INDUSTRY News FANUC CALLS FOR WIDER AUTOMATION UPTAKE
ABB COLUMN
ROBOTICS EDUCATION CAN BRIDGE THE EV SKILLS GAP
Pictured L-R: Andy Armstrong, Vice MD of FANUC UK; Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands; Simon Ward, Mayor of Rugby; Louise Adkins, Consort to the Mayor of Rugby; and Tom Bouchier, MD of FANUC UK
FANUC UK’s Managing Director, Tom Bouchier, has highlighted the importance of automation in ensuring the UK fully realises the value that the manufacturing sector can bring to House event in Coventry (12-14 November 2024), he stated: “Despite our heritage as a leading manufacturing nation, we’ve slipped to 12th place in the global manufacturing league table. This is in part due to our reluctance to automate, which is in turn impacting productivity levels. Manufacturing already contributes so much to the UK – it directly accounts for 8% of our GDP, with its wider impact when looking down the supply well below the global average for automation uptake of 162 robots per 10,000 workers, at just 119 robots per 10,000 workers. Increasing automation levels will not only help manufacturers combat labour challenges and sustainability concerns, it will also increase our productivity levels and enable us to compete the sector but the country as a whole.” Combining expert presentations, panel debates and end-user case studies with hands-on robot demonstrations, a packed “Events such as this are vital if we are to continue building for our future. My mayoral theme is youth, and it’s encouraging to hear about the work that FANUC is doing to engage young people into a career in engineering. However, it’s clear that we need to catch up with our global counterparts when it comes to productivity – through automation, and by engaging with our future workforce, we can help to do this.”
www.fanuc.eu/uk/en
As technology advances, the skills of technicians, engineers and maintenance staff must develop with it to ensure society developing rapidly is that of electric vehicles, but the availability of skilled EV technicians is not keeping pace. Despite the government’s recent delay on banning be a shortfall of 20,000 technicians with the appropriate TechSafe This shortfall is an opportunity for industries beyond automotive to look at their own skills gaps and examine ways in which they can be bridged. Robotic automation can help by providing the repeatable quality and accuracy of handling and inspection that traditional manual techniques struggle to achieve. However, qualified, and experienced people are needed to program and operate these robots. ABB’s 2022 survey revealed that some 80 percent of education
professionals believe robotics and automation will shape the future of employment in the next ten years. Despite this, only one in four education institutions currently use robots as part of their teaching programs.
Robot developers and vendors are stepping up to this challenge, supporting educational establishments by helping them develop new courses to train the robot technicians of tomorrow. For example, ABB has developed a ready-to-use education package, comprising a GoFa collaborative robot (cobot), teaching materials and STEM certification programs which is a globally recognised training certificate that advances students’ employment prospects around the through 12 lessons at basic and advanced levels. ABB Robotics is also providing universities with ABB’s GoFa and
a complete education in robotics.
As the EV industry considers its options for training more technicians, the sector as a whole also needs to review its training needs and ensure it has enough resources of skilled labour to take advantage of the huge benefits offered by robotic automation. For more information about robot training, visit
https://new.abb. com/products/robotics/functional-modules/education-package Julian Ware, UK & Ireland Sales Manager – ABB Robotics
PROGRAMME PROMOTES TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION
Robotics and automation have the potential to transform the pressures associated with growing workforce shortages. Moving innovative new technologies from development to deployment in a the UniPAKer P160, a fully automated pick and pack machine.
programme is helping the manufacturing industry adopt process- changing technologies that meet their needs, and giving leading engineering companies access to wider markets.
automationmagazine.co.uk
highly skilled in our products, and really understand their Brillopak, which designs and manufactures pick and place equipment, is the latest addition to the network. It means the application engineers, as well as the wider European market. Xavier Barraud, Brillopak’s engineering and operational
director, said the partnership had already given the company free
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Automation | November 2024 7
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