At a factory south of Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, robots have started sharing the work of quality-control inspectors, as the coronavirus pandemic accelerates a shift from Toyota's vaunted "go and see" system which helped revolutionize mass production in the 20th century. Inside the auto-parts plant of Musashi Seimitsu Industry Co. Ltd., a robotic arm picks up and spins a bevel gear, scanning its teeth against a light in search of surface flaws. The inspection takes about two seconds -- similar to that of highly trained employees who check around 1,000 units per shift. "Inspecting 1,000 of the exact same thing day-in day-out requires a lot of skill and expertise, but it's not very creative," Chief Executive Hiroshi Otsuka said. "We'd like to release workers from those tasks."

At a factory south of Japan's Toyota City, robots have started sharing the work of quality-control inspectors as the pandemic accelerates a shift from Toyota's vaunted "go-and-see" system, which helped revolutionize mass production in the 20th century. Inside the auto parts plant of Musashi Seimitsu, a robotic arm picks up and spins a bevel gear, scanning its teeth against a light in search of surface flaws. The inspection takes about two seconds -- similar to that of highly trained employees who check around 1,000 units per shift. "Inspecting 1,000 of the exact same thing day in day out requires a lot of skill and expertise, but it's not very creative," CEO Hiroshi Otsuka told Reuters. "We'd like to release workers from those tasks."

The world's first'employment agency' offering AI controlled robots to undertake'strenuous work normally endured by humans' has launched in Israel. MusashiAI, a joint venture between SixAI of Israel and Musashi Seimitsu of Japan has a completely autonomous forklift and a visual inspection robot on its books. The company says its fully autonomous robots will be able to integrate seamlessly with human workers in a modern factory environment. They say their model allows factories to hire robot labour by the hour or pay a task-completed rate, rather than buy expensive robot equipment outright. The world's first'employment agency' offering AI controlled robots to factories to undertake'strenuous work normally endured by humans' has launched in Israel.