Staff and middle management presently perform an information function. With integrated corporate data bases, much of this work can be done by assistants reporting directly to the top management group. Chrysler already has laid off numerous white collar workers. The move to electronics instead of paper in the corporation and the ability to analyze data through programs means that corporations can be more profitable with fewer white collar workers. In order to discuss how fast workers will be displaced from manufacturing over the long run, we need to consider the automation frontier.
Automation proceeds from the structured to the unstructured environment.
It is a major advance to get machines to deal with contingencies, for example, what the robot does if it drops a part. A programing approach must consider every possible contingency. In trying to program robots to do even simple tasks like moving blocks, the number of contingencies is large. Genuine progress will be slow. One of the ways is to redesign the production process in a streamlined fashion with fewer random elements.