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Topic: Automation?

Tommy_Paine
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 214

posted 28 September 2004 09:01 AM

I was at Terminal 1 at Pearson International yesterday. I had an adventure of sorts in the parking garage. It's automated, but because some genius ( I suspect a civil engineer who graduated from the E.C. Escher School of Engineering ) converted the parking lot to long term/short term parking. Perhaps a tribute to Dedalus?

But it wasn't bad, because there were lots and lots of attendants to help you deal with the automated payment system, both entering and leaving the building.

Lots and lots of people.

It struck me, when I got home last night, that since the company is PAYING ALL THESE PEOPLE ANYWAY, why not rip out the automation and put them in booths at the exists like in the olden days?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. When it comes to technology, most people should just focus on thinking inside the box.

From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001 | IP: Logged

Cougyr
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3336

posted 28 September 2004 01:58 PM

Tommy_Paine, I agree with you. Business types get sucked into gadgetry. It's the company which makes the gadgets that gets the bucks. Companies get computers and pay people to get the computer to make massive reports which nobody reads. Stores get cash registers that have 65 buttons which takes months to learn how to use, but at minimum wage, nobody does and it takes longer to check out than if they just had a wooden till. And then there's voice-mail, a good idea for a special few to use within an organization, but absolute hell for uninitiated outsiders. We will probably never know how much business has been lost due to voice-mail. Certainly, big companies have to pay for a battalion of customer satisfaction types to try and smooth ruffled feathers. It would be simpler to just answer the phone.

From: over the mountain | Registered: Nov 2002 | IP: Logged

A Nonny Moose
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7023

posted 06 October 2004 11:13 PM

As a retired geek god, I can only chuckle at the vicissitudes of the various attempts to automate anything.

The best current example is that the City of Toronto is replacing umpteen computers purchased during the MFP fiasco and acquiring a new set of bugs in boxes from someone else. All the present machines need is a small upgrade, but the machines are tainted, and have to go.

I sympathize with the citizens of Toronto, who will eventually have to pay for this bit of bureaucratic insanity, and for the workers who will have to learn yet another new "system".

The reasons that companies like the former MFP stay in business is ignorance and fright. The management is ignorant of what automation should do for them and frightened not to keep up the the mythical Joneses. Of course they are not the ones who are paying.

From: Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Oct 2004 | IP: Logged

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