by Gary Mintchell | Apr 5, 2017 | Automation, Education, News
Manufacturing jobs—will they be people or robots? Whenever I am presented with an either/or I tend to think why not both or neither. Four choices, not two. In this case, three choices since neither means no manufacturing. And every country on God’s good Earth wants manufacturing. Just check out all the government initiatives underway.
Within the past week, I’ve seen two articles in local newspapers—The Sidney Daily News and The Dayton Daily News—parroting the New York Times article about how robots take jobs away from people.
This week was the biennial edition of Automate—the trade show of Association for Advancing Automation (A3). A3 released a white paper for the show, and I had a chance to sit with two association executives, Bob Doyle and Alex Shikany, to discuss the findings and analysis leading up to the white paper Work in the Automation Age: Sustainable Careers Today and Into the Future.
“As a representative of over 1,000 companies and organizations making up the automation ecosystem, A3 believes it is critically important to clear up some of the confusion surrounding the relationship between automation and jobs,” said Jeff Burnstein, A3 president quoted in the press release. An admirable goal.
My take is that I agree with pretty much everything they found with one addition—I still believe that manufacturing enterprise executives bear much blame for problems with manufacturing in America. Such things as management-by-spreadsheet, no passion for products or customers, faddish reactions (such as unintelligent offshoring), and lack of investment.
Technology Makes Lives Better
We discussed that humans have been developing technology to increase production and make lives better probably since there were humans on earth. Recent discussions that cover only the past 250 years or so with technology advancing from steam to electricity to IT-driven human prosperity and quality of life have all advanced.
Let’s look at a summary of findings. Here are some surprising facts.
Manufacturing Jobs
More robots, more jobs.
As employers add automation technologies such as robots, job titles and tasks are changing, but the number of jobs continues to rise. New technologies allow companies to become more productive and create higher quality products in a safer environment for their employees. This allows them to be more competitive in the global marketplace and grow their business. We see this in the statistics: over the seven-year period from 2010 to 2016, 136,748 robots were shipped to US customers—the most in any seven-year period in the US robotics industry. In that same time period, manufacturing employment increased by 894,000 and the US unemployment rate decreased from 9.8% in 2010 to 4.7% in 2016.
Specifically looking at two companies, Amazon had more than 45,000 employees when it introduced robots in 2014. While the company continues to add robots to its operations, it has grown to over 90,000 employees, with a drive to hire more than 100,000 new people by the end of 2018. Similarly, General Motors grew from 80,000 US employees in 2012 to 105,000 in 2016, while increasing the number of new US robot applications by about 10,000. We see similar results from multi-national companies with thousands of employees, to small manufacturing companies.
The skills gap and its impact.
Skilled workers are key to companies’ success and countries’ economic development. Employers rank the availability of highly skilled workers who facilitate a shift toward innovation and advanced manufacturing as the most critical driver of global competitiveness. But studies show an increasing skills gap with as many as two million jobs going unfilled in the manufacturing industry alone in the next decade. Fully 80% of manufacturers report a shortage of qualified applicants for skilled production positions, and the shortage could cost US manufacturers 11% of their annual earnings.
Changing job titles reflect changing tasks.
In the automation age, as in the computer age before it, job titles shift to reflect the impact of technology. A recent study concluded that occupations that have 10% more new job titles grow 5% faster. Just as we saw the rise of entire industries around previously unheard-of job titles in cloud services, mobile apps, social media, and more, we’re seeing similar shifts in the automation age. As lower-level tasks are automated with advanced technologies such as robots, new job titles and industries arise across nearly every economic sector.
Supply and demand and wages.
In the manufacturing industry, which is the largest user of automation today, the skills gap is driving up what are already strong wages and benefits, well over the US average. In 2015, manufacturing workers earned $81,289 including pay and benefits compared to $63,830 for the average worker in all nonfarm industries. And 92% of manufacturing workers were eligible for health insurance benefits. Despite that, manufacturing executives reported an average of 94 days to recruit engineering and research employees and 70 days to recruit skilled production workers.
Bridging the skills gap with innovative training.
Automation age jobs range from well-paying, entry-level and blue-collar positions through engineers and scientists. Stable automation-age manufacturing jobs can start at $20 per hour with just a high school diploma, a few months of automation training, and professional certification. Employers, vocational schools, and universities are offering innovative training approaches that give workers alternatives to the traditional (and expensive) high-school-to-college-to-job route. And employers such as GM are revitalizing apprenticeships, recognizing the significant advantage those programs offer.
Summary
Consider this equation
Automation –> Increased Productivity –> Improved Competitive Position –> Company Growth –> More Jobs
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 3, 2017 | Automation, Technology
Despite the bad press that robots receive these days, I still have a soft spot in my heart for the technology. I first learned to program one in 1985. I’ve seen how robots remove humans from unsafe working conditions and improve product quality.
