Question

In 1908 Jenry Ford produced the first affordable automobile using his assembly line method. At the time, the assembly line was a new and emerging technology and is now the essential element of most manufacturing processes. You probably can easily identify the benefits achieved by the assembly line. However, there were some ethical consequences to its development and implementation. Discuss what you believe to be ethical consequences of the assembly line. Do those consequences still apply in today's manufacturing environment with the use of robots? what should manufacturers do to alleviate these consequences?

Answer 1

Some of the ethical consequences of assembly line were as follows. These drawbacks were mainly the consequences to the factory workers.
1. The pay was very high, but the hours were long and work became a chore.
2. The employees had to perform the same mindless job over and over and over again throughout the entire day and even throughout their work life.
3. This made workers unsuitable for any other job.
4. In addition, work on the assembly line was often dangerous and many suffered injuries.

As today, the workers have been replaced by the robots, the issue of unemployment goes up but all other points become irrelevant.

To eliminate these consequences, manufacturers can do following things:
1. Maintain the balance between robots and worker to reduce unemployment.
2. Workers should be shuffled in between jobs so that they have experience in many fields.

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