Why tech investments are outpacing labour approaches
Chemical companies are on course to be affected by waves of retirement, with around 30 per cent of employees in the industry being 50 years of age or over and are due to retire within the next decade or so. Despite the rate of technological change in the sector, the approaches to labour have remained largely unchanged. Here Tom Cash, director at automation parts supplier Foxmere, explains how chemical companies can sustain digitalisation efforts while addressing the growing skills gap with AI.
The chemical industry has invested heavily in digitalisation, with companies allocating up to six per cent of their annual revenues to new technologies and equipment.
Yet, automation has not been fully integrated into daily operations, leaving plants to function much like their older counterparts. This has left the sector heavily reliant on manual processes, meaning that efficiency gains from automation remain largely untapped.
Such disconnect has become problematic, with the industry facing a significant workforce shortage. With nearly a third of employees set to retire in the coming years, the need to address the skills gap is clear.
AI
A report from Accenture highlights that AI can reform chemical engineering workloads, freeing up engineers to focus on higher-value tasks that require human judgement.
Industry leaders, such as BASF and Dow, have already begun using AI to improve customer service and accelerate research and development. Yet AI’s role can go beyond these applications, especially in capturing and preserving expertise from experienced engineers before they retire.
Machine learning models can analyse historical data, plant operations and maintenance logs, turning them into training models that future workers can use to upskill quickly.
An inefficiency in the sector today is the amount of time workers spend on routine, repetitive tasks. The same research shows that production workers, planners and supervisors dedicate about 90 per cent of their time to administrative and documentation-related duties, something AI and automation can drastically reduce.
For planners, roughly 57 per cent of their responsibilities could be fully automated, with another 15 per cent enhanced through AI-driven augmentation. Rather than simply replacing human workers, automation can assist them by streamlining processes and providing real-time insights.
For instance, AI-powered systems can consolidate machine logs, production data and maintenance schedules, allowing engineers and operators to make faster, more informed decisions.
By integrating AI effectively, patterns and anomalies that might escape human detection can be identified, enabling predictive maintenance. This allows companies to anticipate equipment failures before they occur, reducing downtime.
Environmental concerns
However, there is a challenge that comes with increased AI adoption, and that’s its environmental impact.
While AI is instrumental in advancing sustainability efforts, the data infrastructure required to power AI systems consumes significant energy.
Data centres, which are essential for running AI models, contribute to approximately one per cent of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.
In turn, this creates a dilemma for chemical companies striving to meet their own carbon reduction targets while expanding their reach toward AI-driven solutions.
Tech giants like Microsoft have already encountered this issue, recently admitting that they will not meet their 2020 pledge to become carbon-negative by 2030 due to rising emissions from data centre construction.
However, AI itself may offer a solution to this problem. By optimising energy usage in plants, reducing waste and improving process efficiency, AI can help offset some of the environmental impact associated with its own infrastructure.
Parts suppliers, like Foxmere, provide the components needed to modernise operations, helping chemical companies to meet sustainability goals while helping tackle the skills gap.
After all, the right mix of AI and automation can do more than just streamline production. It can upskill workers, pass on expertise and make training faster and more effective, all while eliminating repetitive, time-consuming tasks.
Contact Foxmere for a no-obligation quote on everything from replacement equipment to obsolete parts.
