When the doors opened on the auditorium at Works Management’s Manufacturing Management Conference (MMC), attendees stepped through a time warp, and were transported to a future where robots and data rule the roost and the fourth industrial revolution is in full swing.
In a world dominated by the likes of Amazon, Uber and Facebook, technology is part of everyday consumer life. The challenge, according to Brian Holliday, head of Siemens’ digital factory, is translating that into industry. “Industry has always lagged behind the consumer market when it comes to innovation,” he told the 100-plus delegates. “With manufacturing, though, the challenges will always remain roughly the same – speed, quality, efficiency and flexibility.”
Holliday highlighted the UK’s strengths in innovation, R&D and IT, and their positive impact on the country’s industry. “However, my worry is that we haven’t adopted some of the automation technology that our near neighbours have,” he said. “When you hear reports that France is 20% more productive than the UK, I see it as a direct link between productivity and investment in technology.”
Siemens have invested heavily in robotics technology at its plant in Augsburg, Germany. “Between when the plant opened in the early 1990s and today, we have seen a ten-fold increase in output,” said Holliday. Then, the killer line: “There are no more or fewer employees in that plant. We have invested in automation not for cost, or to replace jobs, but to increase output and productivity.”
Investment is the only way to keep up with competition from overseas markets such as China, said Holliday. And, even the most high-tech innovations are no longer out of reach of smaller budgets. Siemens have recently spent £250,000 on a digital ‘cave’, where they train apprentices and digitally design products before launching them. “I’ve since realised that if we’d held on a couple of years, we could have bought much the same kit for about £800,” admitted Holliday.
Another company who have invested heavily in digital training are BAE Systems. At their Samlesbury site, the aerospace giants have invested over £15m in a new Academy for Skills and Knowledge (ASK). There, young apprentices are turned into “oven-ready chickens, prepared for a lifetime of work in engineering and manufacturing,” said Damian Adams, XXXX. “We want to break down some of the understandable nervousness surrounding having to touch a multi-million pound Typhoon jet fighter, and get trainees to build confidence in their own abilities.”
The ASK has been developed to provide cutting-edge training to today’s up-and-coming engineers, Adams explained. However, the cream of the crop in 2017 is a lot different to that from 20 years ago. “In the 1980s, the attention span of a learner was about 20 minutes,” he said. “Today, thanks to things like mobile phones, that is 8-10 minutes. People expect to be engaged better and in different ways. That’s something that we have looked to reflect in our teaching offerings.”
This attention span deficit and appeal for the gaming generation has led to BAE Systems providing a plethora of high-tech kit for their trainees, including a digital cave, additive manufacturing machines and robotics. However, they also put emphasis on more ‘traditional’ methods, such as Six Sigma (see p24) and lean manufacturing. “What we have tried to do is, when the young people learn the theory of Six Sigma in the classrooms, they then go and apply it on the factory floor,” explained Adams. “For example, they apply TPM on machine tooling. We try to blend the theory with practical experience.”
Mike Wilson, chairman of the British Automation and Robotics Association (BARA), raised the question that will have been on the lips of many delegates: will robots and automation take jobs in the future? “Yes, and no,” was his reply. “The types of jobs robots perform tend to be the low-skilled, repetitive, mundane and arduous ones that people shouldn’t be doing in this day and age. The headlines in the press get workers worried, which is understandable. They shouldn’t, though. The idea behind automation is to give workers the tools to maximise their productivity.”
Wilson’s argument was that manufacturing is going to face more challenges in the coming years – not least from Brexit. “Brexit is likely to have an impact on the availability of labour,” he said. “If you look at the food industry, a very large percentage of their workforce is sourced from overseas. If they struggle for staff, the industry will struggle with the very real problem of feeding the UK.”
Added to this is the not-insignificant skills gap that is currently looming large over the industry. Wilson was clear in his warning, throwing down a gauntlet to those in attendance. “We need a quarter of a million new engineers by 2022 – that’s just five years away, and there isn’t currently a clear solution. We therefore have to invest now in technology in order to make our workforces more productive.”
That may be harder than it looks, warned Wilson. “A cross-party parliamentary group looked at attitudes in UK manufacturing in 2013. They found that UK manufacturers are very proud of the fact that they keep old machinery running. By contrast, German manufacturers are very proud of the fact that they have bought brand new machines. They are significantly more productive than us, because they invest in the right equipment.”
The secret, said Wilson, is to find ways to use people more effectively. “We don’t want people tied to machines, so we can use their skills and attributes to the maximum. Use robots and automation where the tasks are repetitive and mundane, and use the people where they can add value.”
Germany has 170 robots per 10,000 workers in manufacturing, said Wilson. The UK has 33 – about the world average. “This makes it very difficult for us to be competitive, when we’re not using the same tools as our direct competitors,” he said. “The UK is the ninth largest manufacturing nation in the world, but in terms of the use of automation we are lagging behind where we should be.”
As a final flourish, Wilson pointed to a recent Barclays study, which showed that a £1.25bn investment in automation in manufacturing would raise the overall value-add to the UK economy by £60bn. It would also, he said, lead to an increased number of jobs. “It’s not about replacing people. It’s about making them more productive.”
Investing in technology was also a key theme for the final speaker, Nick Provost of Centrica, parent company of British Gas, who explored how manufacturers can save on their energy bills. “Stop thinking that energy stops at the meter,” he said. “There’s so much that can be optimised on the site level that happens behind the meter.”
Constant monitoring and control of energy usage is vital, Provost continued. And, even small changes can go a long way. Things like variable speed drives can save a huge amount of energy, as does the correct insulation on pipework. “I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve gone round factory sites and seen very low-hanging fruit that hasn’t been addressed,” he said.
On top of that, there are several instances where energy can be saved without disrupting the workflow on site. “Air conditioning, for example, can be derated or set back during certain times of the day, when the energy is at its most expensive,” said Provost. “Diesel generators, as well, should be run when it’s cheaper to draw power from the National Grid.”
Clever management of assets can also be lucrative, continued Provost. “You may have a diesel-powered generator, but look to combine that with solar panels or combined heat and power assets as well. A lot of factories will have a diesel generator, but it will spend a lot of its time sitting idle. If you run them for longer, you can gain some revenue from them.”
The key message of Provost’s presentation was that “if you can measure it, you can manage it.” Once again, the word ‘data’ took front and centre – “you turn data into information, and then turn that into knowledge,” explained Provost. “A lot of people get, say, half-hourly data, but it only tends to come from the meter, and not downstream of that. Centrica’s new Panoramic device, continued Provost, can monitor the energy consumption of every asset in the factory individually. “This not only gives you more data to learn from, but it also gives you the chance to benchmark one piece of equipment against another,” said Provost.
Whether in training, energy consumption or automation, data is set to rule the roost. However, the common message coming out of MMC 2017 was that this data will mean nothing unless it is properly harnessed and used to its maximum potential. UK manufacturers are on the cusp of doing just that, but without a concerted effort – and major investment – we are set to lag behind the rest for some time.
Works Management would like to thank our sponsors – Werma, ABB, Manufacturing Excellence, OEE Systems and British Gas – plus all the delegates who attended. Look out for more details on next year’s event in due course.
