additionally, Shah found that workers seem to be comfortable with the idea of robotic coworkers.
Are you ready for a robot to join your team? What are your thoughts on teams made up of humans and robots?
MIT’s Julie Shah was named one of MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2014. In an interview with Will Knight, Shah discusses the possibility of collaboration between human robots:
“In factories there are usually physical barriers between people and robots. Originally, this was for safety—industrial robots were unwieldy and unyielding. Although robots are increasingly designed to safely share human work spaces, even in these settings, people do one set of jobs and robots do another.
Imagine if robots could be truly collaborative partners, able to anticipate and adapt to the needs of their human teammates. Such robots could greatly extend productivity. That possibility is really exciting to me.”
Shah is working companies including BMW, Boeing, and Embraer to develop robots that can interact intelligently with human co-workers.
“If you can develop a robot that’s capable of integrating into the human part of the factory-if it just has a little bit of decision-making ability, a little bit of flexibility- that opens up a new type of manufacturing process more generally.”
Research conducted by Shah has found that teams made up of humans and robots collaborating efficiently can be more productive than teams made of either humans or robots alone. Shah’s experiments have shown that the collaborative process reduced human idle time by 85%. Additionally, Shah found that workers seem to be comfortable with the idea of robotic coworkers.
Are you ready for a robot to join your team? What are your thoughts on teams made up of humans and robots?
This post was originally published on DC Velocity.
Social technologies offer business enormous potential – potential to unlock value and to increase productivity. How enormous is this potential? The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) looked at four sectors (consumer packaged goods, consumer financial services, professional services, and advanced manufacturing) in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and France and found that social technologies could unlock between $900 billion and $1.3 trillion across these sectors on an annual basis. With respect to productivity, MGI found that social technologies have the potential of raising the productivity of high-skill knowledge workers by 20 to 25 percent.
What are social technologies? Gartner, Inc. defines social technologies as: “Any technology that facilities social interaction and is enabled by a communications capability, such as the Internet or a mobile device.” Examples of social technologies are: blogs, social media (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter), social business software (e.g., Jive, Moxie), and supply chain operating networks (e.g., GT Nexus, E2Open, One Network).
Social technologies are powerful tools because they improve communication and collaboration. MGI estimates that a shift from channels designed for one-to-one communication (e.g., phone, email) to social channels could reduce the time an employee spends on email by 25 percent per week and the amount an employee spends searching for content and expertise by 35 percent per week.
Don’t get discouraged by this. James Manyika, Michael Chui, and Hugo Sarrazin (all from McKinsey) note that establishing a culture that supports social technologies is worth it:
It may take years to establish the conditions of openness and to build trust across the organization, but the companies that accomplish this transformation will not only reap the greatest benefits from social technologies, they will also find that they are faster on their feet, more adaptable, and much more capable of absorbing — and acting on — new ideas. Not a bad investment.
This post was originally published on DC Velocity.
Social technologies offer business enormous potential – potential to unlock value and to increase productivity. How enormous is this potential? The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) looked at four sectors (consumer packaged goods, consumer financial services, professional services, and advanced manufacturing) in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and France and found that social technologies could unlock between $900 billion and $1.3 trillion across these sectors on an annual basis. With respect to productivity, MGI found that social technologies have the potential of raising the productivity of high-skill knowledge workers by 20 to 25 percent.
What are social technologies? Gartner, Inc. defines social technologies as: “Any technology that facilities social interaction and is enabled by a communications capability, such as the Internet or a mobile device.” Examples of social technologies are: blogs, social media (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter), social business software (e.g., Jive, Moxie), and supply chain operating networks (e.g., GT Nexus, E2Open, One Network).
Social technologies are powerful tools because they improve communication and collaboration. MGI estimates that a shift from channels designed for one-to-one communication (e.g., phone, email) to social channels could reduce the time an employee spends on email by 25 percent per week and the amount an employee spends searching for content and expertise by 35 percent per week.
Don’t get discouraged by this. James Manyika, Michael Chui, and Hugo Sarrazin (all from McKinsey) note that establishing a culture that supports social technologies is worth it:
It may take years to establish the conditions of openness and to build trust across the organization, but the companies that accomplish this transformation will not only reap the greatest benefits from social technologies, they will also find that they are faster on their feet, more adaptable, and much more capable of absorbing — and acting on — new ideas. Not a bad investment.
