The industrial sector is currently moving through a paradigmatic shift, as manufacturing companies embrace more automation in the development of smart factories. Industry 4.0 is our present, and future as the most nimble companies poise to become intelligently networked leaders of their field. According to Forbes manufacturers plan to build 40% more smart factories over the next five years, which a Deloite study claims has the potential to create a huge amount of high-skilled occupations. In spite of concerns over potential human redundancies, the progression into the future is creating the need for highly skilled (and well paid) employees. As the industry embraces automation it encourages more opportunity for the development of new expertise, and for existing technical skills to flourish!
Identifying How Your students’ Skills Can Be Integrated Into Industry 4.0
Educators can thoughtfully guide their students into roles that value education and skills when the core principles of how the manufacturing industry has progressed, in response to industry 4.0, are understood. Strategically, mentors hugely benefit from open communication channels, and partnerships with transitioning facilities to identify prevalent needs and design programs that prepare students for success. Additionally, educators should identify which certifications are most recognized by employers.
Enhancing The Role Of IT
Inter-connected manufacturing environments have created the requirement for expertise in: programming, networking, security, and advanced skills in networked systems. For example; IT specialist skills take on a reinvigorated essentiality as smart factories connect their physical systems, operational information, & human assets to control manufacturing, maintenance, inventory, & supply chain operations. Rather than the traditional assumption that IT professionals will see most of their time spent within an office, talent recruited into a smart factory paradigm find themselves integrated across many more departments in a company, trading pocket protectors for hard hats. Smart factories are opening up an entire new range of opportunities for job-seeking IT professionals with the required skills and credentials.
Talk The Talk
Smart manufacturing is being discussed everywhere, from the shop floor to the national media. New technologies in smart factories present the opportunity to work more effectively across disciplines and organizations. An effective modern workforce operating with an automated product chain encourages interdisciplinary collaboration by teams of category experts. Ensure that your students have the credentials that will enable them to walk the walk.
How Will You Manage?
Where issues arise in regards to safety and logistics students can use aptitude for management and planning to optimize an automated work setting. Since a smart factory is designed to be more intelligent and flexible, approaches to the management of people and machines have changed. Organization is no longer performed on a per process basis, say’s Cleverism.com; instead, entire production chains are networked with each other.
Troubleshooting From The Hip
Students that display a flair for lateral thinking will relish roles that involve responding to the automated diagnosis of problems with system components diagnosing problems or inefficiencies in a digital supply network. Maintenance of the processes and components used in an industry 4.0 optimized facilities requires keen critical thinking skills and a deft hand for troubleshooting issues. In addition these skills are valuable to system designers looking to ensure the safest and most efficient product delivery.
A Vast Collator Of Data
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) presents a groundbreaking opportunity for data capture at each step of a manufacturing process. Components of a smart factory can track all elements of the production chain and communicate information and even anticipations within the network. The communication between each device allows unprecedented access to data. Students should understand the complexities of an industrial network.
Moving With The Technology
As the machines on the production line become enriched, so to do the skills of the employees. The sophistication inherent in smart factories encourages, and indeed requires, high-skilled employees. By using the right tautological tools, along with corporate partnerships and accredited certification’s; educators can confidently encourage students, as they develop their proficiency, that they are developing vital abilities for the future. This represents a broadening of the field; and speaks to the in-demand skills that employers are eager to welcome into their companies.
With all of these future careers on the horizon, industry-endorsed Industry 4.0 certifications will become even more valuable. That’s why the Smart Automation Certification Alliance (SACA), a non-profit organization, has made it our mission to develop and deploy Smart Certifications for a wide range of industries.
Thanks to the help of our partners, SACA has created certifications that are industry-driven, developed for industry by industry. They are developed through a rigorous process that begins with the creation of truly international skill standards, endorsed by leading experts in Industry 4.0 technologies throughout the world.
SACA’s Smart Automation certifications use a modular structure to enable them to fit a wide range of individual needs, industries, and educational environments, and are available in three categories – Associate, Specialist, and Professional. Each certification is stackable, allowing individuals to start with one certification and add other certifications to customize their documented skills.
All SACA certifications are occupationally focused, so they prepare individuals for specific careers in the world of Industry 4.0. If you would like more information into SACA’s world-class Smart Certifications, please contact us!