I have also liked what I’ve seen from Rethink Robotics. However, the press release I recently received was so filled with superlatives, that I was beginning to wonder if there was substance behind the hype. I’m betting there is. (And I removed most of the superlatives so that it reads better. Maybe I’ll see them at Automate and get a deeper dive.)
Rethink Robotics has announced Intera 5, a first-of-its-kind software platform that connects everything from a single robot controller, extending the smart, flexible power of Rethink Robotics’ Sawyer to the entire work cell and simplifying automation with ease of deployment.
Intera 5 fundamentally changes the need for integration, making it substantially easier and more affordable, allowing manufacturers to deploy full work cell automation in a matter of hours, not weeks, according to the press release.
Intera 5 is much more than the latest version of Rethink Robotics’ software; it’s a new way to approach automation that allows manufacturers to control the robots, orchestrate the work cell and collect data.
“With the introduction of Intera 5, we’ve created the world’s first smart robot that can orchestrate the entire work cell, removing areas of friction and opening up new and affordable automation possibilities for manufacturers around the world,” said Scott Eckert, president and CEO, Rethink Robotics. “Intera 5 is driving immediate value while helping customers work toward a smart factory, and providing a gateway to successful Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for the first time.”
Rethink Robotics’ Intera 5 modernizes the traditional work cell by improving coordination, increasing flexibility and drastically reducing deployment times. Run through the robot’s controller, manufacturers can orchestrate conveyors, equipment and other machines from a central Intera 5-powered robot.
Tuthill Plastics Group, a full-service custom injection molding company, is using a Sawyer robot with Intera 5 to power improved product quality and more efficient production. Operating 24 hours a day, five days a week, Sawyer with Intera 5 is picking parts from a conveyor belt and communicating with a computer numeric control (CNC) machine to precisely place the part into the machine by using Intera 5’s unique force-sensing capabilities. By applying a precise level of force while placing the part, the Tuthill team has been able to improve part quality and consistency, reducing a length defect on the part by 98 percent since implementing Sawyer.
“Sawyer with Intera 5 is a major step forward in manufacturing automation,” said Richard Curtain, president, Tuthill Plastics Group. “Part placement is extremely critical to our machining process. Sawyer is able to effectively ensure product quality and consistency, handle the variability of the production line, and automatically re-register to the environment in the event that any parts move.”
German magnet manufacturer, MS Schramberg, is also leveraging Sawyer with Intera 5 and has substantially improved deployment time. With six robots operating on three machines, MS Schramberg has one robot selecting parts from a series of patterns and loading the part into the machine, while a second robot removes the part from the machine and loads the part into a tray.
With less than a day of training, an MS Schramberg engineer is able to deploy and train the robots in just more than an hour. The robots now run 24 hours per day, six days per week, and can easily configure complex logic tasks, minimizing the need for human interaction and freeing up employees for more complex tasks.
“We’ve cut our deployment times by hundreds of hours with Intera 5, and are able to easily deploy our Sawyer robots on an extremely complex task in just over an hour,” said Norman Wittke, general manager, MS Schramberg. “The ease and speed of deployment is extremely valuable for our company, and is helping make our manufacturing processes more efficient, while improving our ROI.”
With Intera 5, manufacturers will reap the benefits of:
- Industry-leading embedded vision, which will allow the robot to perform tasks just as humans do, reducing the need for expensive part presentation fixturing and additional integration costs.
- Adaptive force-sensing, allowing users to precisely set the amount of force required, or enable the robot to feel and respond to a specific force, so the robot can make adaptive decisions while performing a task.
- Intera Studio, an intuitive and powerful new tool to simply and effectively deploy automation like never before, providing a gateway to the factory of the future.
“Intera 5 is equipping industry leaders like Tuthill Plastics and MS Schramberg to achieve immediate bottom-line improvements in productivity, quality and efficiency on the factory floor,” said Eckert. “By implementing our robots equipped with Intera 5, manufacturers will have unprecedented work cell coordination, greatly reducing the need for complex, time-consuming and outdated automation options.”
Beginning in March, Intera 5 will be available for download on all existing Sawyer robots, and will come standard on all new robots.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 24, 2017 | Automation, Events, News, Organizations
The Automation Industry (if you wish to call it an industry) has some interesting news of innovation. The ARC Advisory Group Industry Forum is coming up in a couple of weeks. I will be there. If you’re coming, let me know. Maybe we can chat over a coffee or something.
Automation Competition
Meanwhile, the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) has announced a call for startup companies in robotics, machine vision and motion control to enter the Automate Launch Pad Competition. The competition is a chance for the industry’s most innovative young companies to vie for the spotlight at the Automate 2017 Exhibition and Conference—the industry’s largest gathering in North America, taking place in Chicago, Illinois April 3-6, 2017—as well as a $10,000 cash award. The Automate Launch Pad Startup Competition seeks out startup companies looking to generate awareness of their technology and find new sources of funding.
