Read more
comment, news and features
www.theengineer.co.uk
21 April 2020 / www.theengineer.co.uk
Poll: What’s holding back UK
automation adoption?
The Engineer’s online poll on the factors behind the UK’s
relatively low levels of automation adoption received 308
votes. The largest response group, over a third of poll
respondents (35 per cent), believe that cost is the main
limiting factor. The next largest segment of our sample
group (26 per cent) put the UK’s low robot density down
to a lack of clarity over the benefi ts. For 14 per cent of poll
respondents, a misplaced pride in legacy technology is
stymying automation, and 13 per cent believe concerns
over automation-induced job losses are to blame. The
remaining 12 per cent see lack of government support as
the over-riding factor.
Concerns over cost
Many engineering fi rms in the UK are
SMEs, for whom automation is not a
clear-cut decision. Given the shortage
of highly skilled staff – which includes
those who have to design, install,
maintain, and program the machines – I
suspect that many fi rms will prefer to
carry on as before. The shortage of
less-skilled workers is more likely to be
severe in the agriculture sector, where
I think a major uptake of automation
(and AI) is more likely. The single
greatest concern is the diffi culty of
fi nding people suffi ciently skilled in
programming advanced equipment.
Richard Jenvey
One issue I have not seen is that
relating to the cost of installation. is it
worthwhile for SMEs in particular to use
this equipment, which needs skilled
maintenance and programming even
to carry out mundane tasks? If there
is a massive production run then the
economics are clear but for small scale
tasks much less so. Sometimes it is
easier and quicker to retain the human
touch, especially for bespoke or
one-off jobs.
Nick Cole
Robots are used to maximise profi ts,
enable the use of cheap semiskilled
and unskilled labour, and compete with
HAVE YOUR SAY
Visit our website to take part
in the continuing debate on
this emotive topic
I N YOUR OPINION
I believe a bigger issue is the lack of investment
in people ! After all, someone has to design and
build all the robots. Investment, something the
UK is really not very good at.
Another Steve
Lack of clarity over the benefi ts
Misplaced pride in keeping old machines running
foreign companies. Given that we can
never compete on price because of
much cheaper labour and much less
regulation overseas, is it maybe time
to stop competing, go right to the top
of the market and produce the very
top quality items at a premium price,
because they are made in Britain by
hand? You know, like we used to?
Phil
Robots can produce far higher-quality,
more consistent products than people
can by hand. They tend to be limited
only in the complexity of the tasks
they can perform – thus, if anything,
replacing the unskilled jobs and leaving
plenty of scope to combine the highlyskilled
manual jobs with automation of
the grunt work.
Ben
AI and robots are not for everyone,
and for some they can be more trouble
than they are worth, but it is our job
to assess these things, surely. And
yes, UK labour may be more expensive
than the Far East equivalents, but time
changes these things (popping over to
China anyone?). Prove you can deliver
the quality and the time, and lock in
customers by great service.
Steve
In my experience, people have lots of different
perceptions as to what might be involved in
automation but don’t actually know. It’s also a big
topic and so the solutions and benefi ts are likely
to be different for each fi rm. My advice is, start
small…. and add to it
Maria Sarkar
35%
12%
13%
14%
26%
Concerns over job losses
Lack of government support
/www.theengineer.co.uk
/www.theengineer.co.uk