Automated Production- pros and cons

Consider the position of a factory manager faced with the problem of producing a product to be sold in competition with others. He/She is hard-pressed to keep the cost of production down. The cost of labor has been steadily increasing over the last few years, and is now the major expense. Added to this, his/her competitor has computerized some aspects of their production, and is now offering a wider and better range of products than he/she can. What can be done in this situation ?

If the business continues to operate without change, sooner or later it will shut down. Employees will become unemployed. The manager then pursue choices. He/she can increase production and cut costs. Laying off some employees would cut cost but, most likely, production would fall.

The most modern choice available in this era is computerization.

For example if the business is car assembly, automating the production line would make the assembly more precise and production would rise. The robots can work three shifts without complaint; they may break down from time to time, but the never take sick leave.

Clearly, from my point of view, this is the way to go. But what happens to the employees ?
Many of them would have to be laid off. They have been spared having to do boring, dirty work but what do they prefer ? Boring, dirty work or no work at all ?

In the mining and chemical fields, a lot of the work is potentially hazardous. Robots can and do perform these dangerous jobs. But is this desirable to the employee who has been put out of work ? Is there a choice ? Perhaps there is, but it seems we must choose the lesser of the two calamity: do not automate and everyone loses their jobs, or automate and only some become unemployed.

References: An Introduction to Computer Studies by Noel Kalicharan
page 351.