“Investment in the automation and robotics market is rising sharply, with a record 128 companies receiving funding of $1.95 billion in 2016—which is a 50% increase over the previous record-breaking year,” noted Jeff Burnstein, president of A3. “The Automate Launch Pad Competition is a great opportunity for innovative young companies to gain some extra funding and garner the attention of key players in the automation industry.”
Call for submissions and application form for the Launch Pad Competition are now open. Eligible companies include those in the automation space (robotics, vision, motion control, etc.) who were founded in the last five years; raised less than US $2 million since creation; and are not affiliated with a larger group. Eight semi-finalist companies will be invited to participate in the competition at Automate on April 3, where they will have three minutes to pitch their technology to a panel of investors and automation experts. All semi-finalists will also be provided booth space on the Automate show floor, putting them in front of an expected audience of over 20,000 automation professionals, investors, scientists and journalists. The Automate Launch Pad Competition is sponsored by GE and the event is co-produced with Silicon Valley Robotics.
Systems Integrators To Meet
In other news, The Control Systems Integrators Association (CSIA) has announced its spring meeting information.
It is expecting more than 500 control system integrators and industry suppliers from around the globe in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 2 – 5 for the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) 2017 Executive Conference. Themed From best practices to transformative business models, the conference will include over a dozen educational sessions, including several presented as part of two separate tracks.
- Track 1: Small Company SIs and Best Practices
CSIA’s Best Practices have helped hundreds of system integrators grow from younger, smaller companies into the well-established ones they are today. Attendees will learn how they, too, can use CSIA Best Practices for growth.
- Track 2: Transformative Business Models
Technology is creating a very exciting future filled with opportunity for SIs — opportunities that will require a shift away from traditional SI business models. Through a series of presentations, panel discussions and an unconference, SIs will gain an understanding of how to take advantage of these emerging models.
Economist Alan Beaulieu, president of ITR Economics, will open the conference with his latest economic outlook for manufacturing, providing a solid outlook for attendees to use to guide their companies’ into the future.
In addition to the educational sessions included during the conference, CSIA will offer a two-day intensive training workshop on Best Practices implementation on Monday, May 1 and Tuesday, May 2, just prior to the conference.
Those attending the conference will have opportunities for networking, including the annual industry expo, awards banquet and a closing reception. The CSIA Fun Run/Walk will be held again this year, along with other special events and tours.
See complete details and register at the CSIA 2017 Executive Conference website.
by Gary Mintchell | Sep 12, 2016 | Manufacturing IT, Operations Management, Technology
Are we getting beyond the speculation and hype of ideas such as Industry 4.0 and digital manufacturing? This latest survey and study by PwC (www.pwc.com/industry40) reveals that executives anticipate benefits from investments within two years.
PwC says its 2016 Global Industry 4.0 Survey is the biggest worldwide survey of its kind, with over 2,000 participants from nine major industrial sectors and 26 countries. It goes to the heart of company thinking on the progress of Industry 4.0. The study explores the benefits of digitising the horizontal and vertical value chain, as well as building your digital product & service portfolio.
Industry 4.0 at a glance
“We include a detailed description and definition of Industry 4.0 in the main global report on the survey.” Digitisation and integration of vertical and horizontal value chains, digitisation of product and service offerings, and the development of new digital business models and customer access platforms are driving Industry 4.0 adoption.
Digital Enterprise From the Study
Behind the scenes of the world’s leading industrial products companies, a profound digital transformation is now underway. Companies are digitising essential functions within their internal vertical value chain, as well as with their horizontal partners along the supply chain. In addition, they are enhancing their product portfolio with digital functionalities and introducing innovative, data-based services.
- Industrial manufacturing companies plan to invest 5% of annual revenue in digital operations solutions over the next five years. And they are setting themselves ambitious targets for the level of digitisation and integration that can be achieved.
- Many companies are already producing machines to deliver on the vision of the connected factory, using the power of the internet to link machines, sensors, computers, and humans in order to enable new levels of information monitoring, collection, processing, and analysis. This is adding to the products and services that companies can offer their customers, helping them work in collaborative ways in the design of future machines and their digital environment to boost performance.
- A number of technologies, including robotics, cobotics, 3D printing and nanotechnology, have direct relevance for many industrial manufacturing applications while other technologies, such as augmented reality, can enable manufacturers give customers realtime information and training at the point of use.
Some of these developments are maturing now. Others remain for the future. The rate of adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies by industrial manufacturing companies is accelerating fast.
The digitisation, integration and automation opportunities offered enable companies to collaborate both internally and across their value chains in ways that can provide a step change in productivity as well as design and build quality. And they are opportunities that are increasingly important as companies seek to stay relevant as the era of digitally connected smart infrastructure develops.
