It’s 2028 and your small building business has just invested in five humanoid robots. The rent to own option is much less than the cost of a human employee. These robots arrive, out of the box, as mid level builders. Effectively, just like a human employee, you have the option of hiring a junior, middle or senior level of experience, all with the associated level of ongoing cost.
Operational productivity has accelerated despite the challenges. Our senior builders need to have more technology skills in order to deploy instructions, utalising both robots and human labour effectively to complete projects. I do seriously consider whether to bother hiring a human apprentice now. It’s much easier to simply rent a robot than it is to train someone from scratch.
When humans and robots work side by side they have different needs. Humans need communication and a bit of a laugh as they work. This keeps them motivated and productive. Who they are working with is important. Robots on the other hand don’t need to communicate or have breaks etc but they do need to be mindful of the humans around them. Importantly, they need to stay charged and they do need to be monitored. Like any technology it sometimes goes wrong. On a building site this can be a serious problem with serious consequences. Thats why the on site supervisor is key.
When we first opted in to the hybrid, human, robot business model, we thought this would give us an edge. It has affected our cost of production. Lowering it in many cases due to new efficiencies. This lower cost of production has helped us win and complete projects in this segment of the market. Many customers are attracted to these cost efficiencies, while others are put off by robots working on their projects. There is still some resistance to the technology.
Some of our competitors have stayed traditional and resisted the robot option. They want to stay loyal to their human staff and traditional customer base. In these cases, some can carve out a niche, yet it seems over time, that they will be out priced by this innovation.
It’s become slightly more difficult to stand out in the market place since the robots arrived. Effectively, most companies are using the same gear. Which means a good portion of their business has exactly the same skills and capability to their competitor, on a per robot basis.
When you think about it, the robotics company is now in the building business. Each business that has utilised a robot is paying that company for the service. Now small to large percentages of these business operations are outsourced to these technology companies. Every hour on the ground, these robots are in training, learning and collectively sharing knowledge and know how.
Where does this all lead us? Perhaps one day, society wont need the small enterprise at all. A customer could simply call up the robot corporation and make a request. They could turn up and do the work. Eventually, I don’t see why they wouldn’t do that.
