Industrial Automation Magazine India

People need to upgrade their skills to fit in higher roles & responsibilities

Published on : Friday 18-10-2019

What are the latest trends in automation for the industry?
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and influence of AI are the highlights around which the automation industry is revolving. With smart sensors and data science, plant automation is taken to the next level, where we talk about improving the efficiency of operations based on complex algorithms which are sometimes out of the domain of human brain.

Is the pace of changing technology too rapid for user industries to adjust to?
Not really, it is the law of nature. Technology is at the exponential part of the Moore’s Law and we as individuals from the automation world have this task upon us to upgrade our skills exponentially. With the explosion of information available through our search engines, online training courses and live hands-on training courses, I think any user who is ready for the challenge can have his efforts sorted. However, that said, it is important to mention that with this pace of growth it is now almost impossible for a user to sustain with the growing technology without keeping themselves on the toes in all instances.

Are the user industries, especially SMEs, adequately informed and equipped to handle digital transformation and its challenges?
This is really one of the difficult questions to answer and talks directly about the availability and spread of knowhow of digital transformation across various verticals and at all levels. Well, I feel the Government of India is making effort to promote digitalisation and have special provisions for the SMEs – since SMEs contribute almost 70-80% of the GDP of our country. However it is still too early to make a comment on the progress of SMEs with the digital transformation.

The Indian market always has its own challenges when it comes to technology adoption, especially the RoI factor. Are things changing?
Well, a technology that does not give adequate RoI eventually has only one fate, phase out. Like Steve Jobs said ‘The over-all point is that new technology will not necessarily replace old technology, but it will date it. By definition. Eventually, it will replace it. But it’s like people who had black-and-white TVs when colour came out. They eventually decided whether or not the new technology was worth the investment’. So whether this changing technology gives a RoI in the long term is yet to be seen. However, the chances of RoI being far more than estimated is more likely, given the current technology adoption in a country like India.

Is there a fine balance between total automation and safeguarding jobs?

Yes there is, people only need to realise that they need to upgrade their skills to fit in higher roles and responsibilities. Everyone is talking about IIoT and data science taking away job of an analyst. But has anyone looked at the other statistics which say that data science has created job opportunities in a huge quantum that India is estimated to have lack of  professionals to fit into 76% of AI jobs. So it’s simple – we need to upgrade our skills.

Ravinder Goyal is a professional in the field of instrumentation and automation for over 3 decades. He started one of the first indigenous bulk manufacturing units for RF type of point level switches in India. Under his stewardship, EIP is currently the most up-to-date companies in India with the most advanced level and inventory measurement solutions for bulk solids and powders.