Bearing this in mind, to attract these generations into the industrial workforce, operators should look to evolve – and augment – the operator role to reflect their inherent abilities and everyday experiences. This can be achieved by the continuing shift of modern control systems, such as ABB’s
Ability System 800xA, towards increased automation and data use, to harness new and emerging technologies, such as AI, machine learning and advanced analytics.
Further integration of cutting-edge technologies such as these can shift the operator’s role away from simply maintaining high productivity and stable operations, which is what happens today, to a more immersive, digitally enhanced, and rewarding experience. This can include:
- Freeing up operators time for more meaningful work such as using data and advanced analytics to optimise processes for energy efficiency and carbon emission savings.
- Enabling early warning of potential failure with AI-powered systems that can use real and historic data to offer troubleshooting solutions, much like a virtual assistant.
- Workflow simulation to check outcomes and for training and augmented reality (AR) headsets to access experts working offsite.
Augmenting the role of the operator in this way will appeal to a generation that expects to have a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips, are used to working with intelligent digital systems and rank job satisfaction alongside salary. What’s more, they will also help personnel train and maintain skills, provide earlier failure warnings, and increasingly efficient operations to achieve overall performance excellence.
The next step to achieve this reality is to fuse together the Distributed Control Systems', operations technology and real-time control system with the Edge and newer IT technology, such as machine learning and AI. As well as incorporating historical data and the mining of other data sources for pattern recognition and knowledge extraction. This will shift the automation system beyond only real time control to one that allows the operator to augment operations from day-to-day. It will be a journey, but humans working with technological systems to augment their cognitive capabilities can amplify their potential and provide huge value to both the workforce and the industry at large – as well as attract new generations to the sector.