Daily Archives: February 7, 2022

John Rogers, EMEA VP and GM Partner Network at Faethm, a SaaS enterprise platform that uses AI to forecast the impact of technology, discusses how automation will shape the future of UK manufacturing.

Alarmist headlines lambasting robotics and automation as a threat to jobs and livelihoods have been ringing alarm bells in the UK for some time. However, neither are new to the manufacturing sector, and in some businesses have been present for decades yet many individuals have retained the same manufacturing job for years.

Anyone working in manufacturing could be forgiven for being a little confused, and this is likely to be accentuated by increasing evidence that the pressure of the pandemic has catalysed even more rapid adoption of such technologies. In addition, it is no secret that manufacturing and associated industries face a severe skills shortage, caused by an ageing workforce (with few young people entering the profession), and the macroeconomic impacts of both Brexit and supply chain issues.

Their combined impact means there is scope for automation to play an even greater role in the near future. Faethms AI-powered skills platform constantly tracks the impact of automation and emerging technology on any industry or job role, including manufacturing, and its latest analysis of UK census data indicates that 17.5% of all roles in the manufacturing industry are potentially automatable before 2026, while 7.8% are seen as augmentable by automation and technology.

Rogers explains that it would be foolish to ignore the fact that certain skills and large portions of existing job roles will inevitably become redundant due to technological change. But rather than fear such change, it is more important that we embrace it since the future of work is already here. The better we become at evolving our roles alongside technology, the better we will fare in the evolution of work, he comments.

Innovations such as lights out factories may be feasible in certain specific scenarios, but there will always be a need for a human touch. Technology cannot capture the entire spectrum of innately human qualities that make us so unique, so every role in the future will see humans and technology work together, hand-in-hand, augmenting one another.

Rogers adds that making that future a success will require two things; a combination of insights, data and analysis, to unearth the pinch points and opportunities on the horizon; and more importantly, concerted intervention from businesses and government to future-proof the UKs workforce.

He adds: Targeted programmes that seek to retain, retrain, and redeploy employees so they complement technology, and vice-versa, will be critical to delivering an equally distributed future of work for all.

As new roles begin to emerge it is of course vital that strategic workforce planning equips the existing workforce with the skills needed to fill them. As Rogers explains, a traditional workforce planning strategy simply offsets growth aspirations with how internal talent might be affected by events such as attrition, tenure of service and planned redundancy, in order to understand the supply of talent, and assess the demand for skills, knowledge, and capabilities needed to deliver on the transformation strategies.

However, the exponential impact of adopting new technologies is now a much weightier factor, he adds. HR leaders must consider that the skills we need in the workforce are now changing so fast that the talents they want to employ are currently not available in the market in the volumes required, and at the speed they would like to hire at. Strategic workforce planning must now consider decisions like how to build in-demand skills internally, transforming redundant skill sets and where technology can actually solve skills shortages.

Technological innovation is occurring at pace within manufacturing, but in order to portray the industry as a dynamic and fulfilling one for young people, that fact must be emphasised across the board. However, as Rogers explains, encouraging young people into the industry is only one element of the transformation the manufacturing sector must make to develop a sustainable talent pipeline.

He adds: Technologies with potential applications in the workplace are constantly emerging and evolving, and as a result, demand for skills will rise and fall far more quickly than ever before; certain job roles will likely come and go within the space of a few years as innovations rapidly move through the initial adoption phase and become mainstream.

Both employers and individuals also need to recognise that one skill set will no longer sustain an individual for the entirety of their working life. Going forward, adaptability must be viewed as the most valuable skill for every employee. Employees need to embrace the challenges and opportunities that innovation presents and be open-minded when it comes to reskilling viewing learning as something that will be a constant in their career.

Hand-in-hand with the adaptability of workers will be a need for employers to shift their mindset. It will no longer be enough to merely leave career development to the discretion of employees. Much of the workforce do not have access to the data on how jobs will evolve with technology like employers do, and as much as employees ought to view their skillset as a constantly evolving toolbox that sits alongside technology, it is vital that employers take responsibility for guiding employees on what skills development they should pursue to achieve sustained employability as the demand for talent continues to evolve.

