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Scoping the Next Generation for Professionals
 What skills will be required of future
automation professionals, and how do we get there from here?
Much has been written about the growing shortage of
engineers and skilled automation professionals–a problem compounded by the near-term retirement of
the huge generation of baby boomers.
So when Automation World set out to cover automation staffing topics this month, we
decided not to focus so much on the “sky–is–falling” issue of the shortage. Instead, we set out
to look at the kinds of skills that will be needed by the next generation of automation
professionals, along with some ways that industry and academia might go about producing an
automation workforce that will possess the necessary skills.
For this report, we interviewed a variety of well–known industry sources for their
thoughts on the topic. Capsule reports from some of those interviews can be found throughout
these pages.
Another obvious source for this kind of information is the International Society of
Automation (ISA), which is heavily involved in education and training, as well as the
certification of industry professionals. We spoke with various ISA sources for a look at future
skills requirements, as well as prospects for an “automation engineering” degree program in U.S.
universities. That report begins below... Read more
Collaboration Gains Traction In Project Management
Plants turn to collaboration tools to get everyone involved in projects.
Monterey AgResources, a Fresno, Calif.–based producer of crop protection and animal feed
materials, had difficulty accommodating the wide range of stakeholders concerned with the
various stages of product development, from research and development (R&D) and field trials
through compliance, registration and packaging.
Each phase of the project called on people from different disciplines, from chemists and
marketers to compliance specialists, suppliers and management. Bringing these people in and out
of the process made innovation and product development sluggish. The company shared information
through the process by using endless e–mails and hard–copy reports. “Errors and delays were
taken for granted in a system that lacked any ability to truly track and collaborate,” says Jay
Irvine, vice president of marketing for Monterey AgResources. “Once, we mistakenly double–paid a
supplier $6,500.” Read more
KPIs Provide “Line of Sight” for Management
“Before defining key performance indicators (KPIs), differentiate
those from regular performance indicators (PIs),” advises Gary Cokins.
“KPIs should be strategic, usually few in number and typically derived from strategy maps
and balanced scorecards,” explains Cokins, manager of performance-management solutions within
the Worldwide Marketing Group at SAS Institute Inc. (www.sas.com), a Cary, N.C.–based provider
of business intelligence software.
Designed to monitor progress toward accomplishing strategic objectives, KPIs require a
target measure against which to be tracked. “There should be multiple KPIs working together.
Some project-based, some process-based,” Cokins notes. In contrast, PIs, which may monitor
processes and not require a target measure, often are reported individually without context to
strategy, he adds... Read more |
