Key points
Coronavirus has sped up the need for the process industry to become fully automated. Social distancing guidelines coupled with workers understandably nervous about returning to workplaces is pressuring the sector somewhat into investigating and investing in how to continue running operations without workers needing to be on site.
Ironically, despite its negative economic impact, automation is proving one of the biggest stimulations for future innovation. Yokogawa has found that two thirds of process industry companies across the globe now expect to have fully autonomous operations by the year 2030. But the first question is; to what extent are companies automating, and how?
The mission to achieve level five automation
As process industries embrace automation, both operational technology (OT) and IT professionals are looking at ways to increase productivity through autonomous operations. We’ve recently seen the renewables sector putting a greater emphasis on automation investment as a direct result of COVID-19, for example. With process industries aiming to increase their investment in industrial automation over the next three years – a definite trend is emerging.
And that trend is leading to a race within the industry – a race to what we at Yokogawa refer to as level five automation. Level five is defined as operations being completely autonomous, within the integration of systems for supply chains and process operations, among others. Simply put, they require no human intervention to be operational. As companies count the costs of an absent workforce, a well-designed autonomous system will bring the benefits of remote operations and safer working environments.
Decision making technologies
AI
AI is the driving force behind autonomous operations, and process industry companies will be investing hugely in AI systems that will allow for decision-making technologies to be implemented.
Cloud analytics and big data
The sheer volume of data required for processes to run autonomously and be instantly shared between many systems and devices, will be tremendous.
The distributed edge networks in which this data is created -and the continual cycles of DevOps style software upgrades required to ensure the data integrity and safety of the network – means that without an effective cloud approach, and analytics system, automation systems won’t operate effectively.
Cloud analytics, along with big data that provides ways to analyse, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software.
Intelligent sensors and devices
If systems are to run autonomously, they must be able to diagnose and calibrate independently too. Hence, smart sensors are vital to enable concepts like self-diagnostics, self-calibration, and self-configuration/parameterisation. There is an increasing need to measure quality attributes and raw material attributes, which is enabled by smart sensors such as in digital twin deployment.
Cybersecurity
Of course, as the above technologies become connected and autonomous, the wider the cyber threat surface grows. Cybercriminals and hackers are extremely adept at noticing industry trends, and so investment in cutting edge cybersecurity solutions is naturally a top priority.
Tackling the continued skills gap
As these technologies become ever more complex, they require constant training and development of more staff – leading to the potential for an ever-growing window of human error. Automating, and programming, existing processes makes keeping up with the curve far more time consuming.
One issue that concerns the manufacturing industry is the lack of a skilled workforce to take up these complex operations. While Brexit will end free movement, meaning fewer skilled EU workers will move to the UK, the truth is that a skills shortage already existed before 2016.
According to recent reports, approximately 186,000 new engineers and manufacturers are needed every year until 2024, but the industry is facing a deficit of around 20,000 graduates annually. Tackling this issue is key to creating a strong manufacturing base and securing its role in the global economy.
As skilled manufacturers and veterans of the industry reach retirement age, their knowhow and experience are extremely hard to replace. It would be unfair to expect a graduate to perform at the same level as someone who has been in their career for 40 years.
However, new automated technologies that are being implemented in workplaces can help bridge the knowledge gap caused by baby-boomers retiring.
People entering the workplace can be taught to use new systems that didn’t exist even ten years ago, ensuring that the skills gap created by retirements isn’t so wide. The management of applications throughout autonomous operations can offset the shortage of skilled labour as people retire.
Explaining the move to autonomy
Yes, COVID-19 has accelerated the rush to achieve autonomy, such is the need to operate effectively with a smaller human workforce, but there are numerous other benefits to automating as well, that would justify the initial financial outlay.
Companies have long considered autonomy as a solution to business challenges, but the pandemic has provided the impetus for them to accelerate their shift to level five autonomy – particularly in improving productivity and efficiency.
Operations becoming automated frees up human workers to focus on more creative, strategic tasks that will continue to drive a company forward. Automating processes also leads to greater worker safety, without the need for people to physically engage with machinery and equipment.
And, with fewer human workers involved in the actual production process, there is less risk for human error, and therefore less opportunity for production to breakdown or instructions to be miscommunicated.
Overall, automation makes workplaces within the process industry sector more efficient, more productive, more profitable and safer for human workers.
Over the next three years fully manned tasks will remain largely unchanged, but it is the move from level four – minimally manned tasks – to level five – unattended systems – that will reveal the biggest transformation in process industries.
Yokogawa has found that productivity, increased efficiency and optimised staff levels are the key targets for companies in process industry companies.
COVID-19 the platform for the race to automation
The move towards level five unattended systems is inevitable, and process industry workplaces will have drastically changed by 2030. With tens of thousands of companies continually adopting increasingly autonomous processes, many in the process industry are set to become fully automated by the end of this decade.
Coronavirus has meant the industry is having to traverse a troubled path in the short-term, but has dawned a new era of automation for the process industry.
