Industries have to get ahead of changes to be more competitive in the future
From Engineering.com
With Industry 4.0 right around the corner (or maybe it’s already here) manufacturing is about to make an exponential leap forward. We’ve seen industrial revolutions before—three of them, in fact—but somehow the fourth industrial revolution seems different.
Michelle Drew Rodriguez, manufacturing leader for Deloitte’s Center for Industry Insights, believes the key difference between this industrial revolution and the past three is the pace of change. “The last three industrial revolutions have essentially taken place on a linear path,” she said in a keynote at the second annual Robotiq User Conference (RUC). “But the pace at which technology is advancing—particularly in the last few decades—isn’t linear; it’s exponential.”
These exponential changes are inherently disruptive, and they’re just beginning to be felt in manufacturing. “Bottom line: it’s a great time to be in manufacturing,” Rodriguez said. “We’re seeing very strong output globally.”
The data for that insight comes from Deloitte’s Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index (GMCI), which surveys more than 500 manufacturing executives to “take the pulse” of the sector, particularly regarding which countries the respondents see as most competitive.
U.S. predicted to overtake China for manufacturing competitiveness by 2020: Deloitte’s GMCI
Another insight in the GMCI is the close link between a country’s ranking and the prevalence of its high-tech manufacturing. “Nations that have more than 50 percent of their exports coming from high-skill, high-tech manufacturing exports are correlated very significantly to manufacturing executives feeling that they’re going to be more competitive in the future.”
Rodriguez suggested that this is part of the reason the U.S. is predicted to overtake China at the top of the GMCI by 2020. “This is the first time ever that global manufacturing executives are ranking the U.S. in the number one spot.”
The impact of new technology notwithstanding, the biggest driver of manufacturing competitiveness is still talent. “Talent is going to be the key differentiator moving forward,” said Rodriguez. The issue there, of course, is the skills gap: another reason manufacturers are so focused on the future. “Manufacturing executives indicate that six out of ten of their current openings are due to that skills shortage,” Rodriguez added.
A potential solution to this issue fit well with the RUC theme of deploying more robots, faster. “Collaborative robots are a great way to address that need,” said Rodriguez, “Because you’re not replacing workers, but helping them by taking what they do today and automating the mundane or routine jobs that people don’t want. That frees up their intellectual power to advance your manufacturing operation in other ways.”
Not enough talent: technology changes are coming so fast it’s difficult to reskill or upskill workers to keep pace
After her keynote, I asked Rodriguez if she sees a connection between the rapid pace of change associated with Industry 4.0 and the impending skills gap in manufacturing. “Absolutely,” she said. “I think there are two elements to the skills issue. One is fundamentally a matter of supply, in that we simply don’t have enough talent. But that’s amplified by the fact that, because things are changing so quickly, it’s increasingly more difficult to reskill or upskill your workers to keep pace with technology.”
