Italian companies are preparing for a future that is just around the corner. Within the next 3 years, 9 out of 10 companies will use second generation robots and systems that will automate their production activity. We are talking about machinery and devices capable of making decisions and carrying out actions autonomously, adapting to business plans, environmental conditions and the necessary changes in production strategies.
This is the most relevant data contained in the Advanced Robotics in the Factory of the Future, the survey conducted by Boston Consulting Group out of 1314 executives of manufacturing companies from 12 different countries, including Italy. However, the study underlines that although the enormous potential guaranteed by robotics is now there for all to see, including business executives, there are still few companies that have begun to adopt strategies that make it possible to exploit this potential properly and above all to prepare to the upheavals that the adoption of new technologies will bring about.
Going back to the data, more than one in two executives (52% to be exact) globally believe that robotics will become an essential part of industrial production by 2025. Not only that 86% of international companies, on average, will use second generation robots in their production system within three years. And in Italy? In our country the percentage rises to 87% and exceeds that recorded in Japan (72%), UK (75%) or USA (80%). Even more "robotic" will be Germany and France (92%) China (96%) and India (97%).
This process of robotization and innovation, now considered inevitable, has been raising the same question for years: what will be the future of workers who currently carry out those tasks that will become the prerogative of robots in the coming years? “The production model enabled by advanced robotics will lead to a retraining of the workforce and a new organization of the factory – he argues Jacopo Brunelli, partner and managing director of BCG -. More qualified employees with interdisciplinary knowledge capable of managing automated production processes will increase; on the other hand, the demand for traditional labor will decrease. Compared to the traditional model, with few people at the top and a base of workers who carry out simple and repetitive tasks, the smart factory of the future it will have a management more oriented towards motivation, teamwork and objectives". In summary: the work changes, evolves, but is not lost.
We must also consider that the desire to automate the production chain in the next three years could collide with a very different reality. If executives show that they are aware of the changes taking place in production processes due to the introduction of advanced robotics systems, only one company out of ten (11%) has already successfully introduced next-generation robots in production stages e only 20% have established a plan to convert production in the next 3-5 years. Companies could therefore not keep up with a technological development that could distort their business, having a predominant effect on business and turnover.
“You can no longer take time, the changes will happen quickly ed now is the time to define the steps for the complete digital transformation of production. To overcome the challenges of the coming years, according to BCG, companies must start adopting digital transformation processes, following three guidelines: define their overall objective, acquire internal skills and acquire an overall image that represents the functioning of the entire production system. Only in this way will it be possible to benefit from technological progress and unlock untapped potential”, concludes the Boston Consulting Group report.
