Control, Alt, Delete: Facilitating the interruption, or not, of the workplace

By Bauromat (UK) Limited
schedule16th Sep 19

On the 5th of September 2019, The Made in the Midlands group hosted its first ‘Best Practice’ networking breakfast of the month at Bauromat UK Limited. We’ve caught up with the company to reflect on the topic of automation, a central pillar to message given to the Made in Group members.

For those of you who were unable to attend the event, Bauromat is a leading robotics and automation systems integrator, who provides complete turnkey systems for a wide range of applications across all areas of the manufacturing process.

The tour took members of the Made in Family around Bauromat’s Telford site, where they were treated to a look at how automation can work, and the types of industries that it could, and is, being used in. However, before the tour, a Best Practice talk was given in which the topic of automation was a heavy focus. If you weren’t at the event, you can watch the full talk below.

One of the other questions that were brought up was the topic of the workforce. With the retirement age looking to increase to a higher age, and technology improving at an increasing pace, how do we prepare workers for the digital skill gap when it comes to learning to use the automation and robotics? But is the saying of you can’t teach the old dog of generation X (1965 - 1976), or even Baby Boomers (1946 - 1964) new tricks even relevant?

However, with the talk of apprenticeships, we asked John what his view on the current state of education of the upcoming ‘next generation’ is, and whether the government is doing enough to prepare the workforce of tomorrow for the workplace of tomorrow.

“The reasons behind this is also part of a twofold mindset. One is that we had a culture of ‘hiring & firing’ based on increase and reduction of workload, the law has since changed and this attitude I think has slightly changed. Secondly the mindset of return of investment, company owners expect to return on their investment with 18 -24 months, which would make the component too costly for the investment

Our counterparts in Europe have a completely different approach, they look at the components that need automating, look at the cost of the automation and amortized over the life of the product, making the piece part acceptable and have the automation when there is a model/product change.

The government has to incentivize manufacturing companies to invest, either by giving short term tax incentives or interest-free loans to ensure that our manufacturing continues to contribute to the economy.”

His second wow moment was when he visited the Yaskawa factory in Japan where he saw the process of robots building robots which he described as awesome, and spooky!

Bauromat UK Limited hosted a Made in the Midlands best practice breakfast on the 5th of September, 2019. You can see a full list of upcoming best practice events for the Midlands, here, and for Yorkshire here. Right now Bauromat UK Limited are offering a wide range of offers including a Free Automation Consultation, training for your workplace on robotics, and producing turnkey systems for all areas of manufacturing.


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