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> economically hard to justify switching tasks.

I vaguely remember some factories would not let workers change jobs once they got good at them, to their detriment (with carpal tunnel and other RSIs)

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That is less so now that factories are more automated. The factory I used to work at (not in, but same building) bragged that within 3 months everyone had done every station once. While a little productivity is lost because of experience, the boredom factor means less people quit and so overall they do better

I suspect having that cross training is also desirable that there will always be someone who can run machine X and that everyone becomes disposable.

People are not disposable because they need to be trained. Sure we have books, but everytime you need to look up order in the book a minute is lost compared to someone who knows.

The wrenches don't allow doing steps in the wrong order or wrong torque, but that only gets so far

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