Rogers adds: If the manufacturing sector takes the leading role in transitioning employees as requirements and technology trends change, then this will be a huge factor, not only in attracting the next generation, but also in ensuring that no one is left behind A tumultuous two years As mentioned earlier, evidence is pointing to the fact that automation technologies have seen an accelerated take up in recent years, primarily driven by the pandemic. COVID-19 has acted as a slingshot for companies digital transformation, adds Rogers. When the pandemic struck, many organisations accelerated the implementation of technology solutions to improve efficiencies, save costs, and simply keep the lights on.

For many workforces, this transformation included the rapid introduction of new technologies designed to make work more seamless, but which will likely have left some workers with elements of their role now automated by these tools. Rogers points out that HR leaders and teams have a huge role to play in preparing organisations for this automation and augmentation of work.

Tools are now available that can help them identify jobs that are at risk of automation and require reskilling, and act accordingly to avoid costly redundancies and rehiring processes. This includes creating bespoke skill pathways which identify employees current skillsets, and automatically recommend training plans to help them retrain in transferable skills, so they can transition to new roles via a job corridor.

A large swathe of the manufacturing sector could be impacted by automation in the coming years. Considering the introduction of robotics specifically, manufacturing subsectors such as leather and related products (13.4% automatable work), food products (12.4%) and furniture (12%) are most likely to be affected in the next five years. When looking at particular job roles more broadly, bookkeepers, payroll managers and wage clerks lead the way, with 56.8% of work being automatable in the next five years.

On the manufacturing floor, packers, bottlers, canners and fillers are the most highly automatable job group, with 28.7% of the work primed for automation. This implies that the food and drink manufacturing workforce is likely to be particularly impacted by the growth of technology over the next few years. Rogers adds that the technology exists, but cultural and economic factors can accelerate or decelerate the adoption.

Either way, what is certain is that we must prepare. In terms of areas of manufacturing that are most ripe for augmentation by technology to aid the human workforce, IT and software-facing roles are the job profiles most likely to be benefit. Here, 29.3% of work done by IT specialist managers and 18.4% of programmers and software development professionals day-to-day work could be augmented, with technologies such as generative design, predictive analysis and solution discovery making inroads into the manufacturing sector. To be clear, augmentation here is defined as the capability of technologies to supplement a job and create efficiency, therefore enabling a worker to gain capacity to do higher value work, Rogers continues.

Our data predicts that six percent of all manufacturing-related roles could be automated within the next year, rising to 18% within five years and 34% within a decade, so the impact could be considerable, adds Rogers. He explains that technology adoption is dependent on many factors, and some of these technologies might be circumventing talent gaps rather than replacing full time workers.

These new technologies will also require a significant human workforce to support and maintain them. We foresee a job addition rate of nine percent over that same ten-year period, he explains. Organisations require talent that can implement and manage the technologies theyve deployed, meaning roles in areas like software development, data engineering and application development will continue to be in high demand.

In addition, roles that are intrinsically human, that require person-to-person engagement, such as public health, occupational therapists or programme management, are unlikely to be replaced, and in fact will become increasingly valuable. And there are many skills that can be developed to sustain our livelihoods in harmony with technology.

How about some more content from The Manufacturer around Robotics and Automation?

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How automation will shape the future - The Manufacturer

By Thomas R. Cutler

One of the benefits of warehouse automation includes increasing speed. Automated systems instantly identify the locations of all items in a particular order increasing speed.

Warehouse automation systems optimize routes and maximize productivity during the product retrieval process. Warehouse automation speeds up inventory management processes by using the technology to automatically count items.

Maximizing space is another advantage in automating warehouses. Utilizing lift trucks that complete product retrieval and storage tasks reduce the need for wide aisles that accommodate large pallets and pallet jacks and workers.

AS/RS systems also use conveyors and lift trucks that reduce the amount of space used for aisles.

