With the right manufacturing software in place, working across different sectors and maintaining high standards should be simple, no matter what your business' workforce and equipment looks like. Northeast Indiana Public Radio recently profiled one particular approach to production that carries possible overtones for the future of the industry: the integration of human laborers with robots in manufacturing plants.

The article cited information recently published in the MIT Technology Review that looks at a newer school of thought surrounding the robotic arms seen in plants, which have become so advanced that humans can work alongside them efficiently without fear of danger. Putting them to use in tandem with each other, as the report notes one BMW plant in South Carolina does, could be a way to take advantage of the strengths of both in order to see more worthwhile results.

In the report, MIT professor Julie Shah discussed why these technological replacements are best seen as augmenting the traditional workforce as opposed to replacing them.

"Oftentimes, the robot will need to maneuver closely around people," she said. "It'll need to possibly straddle the moving floor—the actual assembly line; it'll need to track a person that is potentially standing on that assembly line and moving with it."

Though the arrival of such devices could change the way an older plant is run, it might also lead to faster production times and a general increase in productivity. To account for any such changes, your company can use the planning capabilities of Microsoft business software to help track how much of an increase in resources robotics could require and what the outcome could be.