Are you training for your automation investment?

Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

Research from The Conference Board of Canada, in partnership with the Future Skills Centre, has found that a combination of industry-specific trends and attitudes is shaping how Canadian organizations adopt automation and use new technology.

One of the findings that probably won’t surprise readers of Canadian Fabricating & Welding is that introducing automation is being influenced by the fact that digital applications are becoming more commonplace. How many times have you heard a machine tool provider compare a control screen to your mobile device? The outcome of this shift, according to the study, is that most workers feel they have some of the resources they need to manage the adoption of new high-tech tools.

At the same time, however, nearly one-third of those surveyed felt no pressure to upgrade their skills.

This last point is the one that the Board, and all of us, should be concerned about. Most manufacturers are adopting more automation to increase production rather than completely replace operators, so making sure employees are thoroughly trained on the machines they will be operating can only help increase productivity.

According to the Board, up to 47 per cent of jobs are at risk of being lost to automation or being radically transformed by technology in the coming years. Its latest research revealed that most managers feel confident about how open their organizations are to adopting new technologies, yet they feel less prepared to take full advantage of the potential benefits.

Barriers that deter organizations from investing in new technologies and retraining employees include reactive responses toward new technologies, rather than proactive; inadequate workforce know-how for operating new technologies because of labour shortages; insufficient employee testing opportunities; and inconsistent regulations within industries.

The challenge for a lot of fab shops will likely be cross-training employees on a variety of machines while ensuring there are “subject experts” on each tool to ensure that its full value is being realized. Today’s fabrication machinery is very sophisticated. Although the software it often comes with takes you much of the way in gaining the full value of the tools, each shop is unique; ultimately, only you know precisely what you want to achieve with it.

Today’s automation actually creates more opportunity for employee growth. Productivity can stay high even as team members are trained to push that technology further. The more training and opportunities for growth in your organization, the less reason your team members will have to look elsewhere for the next step in their career.