High automation results in the higher capacity intensity. Higher capacity intensity raises fixed costs, and increases break-even volumes. To be profitable, high utilization of capacity in a product focused facility is important. To maintain high utilization in a product-focused facility, plans and schedules are laid out carefully to avoid uncertainty and unpredictability in production. Most of the planning and decision making is centralized to ensure that the plans yield high utilization.
Centralization requires a larger staff.
Your team has been charged with the responsibility of pricing new widget cleaning service offered by Widgets R Us. Because you are not sure which objective your company wants to achieve, you go back to the CEO and describe each objective to her. You then ask, which objective your company wants to achieve. We want to stay in business, so we obviously want to survive. I really wish people would think about these things before wasting my time with silly questions.