By reducing human error, warehouse automation can simplify inventory management, allowing for more accurate inventory counts and related inventory data.

Goods-to-person

LinkMisr International is a leading industrial company specialized in manufacturing shelving and racking systems now serving North America.

Recently, Simon Armanious shared more about how the Egyptian company is an advocate for goods-to-person automation. Simon noted that LinkMisr was established in Egypt in 1993 and now has four factories.

In nearly thirty years the company has grown significantly and sustained its position as the market leader in Egypt and other countries in the Middle East, Africa, and North America.

LinkMisr owns and manufactures its products in four plants with total area of 28,000 sq m (more than 300,000 sq ft) using the most modern equipment.

The manufacturing facilities include an automatic shelving roll forming line, powder coating painting line, and uprights and beams roll forming line. The demand for on-time delivery is non-negotiable.

Many warehouse automation systems bring the products to the worker, rather than the worker going to the products. As a result, foot and equipment traffic throughout the facility is decreased, enhancing overall warehouse safety.

This can also reduce product damage by reducing the need for warehouse staff to manually move products from location to location.

As warehouse and distribution managers look to streamline operations, improve efficiency and production, and reduce costs, warehouse automation is on the rise.

The benefits of warehouse automation are numerous. For warehouse managers just delving into automation, one of the first benefits realized is a reduction in manual errors.

The cost per error ranges from $50 to $300. When multiplying the error cost by the 1%-3% error rate, represents a significant impact on the companys bottom line.

Warehouse automation benefits

Ninety percent (90%) of all warehouse automation destined for North American installations use products manufactured elsewhere. Using manufacturers who guarantee rapid material handling product delivery is essential when e-Commerce is driving a dramatic increase in warehouse utilization.

Flexibility is the hallmark of recommended solutions tailored to suit customers warehouse requirements. LinkMisr is proud to be the first African-based manufacturer at MODEX.

At a time when supply chain disruptions continue from other regions of the globe, and hiring warehouse workers nearly impossible, a unique opportunity for innovators becomes the new imperative.

Material handling experts who wish to be considered by LinkMisr should contactSimon Armanious at Simon.Armanious@linkmisr.com or call (647) 884-3624.

About the author: Thomas R. Cutler is the President and CEO of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based, TR Cutler, Inc., celebrating its 23rd year. Cutler is the founder of the Manufacturing Media Consortium including more than 9000 journalists, editors, and economists writing about trends in manufacturing, industry, material handling, and process improvement. TR Cutler, Inc. launched two new divisions focusing on Gen Z and the African manufacturing sector. Cutler authors more than 1000 feature articles annually regarding the manufacturing sector. Over 5000 industry leaders follow Cutler on Twitter daily at @ThomasRCutler. Contact Cutler at trcutler@trcutlerinc.com.

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LinkMisr Shares How Warehouse Automation Transforms Operations - Robotics and Automation News

Financial reporting is a crucial requirement for regulated brokers. However, creating and distributing unique content is extremely resource-intensive, leaving many brokers unsure whether it is worth the ROI. But what if brokers could access unique, actionable content at a fraction of the cost?

How Automation is Helping Online Brokers Reduce their Content Spend

There are several challenges brokers face when producing unique content for their traders. Despite reports being generated regularly and predictably, employees spend a significant portion of their time collating data, deriving insights, and subsequently creating some form of written or visual output for clients and auditors. That is assuming you can afford a team of analysts and translators dedicated to this task.

But does producing unique, engaging content in different languages need to be this difficult?

What are the Pain Points in Content Creation?

To achieve Global Market Coverage, brokers need to employ a team of analysts across a variety of markets and asset types. It is extremely costly to hire such a team and requires a lot of effort to manage. In the US, financial analysts had a median pay of $83,660 annually in 2020, while Capital market analysts make on average $87,913 per year. In the UK, the average base pay of a financial analyst is 44,530 annually. In Germany, the average entry-level salary was 55,260 in March 2021. This is all before considering the admin and cost involved in paying a team based in several different countries.

