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NEWS ADOPTING IA AND AI
heightened inflation levels and seeing price points rise in 2022 and beyond. To understand the true impact for businesses, SS&C Blue Prism commissioned a study of business leaders, which found that 73% of enterprise organisations have seen significant cost increases in the last year, with manufacturing hit the hardest. The research interviewed over 1,000 business
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decision-makers and found that over the past 12 months, the average cost of doing business has risen by 9%. However, the study also found the economic shifts bring a new era of work. Industries are reshaping operations and are
looking for alternatives to protect their futures and those of their employees and customers. In the face of drastically reduced margins, 78% of business leaders are turning to the power of advanced technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent automation (IA), to help address the rising costs of business operations, talent shortage issues and economic shocks. Despite almost half of businesses surveyed
(47%) predicting that geopolitical events will negatively impact their growth, organisations remain positive and financially healthy, with the overwhelming majority (88%) expecting growth in 2022 and 2023. Digital transformation helped many businesses maintain growth during the pandemic-induced remote working model, with two-thirds (67%) reporting productivity increases in the last 12 to 18 months. Still, half of companies (50%) say maintaining
current productivity levels is an issue and 71% are struggling with talent attraction and retention. In the face of such conditions, decision-makers (69%) are planning to utilise IA strategies to relieve productivity pain points and find opportunity amidst strife. However, only 11% are certain about their organisation’s strategy, showing concerns about poor implementation (59%), coordination strategy (40%) and legacy technologies (27%). “This study shows the importance of
automation to the future of industry. It’s not only about achieving competitive edge, but also about long-term viability. It’s about automating what you can and using people where you should – embracing the “power of two” to bring about your organisation’s goals and deliver the best to your employees, customers and stakeholders. The future of work is a collaboration between human workers and digital workers, leveraging the power of IA to drive innovation, growth and fulfillment....” said Eric Tyree, SVP of AI and Innovation, SS&C Blue Prism. With the right automation partner, IA can be
a launchpad for innovation and unification. It can facilitate employee upskilling while promoting process efficiencies – addressing talent barriers without holding up progress.
www.blueprism.com
he recent geopolitical conflict in Eastern Europe has disrupted commodities markets, compounding already
DEMONSTRATING THE FACTORY OF THE FUTURE
Bradford, featuring demonstrations of human-machine collaborative solutions not usually seen outside of a factory setting due to their size and scale. Held on 14th-16th June at Strategic Partner
I 200m2
- Reeco Automation’s - new dedicated Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) Centre in Rowan Park, Bradford, over 75 invited guests from manufacturers across the food & beverage, automotive and pharmaceutical sectors received real-life inspiration for reimagining and reconfiguring their manufacturing lines. The demonstration area, comprising over showcased a range of practical
solutions for the factories of the future, enabling flexible and intelligent production improvements. The roadshow allowed visitors such as Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Carlsberg and Morrisons, to witness first-hand experience of large-scale human- machine industrial automation solutions to address some of the key challenges affecting manufacturers, such as palletising, transportation and traceability. Facilitating more agile and flexible
manufacturing with less reliance on manual labour, reduced energy consumption and increased OEE, OMRON’s solutions are also futureproofed for the digital era. Featured at the roadshow was OMRON’s strongest fully autonomous mobile robot (the HD-1500) for heavy loads of up to 1,500 kg, a variety of flexible palletising and autonomous material
INCREASING HEADCOUNT BY 80% IN 18 MONTHS
celebrates a headcount growth of 80% over the last 18 months as the company eyes international expansion across EMEA, India and the Americas. The company, which currently works in the
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USA, UK, the Middle East and APAC, has invested heavily in both workforce development and product R&D to build , innovative product and service lines to support gas distribution, oil and gas and power generation industries worldwide. Oxford Flow has made several senior
appointments to build its growing management team, including John Kett as Head of Field Operations, Tim Doole as Head of Engineering and Rob Green as Operational Development Manager. Speaking about strategic growth plans,
Colin Findlay, Chief Strategy Officer at Oxford Flow said: “We’ve invested a lot of time into our existing workforce, implementing leadership and management training, for example, but strategic hires like John Kett, Tim Doole and Rob Green are key to achieving our future growth plans. As a business, we
6 JULY/AUGUST 2022 | PROCESS & CONTROL
xford Flow, the flow control equipment specialist for energy, water, and process industries,
were born from a desire to build innovative products that have the capability to transform the industries that we work in, but we can only do that with the right experience and expertise in the business. “We’re entering a more strategic and
commercial stage in our journey and building out our engineering and field services senior management will allow us to continue to service our existing client base while we expand in regions including North America and the Middle East while putting down roots in the likes of the South America and APAC.” Neil Poxon, CEO at Oxford Flow said: “As the
global energy industry makes moves to decarbonise, whether from a production or a distribution perspective, it will demand technologies that will optimise operations from a reliability, cost and environmental perspective – but we also want to ensure that what we offer now will future proof these systems. Innovations that we’re developing now are being built, designed, tested and implemented by some of the best in the industry and will ensure a robust and secure energy ecosystem for years to come.”
oxford-flow.com
ndustrial automation experts OMRON have taken their European Flexible Manufacturing Roadshow on the road to
transportation solutions and the RB1200 cobot palletiser working in harmony and sustainably with the operators. Other complete solutions to solve the current issues and pains of manufacturers included box to pallet transportation, box to mobile robot top conveyor and conveyor to pallet with OMRON TM cobot. Each system featured a combination of
natural navigation and selectable autonomy navigation, IoT dashboard, built-in serialisation offering full traceability along the entire manufacturing process, and of course, the company’s intelligent Sysmac Control Platform. OMRON’s UK marketing manager Stuart
Coulton, said: “We hope that the roadshow will inspire today’s manufacturers to reimagine what is possible on their production lines, enabling their facilities to remain agile for years to come.” The Flexible Manufacturing Roadshow will
continue its journey around Europe, with the next stop being Germany, then Poland before finishing in the Benelux region.
http://industrial.omron.eu.
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