"Why Doesn't the Empire use Droids in its Factories?" A character said it best in the episode: "They're cheaper and easier to replace." What I find extremely odd is that the empire is known to be heavily anti-alien yet the entire prison complex is filled with humans.

And the ratio is actually higher than 57:1 because look at all the unused boots on the wall. They are actually understaffed, and this shows in the frustration and panic of the guards in episode 8 when Andor arrives. They know they are screwed if something bad goes down and why someone panicked and fried a whole floor of men.

As a manufacturing engineer I’m glad you went into detail about the machines and the fact that technicians will still be needed even if the factory was automated

I think Palps just got off knowing people, guilty or innocent but probably more innocent are being worked to death for his dark plans. Now I see where the Death in Deathstar came from

I love how the Andor prison episodes have resulted in more internet discussion than all of the previous episodes combined.

When you Look at the deployment of military as police force in the empire, it immediately made me think of battlestar galactica and Admiral Adama: "There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state. The other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people."

Empire when seeing the people as cheap labor force: "It's free real estate."

Another important angle is the need for secrecy, assuming they are building parts for the Death Star, or something with a similar need for anonymity. By repurposing the inmates as laborers, as long as no one gets out to tell people the real story, the Empire can simply point to these facilities as “prisons” and nothing else. If they use droids, then the facility is only a factory, thus losing the cover provided by the prison facade in the event that anyone discovers the existence of the facility.

Using Kino's wording of " *Never more* than 12" tells me the odds might be even worse for the guards. Considering how much they panicked when only one or two people were late for duty, it also tells how much the Empire doesn't care for the staff, the design is what keeps the prison machine alive and the humans are the weakest link and are not given much thought. If the prisoners rebelled with only one pair of boots taken from a guard they could turn the tide instantaneously, just a matter of time.,

I really enjoy your approach of offering an in-depth explanation of something from the latest episode instead of just an episode recap/review. Your content really adds to the show; it helps me to understand (and thus appreciate) the episode on a higher level. I’m relatively new to SW so all this background is extremely valuable, but even though it’s accessible to someone like me, I still feel it would be equally valuable even to more established SW fans. Thanks for providing such high quality content!

Prisons already exist for criminals. The first step is to turn the existing prisons into labor camps. That sets up the culture that labor camps are the way to go. Building prisons is also a great way to prop up the Imperial economy. Droids don't deal with the homeless problem or rebellion; Prison labor is a solution to both for the Empire.

The point isn't whether using robots or prisoners is cheaper, the point is the Empire *wants to imprison tons of people* Having the prisoners do factory work is just a way to defray the costs

It's fifty prisoners per room. Don't forget to count the supervisor. This also makes adding up the total prisoners a lot easier - x 2 shifts = 100 prisoners per room. Now just multiply by 49 for the full facility. 4900 prisoners per facility.

Alan always has excellent points. I don't know why this channel doesn't have more views.

As prisoners, the empire has total leverage over them. If you have absolute power of death and or extreme pain over someone, you could get them to do anything ultimately. It's better even for the prisoners if they are kept physically and mentally busy each day rather than atrophy.

There's also the fact that Emperor Palpatine is Darth Sideous - a Sith Lord whose Dark Side power feeds directly from suffering. Droids don't suffer ... well, not with midiclorians or whatever they don't.

That also explains why any Imperial Ships in the Fleet such as the Imperial-class Star Destroyer holds 37,000 crew capacity, since they only rely on Human Crew over Automation unlike MC80 Star Cruiser that holds 5,000 crew.

One of the books I read (I forget which and it’s probably not cannon) stated that the Empire wanted people dependent on their version of the military industrial complex to keep them loyal. That’s one of the reasons why Imperial vessels are so heavily crewed and why everything is disposable or rapidly (relatively) obsolete.

I believe now, more than ever, that Palpatine doesn't want order in the Galaxy, rather he wants all the little ants in the galaxy running around crazy, in fear under the auspices of order. He just wants to cause as much suffering and pain in the universe as possible from his throne.

Working in the Industrial Automation space, we are in the Industry 4.0 era. It’s heading in the direction more automation but human element will always be involved . Very complex topic. Great job covering the pros and cons.

1. Droids, no matter how sophisticated, still need some level of human supervision. 2. Prisoners require no investment to create, only to capture. 3. Population control. 4. Training and hardening of Imperial a-holes.

