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Cost, cobots and connectivity: The three Cs behind the UK’s acceleration towards automation


Tom Bouchier, Managing Director of robotics and automation specialist FANUC UK, explains that there has never been a better time for UK firms to invest in automation and outlines the key changes within the automation landscape that are prompting British firms to finally wake up to the benefits of automation


D


espite our relatively small landmass, the UK is an economic overachiever, ranking the fifth largest


economy in the world. Linked to this is our success in manufacturing – we are the ninth largest manufacturing economy, the third largest aerospace manufacturer and our premium auto sector is one of the most powerful in the world. However, concerns have been raised about our potential to retain our reputation as a manufacturing powerhouse, largely because of a chronic labour shortage and diminishing productivity rates. At the heart of this is our historic reluctance to automate – the UK currently ranks 24th in the world for robot density, with 101 robots per 10,000 workers – way below the global average of 126/10,000 employees and far less than Germany with 371.


Skills shortages take hold Latest figures from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirm that unemployment in Q1 of 2022 was around 3.8%, a record low. Some sectors are experiencing particular shortages; in May 2022, the Association of Labour Providers (ALP) reported that almost half (49%) of British food growers have rationalised or reduced their output because of labour shortages. Monitoring firm Small Business Prices has reported some startling figures in manufacturing, too: mechanical engineering vacancies are 24.1% above average in the northwest and nearly 16% in London. Long-term staffing pressures have been exacerbated by Brexit and the Covid pandemic, during the early part of which, in 2020, there were four unemployed people for every vacancy in the UK. The ratio is now 1:1, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and


22 July/August 2022 | Automation


Tom Bouchier, Managing Director of robotics and automation specialist FANUC UK


Development. Demand for workers has risen at a time when the supply of labour has been limited, and the reopening of the economy as the pandemic loosens has only made the situation even tighter.


Automation is the answer To remain competitive, industrial companies need to produce more goods, to higher quality, in less time. This is hard to achieve with human personnel alone, especially given the current skills shortage. The way to resolve these pressures is through automation – using robots to do the dirty, dull and dangerous jobs and freeing up workers to complete more value-added tasks.


Although the UK was slow to the


robotics revolution compared to many other industrialised nations, at FANUC we are now seeing a signifi cant uplift in enquiries across the UK and Ireland, and especially from SMEs who have not, historically, been major users of automation. Automation and using robots in UK manufacturing has been led by the automotive sector, concentrated within the OEMs and Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers.


Further along the supply chain, reliance on human employees and manual workers has continued.


Cost: overcoming the big hurdle There are several reasons why UK manufacturers and employers, particularly SMEs, have been reluctant to invest as rapidly as their counterparts elsewhere in Europe and across the world: chief amongst these is cost. There is a perception that robots are expensive, which was undoubtedly true in the past. But as robots have become more agile, more fl exible and more adaptable, their purchase price has dropped accordingly. The days of one large, bespoke, immovable robot, surrounded by heavy guarding, doing one standardised job over and over are gone. Today’s automated solutions take up a smaller footprint, are lighter and can often be easily redeployed as business needs evolve to meet changing consumer demands, making them a lasting investment that can continue to add value for years to come.


Lifetime costs have come down, too. At FANUC we actively work to design and


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