Shift to industrial autonomy

From robots to digital twins and AI, new technologies are revolutionising the way process plants operate and decision-making processes. The move towards more industrial autonomy will improve productivity and safety, and address the skills gap, explains Bert Konings, Executive Director, New Business Development, Yokogawa.

Automation is certainly not a new concept for the process industry, but the ongoing pandemic has placed new impetus on the sector to scale-up and become increasingly automated. Due to social distancing guidelines and nervousness among workforces to return to their places of work, a higher priority is being placed on the ability to continue running operations without workers needing to be onsite.

COVID-19 has somewhat put the brakes on economic growth this year, but, ironically, it is proving one of the biggest stimulations for future innovation. In fact, Yokogawa’s research shows that two-thirds of process industry companies across the globe now expect to have fully autonomous operations by the year 2030. Indeed, the pandemic has likely changed the industry forever.

From robots and quantum computing to digital twins and artificial intelligence (AI), new technologies are revolutionising the way that plants operate. They are facilitating a shift as physical tasks and decision-making processes are being made more autonomous – ultimately improving productivity and worker safety.

But to what extent are companies automating, and how?

Reaching level five automation

As process industries embrace automation, operational technology (OT) and IT professionals are looking at ways to increase productivity through autonomous operations. We have recently seen the renewables sector putting a greater emphasis on automation investment as a direct result of COVID-19, for example. According to a recent survey of 500 respondents in six key process industries, including oil and gas, process industries are aiming to increase their investment in industrial automation over the next three years. A definite trend is emerging.

Figure 1 Technology investment priorities for the next three years

Source: Yokogawa

That trend is leading to a race within the industry – a race to what Yokogawa refers to as level five automation. Level five is defined as operations which are completely autonomous, within the integration of systems within supply chain and process operations, among others. Simply put, these systems no longer require human intervention to be operational.

COVID-19 has sped up a major leg in the race to level five automation. As companies count the costs of an absent or significantly reduced workforce, a well-designed autonomous system is recognised to bring the benefits of remote operations and safer working environments.

An aid to decision making

There are many different technologies that companies should adopt to reshape operations, including wireless and 5G, blockchain, industrial fixed robots and vision systems. But there are four autonomous technologies that have become a top priority for companies to achieve level five automation:

1. AI – AI is the driving force behind autonomous operations, and process industry companies will be investing hugely in AI systems that will allow for new decision-making technologies to be implemented.

2. Cloud analytics and Big Data – The sheer volume of data required for processes to run autonomously and be instantly shared between many systems and devices will be tremendous. The distributed edge networks in which this data is created – and the continual cycles of DevOps-style software upgrades required to ensure the data integrity and safety of the network – means that without an effective Cloud approach and analytics system, automation systems simply won’t operate effectively.

Cloud analytics, along with Big Data, provides ways to analyse, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software. These are crucial investments for process industries to install to aid decision-making.

3. Intelligent sensors and devices – If systems are to run autonomously, then they must be able to diagnose and calibrate independently too. Hence, smart sensors are vital to enable concepts like self-diagnostics, self-calibration, and self-configuration/ parameterisation. There is an increasing need to measure quality attributes and raw material attributes, which are enabled by smart sensors, such as in digital twin deployment. This also represents a basis for the comprehensive use of chemistry-controlled process plants.

4. Cybersecurity – As the above technologies become connected and autonomous, the wider the cyber threat surface grows. Cybercriminals and hackers are extremely adept at noticing industry trends. So investment in cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions is a top priority for the process industries.

These four investment areas are key to enabling organisations to make better decisions with a greater span of control and lead the race to level five automation.

Addressing the skills gap

As these technologies become ever more complex, they require constant training and development of personnel. Unfortunately, this can lead to the potential for an ever-growing window of human error. Automating and programming existing processes makes keeping up with the learning curve far more time consuming.

One issue that has been concerning professionals in the manufacturing and process industries is the lack of a skilled workforce to take up these complex operations. Brexit could potentially limit free movement, which means fewer skilled EU workers will move to the UK. However, the truth is that a skills shortage already existed before 2016. According to recent reports, approximately 186,000 new engineers and manufacturers are needed every year until 2024, but the industry is facing a deficit of around 20,000 graduates annually. Tackling this issue is key to creating a strong manufacturing and process industry base and securing their role in the global economy.

As skilled personnel and veterans of the industry reach retirement age their knowhow and experience are very hard to replace, and is certainly challenging in the short-term. It would be unfair to expect a newly employed graduate to perform or have the same level of expertise as someone who has been in their career for 40 years.

However, new automated technologies being implemented in workplaces can help bridge the knowledge gap caused by babyboomers retiring. People entering the workplace can be taught to use new systems that didn’t exist even a decade ago, ensuring that the skills gap created by numerous retirements isn’t so wide. The management of applications throughout autonomous operations can offset the shortage of skilled labour as people retire. This remains a key issue for the process sector.

Moving to autonomy

COVID-19 has accelerated the rush to achieve autonomy, given the need to run operations with a smaller workforce. But there are numerous other benefits that justify the financial outlay, particularly for improvement of productivity and efficiency.

Automated operations also free-up human workers to focus on more creative, strategic tasks that will continue to drive a company forward. Automating processes also leads to greater worker safety. With fewer human workers involved in the production process, there is also less risk of human error, and less opportunity for production to break down or instructions to be miscommunicated. Theoretically, robots should make less (or ideally no) errors if programmed correctly and can process data in a fraction of the time that humans can.

Figure 2: Levels of autonomy reached by end users

Source: Yokogawa

Overall, automation makes workplaces more efficient, more productive, more profitable and safer. Although fully manned tasks may remain largely unchanged in the short-term, the move from level four (minimally manned tasks) to level five (remote operated, unattended systems) will reveal the biggest transformation in process industries.

Yokogawa has found that productivity, increased efficiency and optimised staff levels are the key targets for most process industry companies. Automation will ensure these are delivered.

COVID-19 is the starting pistol

The process industry has been lingering at the starting line for some time, but the pandemic has pulled the trigger on the race to reach level five autonomy.

There are many technologies that need to be invested in and implemented, such as AI, robots and quantum computing, and the move towards level five unattended systems is inevitable. Process industry workplaces are set to change dramatically by 2030. Tens of thousands of companies are adopting increasingly autonomous processes in a move towards full automation by the end of this decade.

Increasing productivity, reduced costs and addressing the skills shortage are some of the key issues that automation can address, long after the pandemic has passed. COVID-19 has meant the process industry is having to traverse a troubled path in the short-term, but a new era of automation is dawning.