Hydraulics & Pneumatics July/August 2022

Sweet spots of change Ed Holden - Editor, Hydraulics & Pneumatics 48 HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS July/August 2022 www.hpmag.co.uk Fluid power equipment and services remain in strong demand. However, while the staple solutions continue to serve all key sectors throughout the UK and beyond, complementary trends and developments in terms of automation technology also gather pace. Alongside the Industry 4.0 and the smart, interconnected technologies that fall within the remit of this increasingly recognised term, we are now hearing more and more about related concepts such as Maintenance 4.0. Maintenance processes have always been critical within manufacturing and engineering from a plant and asset management perspective. The methodologies have become increasingly sophisticated over the years, so Maintenance 4.0 joining the Industry 4.0 ecosystem makes perfect sense. The UK’s take-up of Industry 4.0/Maintenance 4.0, is sometimes regarded as rather sluggish compared with some of our foreign counterparts – the US and Germany, for example. However, based on comments from contributors to one of DFA Manufacturing Media’s recent Talking Industry online panel discussions, the view of the UK lagging behind can to a large extent be debunked. Sally Sillis, technology centre manager at Schaeffler UK Ltd, the multinational bearings and condition monitoring solutions provider, maintains that the UK is on the whole mature vis-à-vis Industry 4.0/Maintenance 4.0 adoption. “We have a lot of specialists when I compare with my colleagues in other countries and I think we are very far advanced,” she said. In her view, much of this advancement stems from the oil and gas industry, which spurred greater levels of condition monitoring knowhow. However, she believes one of the main problems when we talk about genuine Industry 4.0 and Maintenance 4.0 is that we have quite old infrastructure in our plants in the UK. Sillis also believes it is easier for companies to implement if they are building new factories from scratch. However, she qualifies this by adding that there aren’t many new factories being built in the UK. On the topic of the UK workforce, EngineeringUK recently published a research report that indicates the overall number of employees in the engineering industry was around 6.6 million in 2010, increasing to 7.6 million by 2019 and then seeing a downturn to 6.9 million by 2021. More than 40% of people working in engineering worked in manufacturing industries and a further 24% worked in construction at the start of this period, equalling around 4.4 million employees. The percentage working in both declined over the decade, as did the number of employees to around 4 million. Employment in engineering occupations (including engineering jobs in non-engineering industries) grew by 8.5% between 2010 and 2021. Between 2018 and 2019, engineering occupations grew by 6.1% before falling back by 10.2% in 2019 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In comparison, other occupations grew by 3.7% in the year leading up to COVID-19 before falling by 8.1% between 2019 and 2021. Another important them is, of course, cyber security. With the current global situation and greater risk of malicious actors posing a threat to companies’ data and internet security, it is sobering news that web malware (47%) and ransomware (42%) now top the list of security threats that organisations are most concerned about. This is according to a recent survey by Menlo Security – for which Sapio Research questioned 505 IT decision makers across the UK and US including CIOs and CISOs during February. As employees spend more time working in the browser and accessing cloud-based applications, the risk of Highly Evasive Adaptive Threats (HEAT) attacks increases, explains the report. It goes on to suggest organisations are not proactive enough in mitigating the risk of these threats, with 45% failing to add strength to their network security stack over the past year. Definitely room for improvement here. So, on to industry and the environment. The government has in place a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the UK by 50% on 1990 levels by 2025 and to net zero by 2050. However, with a considerable level of reluctance to invest in automation equipment in some quarters within the UK, how can OEMs, integrators and designers overcome such a barrier, and how can prospective users/beneficiaries be better incentivised? During a recent Talking Industry webinar, Martin Kidman, market product manager (UK & Ireland) – safety solutions at SICK Sensor Intelligence, said he believes there needs to be a culture change at the top, stressing that many companies are still relying on old machines and, consequently, struggling to source spare parts. “Things are falling down so it's really about just continuing to push this message that we really need to do something about it,” he said, adding that some people just look at today's turnover instead of looking further forward. We hope you find the above themes food for thought and, as always, trust that you find this year’s Buyers’ Guide a valuable and useful source of information for your equipment and service requirements. WELCOME TO THE TWENTY FIFTH EDITION OF HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS’ ANNUAL BUYERS’ GUIDE www.hpmag.co.uk