Establishing the consistency needed to build your brand identity when working with an often disconnected team is exceptionally challenging. This has been made even more difficult by a rapidly evolving set of regulations across regions, sectors, and business units. This can impact the quality of reports.

Creating reports and online content is a time and labour-intensive process. When your employees are engaged in this, they have little time to drive additional strategic value for your business. It is also challenging for employees to keep up with the constantly changing trading opportunities. The set-up may no longer be valid by the time an analyst has identified, written up, and published a trading opportunity.

Today, analysts and compliance teams have a tremendous opportunity to leverage intelligent technologies to automate repetitive and data-driven tasks. For example, content creation can be made scalable, unique, and cost-effective through sophisticated AI coupled with NLG (Natural Language Generation).

Automating your content production and distribution has several benefits, the largest of which is cost-saving. By automating your content production, there is no need to hire a team of analysts or translators. Other benefits include:

However, human written content includes nuance and creativity that AI struggles to achieve. So, a collaboration of human and AI written could be the best solution. Unfortunately, advanced AI is also difficult to develop, and automated translations are still not at a level that can reflect the nuance of technical language.

The Autochartist SolutionAutochartist brings you the best of both worlds, offering AI and human written content. We developed a sophisticated AI system that integrates into your price charts to produce unique content for your brokerage. Our content is accurately translated using specialist translators to ensure accuracy while still achieving instant generation. We also customise all our content to match your brand identity and CI. In addition, our technology creates financial market commentaries specific to each organisation that enables brokers to:

Autochartists AI-based content creation, in collaboration with experienced analysts for greater insights, can replace an entire content writing team while bringing more cost-effective and supporting a robust multi-channel content strategy.

Contact the team to learn more about this technology.

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Automation: The Key to Affordable Broker Content Creation and Delivery - FinanceFeeds

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Automation Testing Market

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Automation Testing Market to See Huge Growth by 2030 | IBM, CA Technologies, Micro Focus and more Cleveland Sports Zone - Cleveland Sports Zone

Any change requires support to make it easier, and that is especially true for automation efforts.

Many enterprise leaders say automation is a top priority for them. Just saying that doesn't make it true, and it doesn't guarantee any changes in staff behavior. To meet goals for automation, IT and business leaders must avoid or clear the top automation barriers by focusing on getting the right tools, building the right processes and providing the right employee support.

Here's a deeper look at how these approaches help overcome enterprise automation roadblocks.

We can't expect everyone to become a coder. Certainly, IT staff should focus on doing ad hoc code-based automation right -- by implementing code management and change management on production scripts, by setting standards for which tools and languages are used, and by settling on some basic, standard coding practices.

Beyond folks in IT doing traditional automation better, though, enterprises should be engaging other major means of automating work inside and outside IT to facilitate automation efforts:

Processes define the flows of work and data through an organization. To be reliable and resilient, staff must document these processes. Reviewing process documents regularly not only keeps them reality-based, it also brings opportunities for automation to the surface. Documenting a process for the first time offers the same opportunity, as manual steps in any process present automation opportunities.

Staff who are documenting processes must take care to distinguish between a purely mechanical manual step and a step with significant staff input. An example of purely mechanical looks like this: Take information from system A and reenter it in system B. An example of a step that is more ambiguous looks like this: Take information from system A and decide whether to retain it in system B as well, put it into system C or flag it for further analysis.

The more sophisticated the required decision-making process is, the more difficult it is to automate.

Automating a purely mechanical step is usually straightforward and is the focus of RPA tools especially. Automating a more nuanced decision may still be possible, but the more sophisticated the required decision-making process is, the more difficult it is to automate. In that case, it may be easier to automate support for the knowledge worker in that position rather than automating the step itself. This might involve giving the worker a simpler push-button means of implementing the decisions they make.

People can make or break any technology initiative and that includes automation efforts. To overcome staff-related barriers to automation, leadership must support goals with clear directives and meaningful compensation.

If leadership simply expects employees to add "automator" to their task list, staff are unlikely to pursue that directive energetically. If staff fear they will lose their jobs thanks to automation, reluctance and apathy can turn to downright resistance.