Analysis
The point that fascinates me is the speed of adoption. It was only three years ago when I was introduced to the “hype” of Industry 4.0. Then followed speculation and hype. Typical technology curve, I think.
However, most of the technology existed. It just took the foresight and will to begin and the intelligence of implementation. Ways to increase sales and reduce costs both contribute to profitability. Maybe the strategies and technologies behind Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things and digital manufacturing actually will help us cross the next manufacturing divide.
by Gary Mintchell | Sep 2, 2016 | Automation, News, Technology
Ms. Ajarin Pattanapanchai, Deputy Secretary General, of Thailand Board of Investment, talked with me last week about the state of industry and innovation in that country.
She told me that productivity in Thailand is quite high, citing Toyota assembly as an example where it produces a car every 55 seconds in Japan and a nearly equal 58 seconds in Thailand.
While the main topic was robotics, which I will discuss below, she also pointed out that Thailand has a large petrochemical complex—the 5th largest in the world—with the environment a considerable concern. So, the government agency partnered for a real-time monitoring of air direct to the agency.
Given Thailand’s dominance in ASEAN automotive markets, the country has seen an increase in investments from companies such as robotics giant Nachi and other firms providing technology and supply chain products to Thailand’s growing automotive markets. Growth of the robotics industry in Thailand is expected to increase, as the vehicle manufacturing industry in the Kingdom continues to expand in both commercial and private use motorcycles, trucks, and cars.
Robotic and Automation Machinery
Currently, there are more than 60 companies producing robotic and automation machinery in Thailand, such as Eureka Automation, CT Asia Robotic, Yutaka Robot Systems, Ryoei, and Robosis. These companies have developed and produced industrial robots that meet international standards and are gaining ground with the competition because of their high quality and competitive pricing.
Just last year, ABB opened a Robot Applications Center in Thailand and introduced “YuMi,” the world’s first truly collaborative dual-arm robot. Other companies who have located robotics operations in Thailand include:
- Globax Robot System (Thailand) – a Japanese company that produces Robotic Production Line;
- Kuka Robotics – a German company, a world leader in robotics systems, which has located a business operation in Thailand;
- Fillomatic Global Industries – an Indonesian company that produces robotic bottle filling machines and robotic bottle capping machines;
- Cal-comp Electronics –a Taiwanese company that produces robotic computers.
Thailand has the highest concentration of automotive companies in Asia and the 12th largest automotive production capacity in the world, directly providing vehicles for Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other nearby and ASEAN countries. Automotive companies with production facilities in Thailand include: Ford, Isuzu, Mazda, Mitsubishi, BMW, General Motors, Daihatsu, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Tata, Toyota, and Volvo.
Thailand Imports
In 2016, Thai imports of industrial robotics and automation systems are estimated to top $47.3 million USD, and this number is expected to grow. The imported machinery has mostly been used for automotive, electrical appliances and electronics, and in the food processing industry.
Both automation and robotics have gained an important foothold in Thailand’s growth and development. Many universities in Thailand offer courses for students interested in this field, with the most specialized course being offered by the Institute of Field Robotics (FIBO) at King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thonburi.
Many robots developed in-house by universities and private companies, in both the industrial and service categories, have also found use in real world applications. Mahidol University’s Bartlab Rescue Robot, Hive Ground’s Flare Stack Inspection Drone and Zeabus Autonomous Underwater vehicle (AUV), and CT Asia Robotics’s Dinsow Robot are some prominent examples. Given these advances, it is evident that Thai researchers and engineers possess the necessary skills and technical knowhow, and that Thailand is ready to be a hub for investment in these areas.
The country is a hub for automotive and electrical and electronics production in ASEAN. Thailand ranked 12th globally for motor vehicle production and 6th for commercial vehicle production in 2015. As for the electrical and electronics industry, Thailand has experienced a 7% growth in export value as measured from 2011, reaching an impressive figure of THB 435 billion (USD 12 billion) in 2015. The country is also renowned for being the second largest global producer and exporter of data storage units like Hard Disk Drives (HDD).
The BOI recognizes the importance of automation and robotics and they belong to the future industries promoted under the Super Cluster category. Examples of activities eligible for incentives in these industries include microelectronics design, embedded system design, and embedded software. Recently, the BOI approved additional activities to expedite investment projects in these future industries.
High value-added software development is one of those additional activities and it includes developing system software for advanced technology devices (including business process management) and developing industrial software used to support manufacturing. Investors can apply for general incentives that include an 8 year income tax exemption and import duty on machinery, and raw materials. However, they can apply for incentives under the Super Cluster policy if they meet certain specific criteria and not only get an 8 year income tax exemption, but also 50% Corporate Income Tax (CIT) reduction for 5 years. Non-tax incentives include the right to own land and work permits for expatriates.