Thanks for casting light on this - I was indeed curious why Cassian would say human prisoners are cheaper than droids. And I love how you bring in context from so many different sources to help explain why things work as they work in Andor (which, for a fictional universe and story, is incredibly realistic). Your videos really aid our appreciation of the story too. I'm looking forward to more!

I work in the semiconductor industry. Great video !

I both cried and screamed at the end of the latest episode, it was so sad and nail-biting ahhhh

@5:30 you had me worried for a second. Glad you added that part 😂

It is like Terry Pratchett wrote about if you're sick go to a horse doctor. Horses are expensive and no one wants to lose one. People are cheap. Droids are worth a lot. Their upkeep is expensive. Droid breaks down, you have to repair it to full working order. A person can easily be replaced or you can do just enough to keep them going for a little while longer.

Love how how you use stuff from the real world to explain things in your video, keep the channel up. Amazing how its getting educational for star wars stuff

Another great video! As the son of a man who devoted his life to auto manufacturing, it sure seems to me that you're description of the complexity of automotive supply chains etc, is spot on. As for using prisoners as slave labor, I just figured it was like this: "We have all of these people that the Empire is arresting and sending to our prisons! What are we going to do with them? I know. Let's warehouse them and give them absolutely nothing to do but read books and lift weights." "Nah. Let's make their time with us useful, and profitable. Let's make them make stuff."

“But I just designed this awesome Tungstoid steel electrocution floor!” -whines Dr. Gorst cousin For an occasional SW viewer, your analysis of this universe (and its parallels to our own) have been informative and quite enjoyable. Thanks, Allen.

Great video, good job. It's nice to watch knowing that you appreciate the fundamentals in different industries.

I’m not sure if it was this channel but I pointed out that the prisons guards ace in hole is the electric floor. It’s the key to keeping prisoners in check, and the key to beating the prison. You only really need to beat that electric floor became the prison was designed this way for cost cutting.

I loved this video! I really loved the part about semiconductors. You are 100% correct on that. I’m a plumber/pipe fitter and I’ve worked at a semiconductor facility twice for a year each time. Keep up the great content! Thanks!

I came for Star Wars lore, and I learned a lot about manufacturing infrastructure and the military/industrial complex. Great video. Good analysis.

There's a UK sci-fi comedy called Red Dwarf. When Rimmer questioned why the "Scutters" (robots) weren't doing the basic work the low-level human technicians had to do, Lister states "They've got a better union than we have" 😁

I work in smart manufacturing and this video gave me some real cool tidbits that'll help me at my job and i appreciate you for that

I have a feeling that Kino will sacrifice himself for the other workers, would be so great for character development.

"we're cheaper than droids and easier to replace" - Cassian Andor nuff said

Decades ago, I had a job in the food manufacturing sector. You are correct with respect to reducing cost and waste. Let's look at this a step farther. What happens to manufacturing machines when they reach the end of its service life, i.e. when a prisoner dies. Is the goal still zero waste? (Soylent Green biscuits...anyone?)

I work in Automotive Manufacturing. Seeing their down time be next to 0 is mind boggling. So many factors could hold you up. I wouldn't be surprised seeing droids performing maintenance on the infrastructure and possibly defending the place....

This video is thick with knowledge drops. Really great way to explain semi conductors and why building fabs are so expensive. I hope they build some in US

Who says the Empire doesn't use droid factories? It's like saying just because the US has prison chain gangs doesn't mean it lacks factories.

Than you for all your content!!

A couple years ago, I went to one of the most depressing places I have ever been. It was the concentration camp in Dachau, the first concentration camp to be built by Hitler's regime. I didn't realize it, but the permanent exhibition there also mentioned the subcamps that sprang up around the terrain. The part you can visit, with the building and the reconstructed barracks didn't actually function as the primary place for inmates. That main camp was where the prisoners who were too sick to work were holed up. The main part of the inmates was actually kept outside of Dachau, in the subcamps, where all sorts of things were made for the war effort of their captors. This video made me realize that the Empire is even more evil than I realized.

The more I watch your videos, the greater I see the need that it been shown in elementary schools. How and why our species work with other societies are good life lessons. Thanks, again:)

Great video !

It wasn't until I saw the thumbnail for your video that I realized the actor of the old prisoner also played "The Broker" in the first Guardians Of The Galaxy haha

Great video!👍👍👍

I don’t think the Empire was really concerned about efficient manufacturing techniques, so much as they wanted to institute a state of terror. PORD was clearly about the Empire increasing its iron grip on the galaxy. Having that old man work on the factory floor made no sense whatsoever, and it inevitably killed him. The Nazi concentration camps made no sense from an economic point of view, all they did was kill people the Nazis didn’t like. Also, the Empire didn’t care about guilty or innocent, it was about terrorizing the population to keep them in line. And to use them as a free slave labor to boot? Why not? That what the Nazis did with concentration camp inmates, and working them to death was no big deal either.

