FEATURE Robotics
ROBOTS AREN’T COMING FOR OUR JOBS...
... because no one can program them. By Adam Gluck, Co-founder and CEO, Copia Automation
A
mid today’s burgeoning technology, the manufacturing industry needs people who can control its automation.
Despite the promise that artificial intelligence will only augment our work and make us more efficient, AI is starting to actively replace white-collar workers – and the ongoing layoffs are feeding right into humanity’s age-old fear that the robots are coming for our jobs. While AI threatens to turn the office on its head, factories face a different challenge.
Robots have arrived, but they still need us as much as we need them… and there aren’t enough of us. Long before the AI boom, industrial automation was poised to improve manufacturing jobs and help the U.S. tighten supply chains and compete on the world stage. Instead, the manufacturing industry has been stuck in a Catch-22. Even as the ongoing labour shortage has made modernisation critical, that same shortage extends to the controls engineers and workers who have the skills to embrace today’s burgeoning technology. Working on the frontlines of the manufacturing sector, for example, I have seen a company order 250 new robots… only to have to return most of them because they didn’t have enough workers with the skills to program or deploy them. On the other side of this, a major robotics supplier confided that its number one revenue loser is not robot defects, but rather the return of functional robots that buyers simply could not effectively deploy.
The lack of workers who can write code is slowing the industry’s digital transformation, and our education system is not close to plugging this skills gap. Unless we change the paradigm by 2030, as many as 2.1 million modern manufacturing jobs could go unfilled – which could translate to a loss of $1 trillion in revenue for that year alone.
As factories become smarter, they rely on
growing amounts of industrial code that controls their production lines, coordinates robots, routes materials, and aggregates data. Beyond needing workers who can
12 October 2024 | Automation
implement, monitor, and maintain that code; every time software fails or a process or product changes, someone must begin the cycle of re-programming, testing, and iterating anew. Instead of reaping the benefits of modernisation, manufacturers often return technology, as mentioned, or end up with graveyards of expensive software and machines that crashed, couldn’t be programmed, never worked, or simply became obsolete. For manufacturers that have begun their automation journeys, abandoned efforts are not even the biggest financial hit. That comes from software breakdowns that bring production to a standstill and can cost millions of dollars/pounds in downtime – a challenge that is, once again, exacerbated by the massive shortage of skilled engineers and developers. When a Toyota computer system in Japan malfunctioned in August 2023, for example, production was halted in 14 factories for a full day. That short downtime cost Toyota an estimated $356 million in revenue. With automation getting smarter by the
day, manufacturers and their workforce must take control of the machines – and the code – so they can avoid costly setbacks like Toyota’s stoppage. While upskilling is imperative to this, factories that want to thrive today must do so with the workforce they have right now. That means providing their teams with the tools and processes to manage their growing technology stacks.
Employing this mindset, Amazon
recently invested $1.2 billion in upskilling, while at the same time working to
implement immediate measures to improve its order-fulfillment processes. Machine downtime was a costly issue as thumb drives were being used to change and manually back up code to the AWS Cloud, leading to inefficiencies and delays. By taking control of its control systems, Amazon expects to reduce 80 percent of unexpected downtime due to code errors and reduce the resolution time for severe code issues by 25 percent or more. Even as the tech giant tackles the workforce shortage with a long-term plan, Amazon is also harnessing digitisation and automation to enhance productivity, streamline quality control, and improve security with its existing talent pool. While the labour shortage presents a challenge for manufacturers, it also presents an incredible opportunity for both businesses and the workforce, at large, to lean into modernisation through a mix of automation and workforce upskilling. As the manufacturing landscape evolves,
the relationship between technology and human skill will become ever more crucial. With continuing education and training, the workforce can take control of its automation and move into higher-paying new roles. In partnership with educational institutions and government, manufacturers and workers have the power to forge a new era – where technology and human ingenuity combine to create a more efficient and productive world. The future does not belong to the robots; it belongs to those who are prepared to program them.
CONTACT:
Copia Automation
www.copia.io
automationmagazine.co.uk
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