[Seahawk]

I prefer robots to soul. Manufacturing houses move to automation whenever possible because machines have predictable behaviors and more importantly, failure modes: They don't come to work hungover, angry or tired and they aren't unionized.

You can plan a Six Sigma around machines. I found the video excellent in that it showed the accuracy of the jigs, the placement of welds and other applicants. Also interesting was the human quality control points.

I have worked in a number of aviation production environments and the "hands on" nature of helicopter manufacturing drove huge inefficiencies: I spent a lot of time and effort on Kaizan Events at the Sikorsky Factory in CT. (a very labor intensive factory due to the nature of helicopter airframe production) and without question the largest cost variable was human inefficiency.

We looked hard at automating as much of the airframe production as possible (dynamic component manufacture was becoming more automated) but there was little advantage to automation with riveting complex structures.

One of the guys I went through flight school with and lived with during our first squadron tour in San Diego got out early and became a production expert with Toyota. He retired from Toyota and has his own consulting firm.

The nature of manufacturing at scale is to drive out inefficiencies, establish repeatable processes and tolerances and automate as much as possible. Toyota opened a plant in Mexico (my friend did the "green field") because the level of automation is so great the skill level requirements (and wages) of most workers is low.

It is simply the way of the world. Cars are so much better today (reliability, performance, efficiency) than even 10 years ago because of manufacturing process improvements: My cherished 1971 2002Tii is a rock with wheels compared to the baseline econobox of every manufacturer on the planet today. It is laughable.

Soulful? Yes.