Difficult problems

Citation

Loughlin, C. (2010), "Difficult problems", Assembly Automation, Vol. 30 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.2010.03330aaa.001

Difficult problems

Article Type: Editorial From: Assembly Automation, Volume 30, Issue 1

Our theme for this issue is “European Assembly Strategies” and I am delighted to have Professor Mauro Onori (KTH Sweden) as our Guest Specialist and Co-author of our feature paper “Outlook report on the future of European assembly automation”.

Reading these insightful contributions reminds me of the observation that while NASA spent millions designing a pen that could write in a weightless environment under extremes of heat and cold, the Russians used pencils.

Technology is great fun and it is easy to let this, and the fact that we have a tendency to assume that difficult problems need difficult solutions, cloud our judgement and influence our research activities.

Assembly Automation is an international journal with subscribers and contributors from all over the world – so what are we doing having a theme “European Assembly Strategies”?

My answer to this is that we do live in a global economy and this means that we have an urgent need to develop manufacturing strategies that satisfy the needs of the world as a whole. A perceived success in one region should not be at the expense of another.

For many people “global” means “getting goods manufactured in low wage economies”. In my view, this strategy is fundamentally flawed. At best it is short term, at worst it could lead to political unrest and irreparable damage to our environment.

Anyone who considers that the current distribution of wealth and prosperity with the West having some deistic right to high standards of living has a very short memory. Just 3,000 years ago all the power resided with the Egyptians and Chinese. About 2,000 years ago Rome was centre stage, and 1,000 years ago Europe and Mongolia were where it was all happening, and just 500 years ago America was “discovered” by Spain – no doubt to the great surprise of the Native North Americans at the time. The last few hundred years or so have seen a speeding up of the shift of power as each area waxes and wanes in political and economic dominance.

Hopefully, by the time this issue is published those who attended the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009 will have decided that countries need to put aside national considerations, and that we all need to work towards a sustainable future for the planet as a whole.

There is something rather hypocritical about the West's current concerns for both the economic growth of China and the environmental damage that may result. The first “dark satanic mills” were in Yorkshire, not Shanghai, and we can hardly complain about “unfair” competition at the same time that we demand low prices.

As Mauro Onori says “we need change” and it is our responsibility to make sure that this change is for the benefit of all regions of the world and not some temporary shift in perceived economic strength.

Our greatest resource is the intelligence and skill of our people – if we use this wisely then I am confident that we can overcome the difficulties that we are currently facing and progress towards a better and more sustainable future.

Difficult problems do not necessarily need difficult solutions.

Clive Loughlin