Management needs to start from the ground up to motivate employees' automation efforts. Make it a part of annual goals for each position to develop and deploy, via whatever means, automation relevant to repetitive and manual tasks. In some organizations, that will involve first making automation a part of each job's description, which is a longer and more difficult process.

Leadership should clearly communicate that employees should look for automation opportunities that can help free up any time spent on rote tasks for more sophisticated and potentially rewarding work.In most organizations, staff are likely to have more work than they can comfortably handle, even with regular rounds of automation. Management should reassure staff that the goal is moving the company forward, not moving staff out.

Leaders should also build in compensation for automating more work -- for example, offering bonuses specifically for automating task work -- to keep automation efforts moving forward or help unstick a stalled effort.

Automation barriers are a common reality, but with the right mix of tools, processes and support for staff, IT leaders can unstick or accelerate their automation strategies.

About the authorJohn Burke is CIO and principal research analyst with Nemertes Research. With nearly two decades of technology experience, he has worked at all levels of IT.

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Top 3 ways to overcome automation barriers - TechTarget

United Parcel Service (UPS) vehicles are parked at a UPS facility in Los Angeles, California July 22, 2008.REUTERS/Fred Prouser/File Photo

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NEW YORK, NY, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Higher labor costs during the pandemic-plagued holiday season may erode the profits of United Parcel Service (UPS.N), the world's biggest package delivery firm, which is set to report quarterly earnings on Tuesday.

Investors will be watching for the margin impact from the company's mostly unionized delivery workforce. UPS hired nearly 100,000 people for the holiday season and plans to keep a portion of those workers on board.

The company increased worker pay in certain regions to an average of $18 per hour from $15, it said in June.

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Union pay and benefits for UPS drivers, sort center workers and package loaders generally exceed those at non-union shops like Amazon.com , UPS's largest customer and a growing delivery rival.

Analysts estimate an 8.7% year-over-year revenue increase to $27.1 billion for the fourth quarter, reflecting higher delivery volumes and surcharges as a surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant pushed more customers to online holiday shopping. They expect earnings per share of $3.10, up %16.5 from a year earlier, according to Refinitiv data.

From FedEx (FDX.N) to DHL to the United States Postal Service, delivery companies "are having to cough up money" to hire and keep workers, said Cathy Morrow Roberson, president of consultancy Logistics Trends & Insights.

"UPS has had to raise pay in certain areas of the country to attract some workers, but not on the same level as perhaps FedEx or a post office," she said.

When turnover and a lack of workers in the Ground unit at rival FedEx last year resulted in delivery delays, inefficient work flows and hundreds of millions of dollars in extra costs, UPS executives said they weren't feeling such severe strain.

UPS has had more predictable labor costs tied to the stability of its unionized workforce. FedEx uses less well-compensated contractors in its Ground operations that handle many e-commerce deliveries.

COVID-19 union protections have also helped UPS attract more workers compared to its competitors, Roberson said.

Still, investors are keen to hear more about how the company will use automation to boost efficiency and reduce costs.

UPS has invested in more automation tools since 2020 to increase efficiencies in its fulfillment process. The 114-year-old carrier beat FedEx and USPS with nearly 97% of on-time deliveries during the holiday season, helped by ample staffing, mild weather and a longer shopping season that spread "peak" holiday deliveries over more days, Cowen analyst Helane Becker said in a report.

Now, analysts are eyeing how these technologies, wage hikes and price increases are impacting profit margins.

"I think we will see leadership put more of a focus on automation capabilities within sorting facilities," said Donnelly, senior analyst at Third Bridge Group. "That will, over time, insulate them more and more from near-term labor dynamics."

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Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Bernadette Baum

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Analysts eye UPS automation efforts to offset increased wage costs - Reuters

With the onset of COVID-19, businesses have realised that they cannot go on as they wish to without leveraging technology. The pandemic has accelerated the pace at which businesses, especially SMBs, are adopting technology.

