This article from the Disney Parks Blog underlines some of the problems with Disney right now

[ptaylor]

I was just trying to read this article - just full of business and management speak. What a load of nonsense.

Disney needs to get back to focusing on things that actually matter.

Disney Cast Taking Guest Experiences to Next Level with Innovative Robotic Tech

On the Technology and Digital team, there’s a group of magic makers working behind the scenes to transform business processes using software and physical robotics, ensuring their fellow cast members have more time to create meaningful connections

disneyparks.disney.go.com

 

[HauntedPirate]

Are we sure they aren’t talking to us? After all, their PR campaigns have frequently said “YOU are the magic” lately. So am I the magic, are the CM’s the magic, is the place the magic, is the technology department the magic… I’m confused.

BTW - The topic of that article? Good grief. BPA/RPA is not a new concept. My last company was doing it for years before I moved to greener pastures late last year. And let’s be honest - IT people have been figuring out ways to script and automate tasks for decades now.

 

[drizgirl]

I was just trying to read this article - just full of business and management speak. What a load of nonsense.

Disney needs to get back to focusing on things that actually matter.

Disney Cast Taking Guest Experiences to Next Level with Innovative Robotic Tech

On the Technology and Digital team, there’s a group of magic makers working behind the scenes to transform business processes using software and physical robotics, ensuring their fellow cast members have more time to create meaningful connections

disneyparks.disney.go.com

Hogwash. More like assuring they can hire fewer cast members.

 

[G00fyDad]

Found the problem and I did not even need an article to help.....

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

 

[JIMINYCR]

I saw no issue with the article. Dis is trying to be innovative, have a better use of time and find a way to give more CM interaction with guests. Isnt that what posters often complain about, that CM's take so long to fix a problem or arent up to speed? Maybe this, as often happens as new tech stuff is developed, will lead to even more efficient use of time and problem solving. As long as robotics doesnt lead to taking away human interaction and employment, it should be looked at as a plus. Lets not be so negative about everything Disney is doing.

 

[eliza61nyc]

I was just trying to read this article - just full of business and management speak. What a load of nonsense.

Disney needs to get back to focusing on things that actually matter.

Disney Cast Taking Guest Experiences to Next Level with Innovative Robotic Tech

On the Technology and Digital team, there’s a group of magic makers working behind the scenes to transform business processes using software and physical robotics, ensuring their fellow cast members have more time to create meaningful connections

disneyparks.disney.go.com

The article seems to be about a specific department namely technology and digital so not sure if It's off point.

It was written by the department manager (I'm assuming) to say what her department is doing and why

 

[HauntedPirate]

I saw no issue with the article. Dis is trying to be innovative, have a better use of time and find a way to give more CM interaction with guests. Isnt that what posters often complain about, that CM's take so long to fix a problem or arent up to speed? Maybe this, as often happens as new tech stuff is developed, will lead to even more efficient use of time and problem solving. As long as robotics doesnt lead to taking away human interaction and employment, it should be looked at as a plus. Lets not be so negative about everything Disney is doing.

They are celebrating finally doing something that thousands of other companies have been doing for a decade. They aren’t doing it to shift CM’s to other tasks, they are doing it so they can reduce labor and save money. Gold star!!!

 

[SteveAZee]

If they've identified 200 'use cases', it would have been nice to have included the top 3 or 5 in the article just to get an idea of what they're really trying to do. Lots of handwaving, it seems.

 

[JIMINYCR]

They are celebrating finally doing something that thousands of other companies have been doing for a decade. They aren’t doing it to shift CM’s to other tasks, they are doing it so they can reduce labor and save money. Gold star!!!

And ever since the machine age began, man has utilized the ability to mechanize to save time and energy in order to be more productive. Why should Disney be any different. Its always at the cost of human jobs. There hasnt been an industry thats used machines and not reduced labor size and streamline costs. Businesses are always looking at the bottom line and labor costs are the one area they seek to reduce most because thats where the biggest costs to them usually comes from.
Gold star to Dis for finding a way to improve guest interaction. But as I said it eventually leads to a loss of someones job. Your point that Disney is doing this 10 years after other companies... Be glad because they are slow implementing this that Dis jobs havent been taken away earlier.

 

[Married5Times]

There hasnt been an industry thats used machines and not reduced labor size and streamline costs.

i can immediately think of one industry:

a little yankee invention back in the 1790's say you be wrong.............very wrong.

 

[JIMINYCR]

i can immediately think of one industry:

a little yankee invention back in the 1790's say you be wrong.............very wrong.

OKaaaay.... thats quite a reach going back to 1790. So clue me in... what industry?

 

[SteveAZee]

I'm guessing the cotton gin?

 

[TP2000]

I was just trying to read this article - just full of business and management speak. What a load of nonsense.

Disney needs to get back to focusing on things that actually matter.

Disney Cast Taking Guest Experiences to Next Level with Innovative Robotic Tech

On the Technology and Digital team, there’s a group of magic makers working behind the scenes to transform business processes using software and physical robotics, ensuring their fellow cast members have more time to create meaningful connections

disneyparks.disney.go.com

Oh geez. This article is a complete mess, and yet absolutely hysterical! Almost like something from Babylon Bee or The Onion. So many words to say so little.

And who is the audience? People taking their kids on vacation to Disney World?

Disney's corporate blog audience is focused on going on rides and getting a good spot of curb for the parade, they have no interest in reading inane office propaganda like... “The Automation team enhanced our business efficiency by providing an innovative process improvement to a previously time-consuming workflow, freeing valuable resources." -Kim Gunther, Business Manager, Disney Premium Services

This corporate blog author, Jenna Tsakas, appears to be insanely out of touch with what readers of a corporate blog are interested in. Or, she is one of those folks working from home for the past two years in her pajamas, sitting on the 2 o'clock Zoom call with a coffee mug full of Merlot. Perhaps a combination of those two scenarios.

That Ms. Tsakas and her team repeatedly used the painfully trite adjective "amazing!" to describe their mundane cubicle farm work is the nail in her Communications Major coffin.

If they've identified 200 'use cases', it would have been nice to have included the top 3 or 5 in the article just to get an idea of what they're really trying to do. Lots of handwaving, it seems.

What, you weren't inspired to book a Disney World vacation by this bland serving of word salad?

“The innovative automations and robotic solutions our amazing team create truly inspire me; removing impediments and freeing fellow cast members to focus on what they love to do: creating magic for our guests,” said Sean T. Murphy, Senior Product Manager on the BPA team.

It's like Walt Disney himself once told a reporter from Life Magazine when he was asked why he built Disneyland....

"I just thought, there ought to be a place where parents and children could enhance business efficiency for a previously time consuming workflow together." -Walt Disney, Life Magazine, 1963

 

[FettFan]

Are we sure they aren’t talking to us? After all, their PR campaigns have frequently said “YOU are the magic” lately. So am I the magic, are the CM’s the magic, is the place the magic, is the technology department the magic… I’m confused.

 

[spock8113]

You know what they say, "Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down." Unfortunately Disney is serving Cod Liver Oil.
All that's missing is the pom-poms. So glad I don't have diabetes before I read this because I do now.
As a society we use the words amazing and awesome too much. And the word innovation was used when Cod Liver Oil was invented alongside pet rock, mood rings and diving rods. Clearly someone didn't put the cover sheet on their TPS Report.