HBR's 10 Must Reads on AI (with bonus article "How to Win with Machine Learning" by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb)

A Smarter Strategy for Using Robots

by Ben Armstrong and Julie Shah

IN 1982, GENERAL MOTORS ANNOUNCED it was building a “factory of the future.” The Saginaw, Michigan, facility would automate production, revitalizing GM’s business at a time of intense competition from Japanese automakers Toyota and Nissan. GM had posted a loss of $763 million two years earlier—only the second losing year in its 72-year history. When CEO Roger Smith returned from visiting a Toyota factory, he resolved that GM must automate to compete.

The Saginaw project envisioned an army of 4,000 robots running production. The goal was to increase productivity and flexibility. The robots would slash up to two years from GM’s five-year production cycle and be capable of switching ...