Sounds like you're saying it is basically about flexibility. That makes a lot of sense. The prison labor force can easily be retooled to a new task as the need arises, whereas an automated labor force must be built for a specialized task and then cannot be easily retooled. When building a Death Star - which has never been built before - it wouldn't make any sense to make specialized automated facilities for each unique component that has never been built before and will, in theory, never need to be built again.

All very valid points, it's true that one combine with trained technician is more productive, but it also more brittle and costly, than ten peasants with shovels working for food.

I appreciate the quality of your channel and these explanations. I don't have much to add, but when the new inmates were told, upon entry, that they were "labor worthy," I wondered for how long and what was done with those who weren't deemed worthy. I guess we found out about that at the end of episode 9 for those sent to Narkina 5, but what about all the others?

Came for Star Wars. Stayed for supply chain logistics.

The Empire also has to house many prisoners anyway, because there will always be criminals needing a prison. So the factory may have started as a simple cost reduction program before demand for the products exceeded supply.

this video feels like a business management case study :D

"Army Rangers guarding Venice Beach" is a movie I would watch! (RLTW!)

I have a suggestion for a topic of discussion that just occured to me while watching earlier videos about the economics, military size of the empire etc: how was star destroyer maintenance handled in the star wars universe... If you look at the big navies in our world for reference you realize how much effort it takes to keep up a fleet... most ocean-going vessels roughly abide by the "rule of thirds" which means that at any point in time a third of a given fleet of one ship type are either on deployment, preparing for deployment or in maintenance... Out of the 11 big nuclear powered carriers of the US navy there are actually only 3 to 4 carriers at a time ready for immediate action... as far as i can remember in discussions about the sizes of fleets in star wars it is always assumed that the total number of ships can also be deployed at the same time but even assuming that durability of star wars technology is far superoir, isn't that a bit of a far stretch?...

wooooow great episode Allen

One of the things that the long-story arc of Andor featured was local security being replaced with storm troopers. It happened on Ferrix and Nardana-the complete supplanting of planetary peacekeepers in favor of imperial facilities and troops. You'll notice they have high ratios of imperial officers to troopers, overseeing these garrisons. It's probably instrumental that the empire, eliminate unpredictability by dealing with the indigenous and provides a mass-employment program to make it look like the empire is taking care of people that would otherwise be out of work. I think the empire stuck any conscript in a suit that they could find and told them the regular people had to get in line. Think about what it's like dealing with the TSA at the airport. Watch them wandering up and down the arrivals zone, with their whistles and clipboards, or at security, confiscating saline solution, cigarette lighters and anything that looks like too much fun? Those are your elite shore troopers-and by the way-they weren't to sharp on Scarif either.

Coming here to know more about andor , ended up learning a lot abt the manufacturing industry

Am reading too much into this, or is there something to Dedra’s reaction when sentencing was doubled? Could she have a relative or loved one in prison? Could she turn to the rebels after learning the truth? I mean, the way they cut to her close up to get her reaction after the sentence doubling was announced has to mean something.

You’re like the smartest you tuber out there

Super interesting topic!

There's one mistake in that thinking: automated production lines are always better than human. More reliable - and you are wrong - they are much cheaper. That's why more and more factories becoming fully automatic - as it's decreasing costs.

No I think this is more like the wheel for Conan the barbarian. On the next floor, they get the assembled part only to disassemble and pass it back up. The whole farm is just to generate Darkside force slowly and steadily.

Well said. It is also worth noting that they aren't building this from scrap. We don't know what all the other rooms on all the other floors, let alone the other six on Andor's floor, are doing; but I'm sure complex components are made by robots. Precision within micro or nanometers necessitates automation. Plus, the basic metal components are likely from an automated forge: stamped, cast, or laser-cut. That being said, the prisoners just do the final assembly. A single table team replaces a room of automation, with robot arms and conveyers. Furthermore, the more complex a machine is the more likely one small problem stops it all. So many hydraulic servos and electric motors moving in precise unison leads to a domino effect of destruction from say a loose bolt. Everything is halted until expert engineers fix it. An automated assembly line needs many other assembly lines to replace broken bits. Here, a table can still function minus a full team. Just at reduced output till replacements are sent for this unskilled labor. In a galaxy wide empire, millions are born each day.

remember in the early episodes when the ISB mentioned he was impressed by Dedra's detention numbers?

