Let It Have the Swab

I spent years putting new tech on the floor. The operators kept telling me it was coming for their jobs. Umm, No.

I literally have had this exact conversation on a pilot line more than once. We were trialing a swab robot and the operator figured he was being replaced. I told him straight, ‘you think you're better than that robot? Because I do. That's why I don't want you swabbing.’

Every fifteen minutes you stop to swab, you break your train of thought. Right when you're actually operating the machine, doing your checks, working out defects. The swab yanks you out of it.

The job is operator, not swabber.

The tech coming to the floor isn't here to take that from you. Used right, it makes you better. You make a change and you watch the glass respond. The machine drifts on its own and you see exactly where and when. Stuff you used to only feel, now you can see it.

That's not a robot doing your job. That's a robot handing you back the time and the tools to get great at it.

Let it have the swab.

When I trained apprentices, I did a lot of the grunt work myself. Let the young guy run the machine. Because if he's stopping every fifteen minutes to swab while I do the real work, he's not learning a thing.

The robot's just doing what I used to do. Freeing up the operator to become one.

Originally posted on LinkedIn. Join the conversation there.