This also means that India is ushering in a new industrial revolution that will be defined by the use of technologies like IoT, connectivity, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, advanced engineering, and much more.

SMBStory recently spoke to Faraz Alam, Co-founder of Atmos Systems, and Business Development Head of Saifi Con Fab Systems.

Faridabad-based Saifi Con Fab Systems was started by his father Khursheed Alam in 1987. From a simple material manufacturing company to making conveyors, Saifi has scaled quite a bit in the last 35 odd years. It has also been witness to the evolving manufacturing and warehouse ecosystem of India.

One of the newest trends to have strongly emerged in the Indian manufacturing industry is warehouse automation, a market that is exhibiting significant growth owing to the growing need for a cost-effective method of production.

In a conversation with SMBStory, Faraz takes us through Saifis journey and what led to the launch of Atmos.

Khursheed Alam, who was earlier working with shoe-manufacturing giant Bata, left the job in 1987 after a clash with his manager and decided to start his own business.

He began by using his lathe machine for manufacturing machine parts of shoe making machines, and continued this till about 1997 after which he started scouting for other opportunities in the market. And he did tread on one of the major gaps in the Indian manufacturing sector.

India at the time was in dire need of better technology and equipments, especially given the opening up of the its economy in 1991, when domestic companies had to compete with international giants who had entered the market. One of the needs identified then was conveyors- a mechanical strip of metal used for transporting objects from one place to another.

Khursheed saw that there werent many conveyor-manufacturers in India and the companies who needed them had to import them, leading to an increase in the cost of production. That is when he decided to shift to the manufacturing of conveyors. After doing a lot of research, he introduced several other types of conveyors including storage overhead conveyors, floor conveyors, I-Beam overhead conveyors and more.

The business started taking off as players like Bajaj, Relaxo, Godrej, Eicher, Videocon, JBM, and more came on board as its customers. Then, in 2004, Khursheed shifted to a bigger factory in Faridabad and established two more units in the following years.

Saifi Con Fab Systems has three manufacturing units in Faridabad

The decade between 2010 to 2015 saw an unprecedented rise in ecommerce. According to several reports, India has the largest customer base of online shoppers after China and the US.

As online delivery started gaining momentum in the Indian market, the trend did not go unnoticeable in the eyes of Khursheed Alam who was joined by his son, Faraz Alam, in 2018.

In 2018, Khursheed and Faraz started developing a separate brand that focused only on smart warehouse automation solutions. The research and development took two years and finally, in 2020, the father-son duo launched Atmos Systems.

According to a report by Mordor Intelligence, the Indian warehouse automation market was valued at $86.2 million in 2020 and is slated to reach $512.2 million by 2026 at a CAGR of 26.4 percent in the forecast period.

Some of the major players in this market are Daifuku India Private Limited, Armstrong Limited, Space Magnum Limited, and more. Ecommerce giant, Amazon, also announced the infusion of $5 billion to set up automated warehouses in India.

Atmos Systems provides turnkey warehousing solutions using technologies like Internet of Things, automation and more.

Atmos first identifies the specific warehousing needs of a company, then starts working on creating the right solution including smart conveyors and software solutions which takes about 15 days to complete. Once everything is in place, it conducts trials before presenting the same to the client.

Under its brand, Atmos provides solutions such as Autonomous Case-Handling Robotic System for intelligent picking and handling of objects and Robotic Palletising System, which is used for transporting heavy objects from one place to another using pallets.

The Dimensioning Weighing Scanning (DWS) System is an ideal product for automatic capturing of product dimensions and weight. The Sortation Systems provide accuracy in sorting products based on defined attributes, claims Faraz

Atmos also gives its customers a one-year warranty, and deploys some of its technicians to work alongside these companies for the first few months so the clients can get a hang of the machines and the systems.

Atmos has so far clocked Rs 10 crore revenue since inception. Faraz says the father-son duo aim to make Atmos a top warehouse solutions provider in the years to come.

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This father-son duo is tapping the ecommerce wave to win over the warehouse automation solutions sector - YourStory