TECHNOLOGY SPONSORED BY YOKOGAWA
industry is the lack of a skilled workforce to take up
these complex operations. While Brexit will end free
movement, meaning fewer skilled EU workers will
move to the UK, the truth is that a skills shortage
already existed before 2016. According to recent
reports, approximately 186,000 new engineers and
manufacturers are needed every year until 2024,
but the industry is facing a deficit of around 20,000
graduates annually. Tackling this issue is key to
creating a strong manufacturing base and securing
its role in the global economy.
As skilled manufacturers and veterans of the
industry reach retirement age, their knowhow and
experience are extremely hard to replace. It would
be unfair to expect a graduate to perform at the
same level as someone who has been in their career
for 40 years.
However, new automated technologies that are
being implemented in workplaces can help bridge
the knowledge gap caused by baby-boomers retiring.
People entering the workplace can be taught to use
new systems that didn’t exist even ten years ago,
ensuring that the skills gap created by retirements
isn’t so wide. The management of applications
throughout autonomous operations can offset the
shortage of skilled labour as people retire.
Process control and autonomy
Yes, COVID-19 has accelerated the rush to achieve
autonomy, such is the need to operate effectively
with a smaller human workforce, but there are
numerous other benefits to automating as well, that
would justify the initial financial outlay. Companies
have long considered autonomy as a solution to
business challenges, but the pandemic has provided
the impetus for them to accelerate their shift to
level five autonomy – particularly in improving
productivity and efficiency.
Operations becoming automated frees up
human workers to focus on more creative, strategic
tasks that will continue to drive a company forward.
Automating processes also leads to greater worker
safety, without the need for people to physically
engage with machinery and equipment.
And, with fewer human workers involved in the
actual production process, there is less risk for
human error, and therefore less opportunity for
production to breakdown or instructions to be
miscommunicated.
Overall, automation makes workplaces within
the process industry sector more efficient, more
productive, more profitable and safer for human
workers. Over the next three years fully manned
tasks will remain largely unchanged, but it is
the move from level four – minimally manned
tasks – to level five – unattended systems – that
will reveal the biggest transformation in process
industries. Yokogawa has found that productivity,
increased efficiency and optimised staff levels are
the key targets for companies in process industry
companies.
The race to level five continues
There are many technologies that need to be invested
into and implemented, such as AI and cybersecurity
solutions, but the move towards level five unattended
systems is inevitable. As such, process industry
workplaces are set to dramatically change by 2030.
With tens of thousands of companies continually
adopting increasingly autonomous processes, many
in the process industry are set to become fully
automated by the end of this decade.
Increasing productivity, reducing costs and
addressing the skills shortage are just some of the
key solutions to acute challenges that automation
can provide, long after the pandemic has come to
pass. Coronavirus has meant the industry is having
to traverse a troubled path in the short-term, but has
dawned a new era of automation for the process
industry.
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