During the past month, I interviewed several engineers for an article on automatic screwdriving. Along the way, I learned a bit of wisdom that is applicable no matter what process you might want to automate.

There’s an old joke that the factory of the future will be so automated that it will have just two employees: a guard dog and someone to feed it. Fortunately or not, such a scenario remains the purview of science fiction. Indeed, despite advances in robotics and automation, people remain the most flexible assembly technology.