Awesome video

I assumed after the Clone war there was a stigma around using mass amounts of droids for things.

Great analysis, a feeling I was getting by watching the series was it seems like the term"rebel" was an imperial created term to create the continued justification for the autocracy. As much as luthen needs the empire to crack down to drive people to a unified rebellion, palpatine wants dissent to justify the continued existence of the oppressive imperial machine.

The “VOICE” of the prison sounds like the MCP(Master Control Program) in the original Tron

Some of the ASML lithography machine components are made in Connecticut, USA.

Also the constant fear, anger and suffering from all those slave workers experience on the daily must be great in fuelling the dark side of the force.

I'm wondering, do you think Andors escape from Narkina 5 could perhaps be like the Great escape with different members being the leader, scrounger, forger and such, obviously minus the tunnel digging.

Unexpected reference to the company I work for. Then again, ASML litho equipment is basically as-if-not-more advanced than a lot of Star Wars tech, so kinda fits :D

never thought i would learn about global tech industry chain in a star wars video.

One of the things I haven’t seen discussed is how a massive military creates buy-in from the general population. When you work/worked (or when your dad/uncle/brother/best friend/kid works) for the military, you feel a greater sense of attachment and ownership (while also relying on the income). This reinforces the military as “good” and “essential” (see North Korea and Russia as examples). Building a bigger military builds greater loyalty, while putting in place the personal and infrastructure for control/oppression. Getting rid of the clones and switching to enlisted/conscripted got rid of the cost, but also ensured more families were innately vested in the empires success. The down grade in capability is an acceptable loss as there is no one to actually fight, and it’s all just security theater.

Hello there friends welcome back to another episode of Generation Tech my name is Allen

The ENTIRE Galaxy has a droid phobia post clone wars.

What would be a really cool twist is if they found out there were other floors whose sole purpose was to disassemble the assemblies other floors created. How soul-crushing would it be if you found out all of your labor was for naught.

Thing is though, the Empire had like quintillions of leftover b1s from the clone wars, instead of melting them down immediately like surely they could be reprogramed to do some assembly line work, they have hands like a sentient so they aren't like automated factories seen in the real world, they are anatomically more like people where they can do different things, and with how many b1s there were should one breakdown they can be melted and replaced rapidly. B2s could be of use but not quite as useful as a b1 I think but still good, and tactical droids, bx series droids and even droidekas could be useful, with droidekas and of course I'm not sure if there's much precedence for this in Star Wars, but they could theoretically be used for mining operations, their blasters should clear rock like dynamite pretty quickly and their shields would hopefully protect them from the debris.

You just gave a rough explanation of the theory of comparative advantage 😂 Good attempt! 👍

The other aspect of using slave labor in this factory is that they don't have to be highly trained. These are simple, repetitive actions that can be picked up quickly by even low intelligence individuals. And the individuals are motivated to learn by fear of punishment and the other prisoners do the actual policing. No slackers allowed.

You and star wars theory would make a dope what if series

Seriously, this video is amazing and people should watch it even if they don't care about Star Wars. I've been hearing a lot of people say a lot of naive stuff about the economy......In Canada they are blaming it on Trudeau, in the U.S. they're blaming Biden, in France it's Macron....and opposition parties play the blame game non-stop....and people actually buy that B.S., but no opposition party actually has a real solution to offer. It's especially infuriating in countries like the U.S. where mainstream news are so busy doing propaganda that they appear not to remember how their job initially is supposed to be about reporting the truth as factually accurate as possible. I personally think that right wing American networks are especially partisan and dishonest, but pretty much all networks are guilty of being partisan to a certain degree. If at least interviewers had the decency to ask politicians "What would YOU do?", "How would you fix it?", "What is keeping you from implanting that solution by trying to come up with bipartisan solutions?".....Instead all we have is politicians throwing meat to the audience and hoping that we'll all be ill informed enough that we'll vote out of anger, frustration, and divisiveness, instead of voting for the party with the best actual solution to real life problems.......In fact, I think that to a significant portion of the population, especially in the U.S., certain political parties absolutely no real platform or solution to offer so they work on dividing the population through so called "Culture wars" by blowing situation completely out of proportion (For instance, no there are no kids who "Identify as cats or dogs and are forcing the school to have litter boxes in the classroom to accommodate them......If that was a serious thing, trust me, the internet would be filled with actual videos of it and they wouldn't just be videos that are an obvious joke/parody of that very stupid concept...........but even if there were kids who actually wanted that......we'd probably be talking about what 0.0000000000000000000000001% of the population lol? It's not even currently real and it's already receiving far more coverage than would be appropriate if it was.) Anyways, here's where I'm going with all of this. People who complain about the economy and blaming it all on current governing parties without having a single clue about what opposition parties would do differently and whether it would work or not would actually benefit from watching your explanation on supply chain, global economy, and how naive and visceral reactions like "We'll make everything in our own country from now on" aren't realistic immediately implantable solutions. I have nothing against the idea of making sure that various nations don't entirely rely on other nations in order to get crucial material/products......but I also can see the benefit of making sure that countries have common interests.....it kinda encourages peace and collaboration....Anyway, I could go on for even long and this already is half a novel right there, but yeah it's a well done video that should be watched by pretty much everyone independently of their appreciation or lack of appreciation for Star Wars.

