Whither automation skills?
Many people think that the automation industry is quickly developing a 'skills shortage' which will occur after the current generation of engineers retires. Where will the new engineers and technicians come from to operate future factories and process automation plants?
In the old days, instrumentation technicians and engineers were not really computer literate. And process engineering skills had to be acquired through a long 'apprenticeship' - often years, and even decades. The problem today is that corporate administrators are simply extrapolating those old patterns of employment.
As industry transforms into a high-tech workplace, the new generation of automation engineers and technicians will be completely different. They will have grown up with computer games, the Internet, PDAs and cellphones. Some computer games are more complex than typical control or monitoring systems. By comparison, the software tools and smart equipment in today's control rooms should be a cakewalk.
Sadly, large end-user company policies are still measuring progress by obsolete learning standards. And this is why bright youngsters shun jobs in factories and plants, and go off looking for careers outside the automation business.
The Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society (ISA) is working diligently to develop the image and value of 'certified automation professionals'. But progress is stymied by lack of recognition of the profession. Here is the key question: will automation professionals be recognised with higher base pay and faster advancement? Without that recognition, certification is worthless.
ISA's challenge is to convince employers of the merits of the CAP program. If there is a big pay differential that comes with CAP certification, engineers will want to achieve that status. Right now, it is just eyewash.
Dick Morley, father of the programmable logic controller (PLC), and co-author of the book, 'The Technology Machine - how manufacturing will look in the year 2020', suggests that the remedies require significant social change, a modification of the mind-set.
Young people must 'feel' that engineering is significant work. Pay scales must change, to encourage the brightest and best to become engineers and innovators. Manufacturing people must be considered and respected as professionals. Heroes of engineering and manufacturing must be recognised and lauded.
Futurists and futures forecasts 2008
These days, one of my primary avocations is future studies. I am a professional member of the World Future Society and the Association of Professional Futurists. Each year since 1985 the editors of The Futurist have selected the most thought-provoking ideas and forecasts appearing in the magazine. Here are the editors' top 10 forecasts from Outlook 2008:
The world will have a billion millionaires by 2025. Globalisation and technological innovation are driving increased prosperity.
Wired-clothing: Technologies and tastes will revolutionise the fashion business.
The threat of another cold war with China, Russia, or both could replace terrorism as the chief US foreign-policy concern.
Counterfeiting of currency will proliferate, driving the move toward a cashless society.
The earth is on the verge of a significant extinction event, a biodiversity collapse 100 to 1000 times greater than any previous extinction since the dawn of humanity.
Water will be in the twenty-first century what oil was in the twentieth century.
World population by 2050 may grow larger than previously expected, due in part to healthier, longer-living people.
The number of Africans imperilled by floods will grow 70-fold by 2080.
Rising prices for natural resources could lead to a full-scale rush to develop the Arctic.
More decisions will be made by non-human entities. Electronically enabled teams in networks, robots with artificial intelligence, and other non-carbon life-forms will make financial, health, educational, and even political decisions for us.
The Outlook 2008 report was released as part of the November-December 2007 issue of The Futurist magazine.
Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and commentator, writer, technology futurist and angel investor. His popular e-mail newsletter, JimPinto.com eNews, is widely read (with direct circulation of about 7000 and web-readership of two to three times that number). His areas of interest are technology futures, marketing and business strategies for a fast-changing environment, and industrial automation with a slant towards technology trends.
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