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Research Proposal
The role of automation in the reduction of manufacturing jobs
Group Midterm Project
IET 698
March 7, 2006
Melanie Edwards
Terry Fraley
Greg Jenkins
Priya Shekar
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Table of Contents
Chapter I – General Area of Concern
o Introduction
o Statement of the Problem
o Assumptions
o Limitations
o Definitions of Terms
Chapter II – Review of Literature
o Background
o Historical Review
Chapter III – Methodology
o Research Design and Data Collection
o Population of the Study
o Research Methods
References
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Chapter I – General Area of Concern
Introduction:
Manufacturing has long been a mainstay in the American economy. Jobs in
factories for larger corporations have often been lifelong jobs for past generations. This
trend is coming to an end with the onset of globalization and improvements of American
efficiency.
Past years have shown that American manufacturing facilities have been stable
sources of employment, as long as the facility was able to produce products people
wanted to buy and maintained a high profit margin to allow the company to grow;
thereby creating more jobs by expanding or hiring more people to build more products.
The ability of a facility to create a stable environment allowed for a company to create
manufacturing processes that could employ a higher numbers of workers, because profit
was g ...