Nice Meatbag reference!

I worked in a FAB, chips or electronics …after 22 years I was only a tech expert on only 3 tool sets, and recover errors on 4

Reminds me of a planet in the game SWTOR called Balmorra. There was a completely automated droid and weapons factory that did its own resource extraction, tooling, manufacturing even its own QA all run by droids. This tech by that time was already thousands of years old! In the story the factories owners triggered the security system and buggered off after their world was invaded, nothing larger than an ant could even approach the factory without being blasted plus even if you destroyed the droid guarding the factory they would be almost instantly replaced and I believe they where expanding their territory. The Sith empire of the time ended up sending in legions of men in an attempt to shut down the factory until the plucky player character comes along and shuts the factory down. Now imagine the Empire in Palp's time setting up a factory like this, what if a Rebel slicer was able to access this factory and hit it with a virus that does the same as my example above? While in the case of the prison factory if they lose control all they need to do is turn on the floor.

I'm going to argue that droids would still be a better option here. The prisoners aren't exactly skilled labour, they are just slaves, doing the same repetitive tasks, over and over. Andor is basically thrown straight into the job with no training, leaning just by watching the other prisoners. There are generic labour droids, that can do everything they do, but would do it faster, more consistently and for far longer. You don't need to feed them, guard them, they don't need rest, just periodic maintenance and you could get droids to do that too. There would be an initial cost of purchasing those labour droids, but I argue it would be offset by the vastly greater efficiency and higher production. Personally, I am agreeing with the common sentiment that this is less about cost saving or efficiency and more about terror and oppression. It's Palpi McScrotum-Face, stroking the Evil Boner again, because he can't go five minutes without being mindlessly evil and cruel for absolutely no reason, besides that he gets off on it.

When did he open a panel in the prison, i haven't seen him do that in de series??

It's thanks to you guys that I've come to understand the real point of Star Wars. The lightsabers are cool, the force is interesting, etc, etc, but the real beauty of it, especially the prequels is that its basically educating us, the plebian masses, on how politics work, so we can be better armed against would be dictators.

Should do a crossover episode with Wendover Productions of some of the other similar creators about Star Wars economics.

Wow this is really good - not even Star Wars related and i learned allot

Funny how I’m listening to this video about manufacturing as I’m at my manufacturing job

We do feed machines. Machines require electricity and need to be switched off once in a while for maintenance and recalibration.

I think you missed the most important part - its a critique of the US prison system that operates in many ways the same. Also, the US has hugely more prisoners than other developed countries, and most of these prisoners are used as slave labour.

Your pronunciation of Nvidia was very interesting!

Out of curiosity in the legends it is mentioned that the Galaxy had a population of 42 Quadrillions of humans, if you take into account that the Empire enslaves humans from planets like niamos that can exist hundreds of thousands or millions in the galaxy, they practically have unlimited manpower .

Patrol Troopers (i.e. Military Police) and Imperial Marines (i.e. Naval Troopers) would normally be deployed rather than Shore Troopers.

It's also 4,900 inmates even since there are 49 workers + 1 foreman per shift. Not 4,802. Your forgetting about the 88 foreman prisoners.

I think the reason shore troopers are being peace keepers, is also related to punishment. We see in the prion that they have positive and negative reinforcement, shock and taste. I think the same is for troopers. You do shit, you go off your paradise island, and guard space Miami. Witch could also explain why they are so much harsher. We see that punishment in the police system have negative and aggressive effects. So I recon any storm trooper doing the grunt work of the grunt world are being punished and more dickish.