Hi everyone, i need help can anyone please grade my AWA Argument Essay?

[mohitsmore]

The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper:

 

The factory of the future will be very different. Cleverer design software greatly speeds up product development. The same software can be used to program automated machine tools and more dexterous robots. New materials, like carbon fibre and nanoparticles, result in entirely new production processes. And additive manufacturing, popularly known as 3D printing, promises to demolish economies of scale. With labour costs becoming a less important factor in modern manufacturing, where will factories go? Some manufacturers have already relocated Asian production back to America and Europe, in part to be closer to their markets and to respond more rapidly to demand. Will this become a significant trend?

 

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.

 

 

The author is concerned about the manufacturing industry in general. Automation, discovery of new materials as well as new manufacturing techniques alongside labor costs & relocation of factories to their home country provides a strong evidence for the authors concern. However the assumptions made by the author still need to be addressed before a conclusion is reached.

Firstly the author assumes that the ''discovery of new materials'' would lead to new manufacturing techniques being developed. Carbon fibre & nanoparticles are the new materials in question. Both materials have important properties which can make the materials currently in use obsolete. A perfect example for this would be the application of carbon fibre in manufacturing of aircrafts. Consider the B747 it has its main components made from aluminium, whereas 53 % of the main componenets of A350 are made from carbon fibre making the aircraft lighter & consuming less fuel. This brings us to the next assumption being ""discovery of new techniques", namely Additive Manufacturing or 3D Printing. 3D Printing is the future of manufacturing industry because it reduces the time required for manufacture of a product. Consider the example of a Coffee Mug manufacturing unit, wherein the time required to manufacture a mug by conventional methods takes 3 days whereas my 3D printing it takes less than a day (almost 12 hours), this not only is a time saver but also the waste produced compared to the conventional method is far less. From the above assumptions we can conclude that discover of new materials & new techniques is essential for the future.

Furthermore the author assumes that "Automation" is the future replacing manual labor in factories. Automation is clearly the future of manufacturing industry, a strong disapproval to this assumption can be stated by the fact that making a factory fully automated is expensive. Which cannot be implemented in under developed / developing countries, where most manufacturing units for companies are based. This highlights the other assumption of "Labor cost" as well.

It is widely known that in developing / under-developed countries labor is quite cheap. It is universally known that for any company profit is a top priority. This is probably the reason why Apple Inc has a manufacturing facility in China, utilizing the cheap manual labor. If the same plant would be in USA, the labor would be quite expensive given the high cost of living in the US. But what if Apple Inc automated its manufacturing facility and base that in US? Wouldn't it be viable?

Although it could cost Apple to automate the process, it would benefit the company a lot. Less tax on Apple products (a win-win situation for customers) &High profits (since process is automated and requires less labor) are some of the highlights of such a move. This also explains the last assumption of relocation of factories my companies to their home country.

Although Automation & manual labor are two sides of the same coin, one assists companies to achieve profits, whereas the other reduces the same. Moving of factories to one's home country is a wise move, as it means low taxes for the company & increase in employment oppurtunities for the local population.

The author has presented a nice idea. Although the author makes a good point we don't have enough evidence to conclude that this is the best way to as all the assumptions made by the author has their own pros & cons.