Let's be clear, here. Cleaning crews are one niche that has not (yet) gone away, but has in fact expanded, as other jobs have been taken over by the machines. But once the machines take over cleaning themselves, those crews will have no work to do. Once more, hi-tech helps itself, while lo-tech suffers.
Do I think the solution is to degrade hi-tech? Not so. But carrying on our current know-nothing approach to social change means these advances are KILLING US. Unemployment can ONLY grow, under such stresses. We need to rethink work itself, and if there ARE fewer needed hours of "real people employment" on the way, then we need to surmount that challenge -- or create deep, deep dissatisfaction in most quarters of the society.
I'm talking REVOLUTION-qualify dissatisfaction. Guns. Knives. Pitchforks and Torches. Fire and Barricades. If business is serious about maintaining order, which is NECESSARY for its own longevity, they will take this issue seriously.
Here at Decoding Design we cover some really great ideas, products and solutions for businesses and consumers alike. Sometimes they’re inspiring. Sometimes they make me wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Every once in a while we come upon something that elegantly solves a real and vexing business problem in a way that makes me think, “I never would have thought of that.”
Bottlers, processed food manufacturers and dairies are among the many types of companies that rely on large, complex automation systems to process or package their products. Here’s the business challenge: Health codes require that this automation equipment be clean and free of dirt and dust. Most companies ensure this by employing crews of people to manually clean the equipment, a process that is time-consuming, costly and potentially dangerous to those who must climb ladders and reach into the equipment. Here’s the solution: The ZipClean robot.
Created at Design Concepts, an industrial design firm and consultancy based in Madison, Wisconsin, and commissioned by Diversey, a company that sells cleaning solutions to various industries, the ZipClean is a device that cleans airveyors in beverage bottling plants. You’ve seen airveyors if you’ve seen a bottling plant in action; they’re aerial conveyor lines that whisk bottles through various bottling processes in a factory. The ZipClean fits into the airveyor line and moves along, up and and down the line to its terminus. A cleaning pad, treated with an alcohol-based surfactant, sweeps up dirt and dust all the while. And the end of the line, the pad automatically folds up, trapping the debris it has collected, and returns to the starting point.
So who cares? Bottlers care. The ZipClean robot takes 10-20 minutes to clean an airveyor, compared to the 10 hours or so a crew of cleaners would require. Also, a clean airveyor is less likely to jam or need lubricant, which could reduce maintenance costs by $12,000 per year.
Via: Core 77
Image: Diversey/Design Concepts
