COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Jan. 29, 2008 - The process industry is experiencing “a tsunami of change” that is not only affecting the way companies are doing business but also demanding automation professionals become more business savvy, said Editor-in-Chief of CONTROL Magazine Walt Boyes Tuesday at Texas A&M University.
“The world is changing; we can see that constantly, and the manufacturing industries are changing rapidly, too,” said Boyes, who was the featured speaker at the university’s 63rd annual Instrumentation Symposium for the Process Industries, sponsored by the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering.
The symposium annually offers the latest developments in all categories of instrumentation, providing participants with access to specialized presentations, exhibits and workshops.
Detailing numerous changes in the social and demographic, economic and political, and technological spectrums that are shaping the industry, Boyes had a clear-cut message for his fellow professionals, both young and old.
“You’re going to have to speak business just as well as you speak process,” he said.
Specifically, automation professionals must work to be recognized as business process analysts in light of the growing divide between themselves and production and enterprise information technology,” Boyes explained.
An authority on business-to-business marketing with more than 25 years of experience in sales, sales management, marketing and product development in the controls and instrumentation industry, Boyes is widely considered an industry expert.
Among the many changes he cited, Boyes underscored the detrimental effects of a gradual but steady erosion of knowledgeable professionals from the field. The majority of professionals who were adept at running process plants were laid off in the 1980s and ‘90s, Boyes noted. Those that remained are today retiring in droves, taking their knowledge with them, he added.
“The institutional knowledge they are taking with them is irreplaceable,” Boyes said.
Compounding the problem, the best and brightest new employees don’t want to work in manufacturing, many of them considering factory work a less-than-secure career path, he said.
Because of this phenomenon, process industry companies are often unable to hire - even strategically - and, in turn, are relying on vendor companies to supply staff, services and expertise. These vendor companies however are encountering the same problems in trying to answer the increased demand for knowledgeable staff.
The ramifications of this are already being felt on an economic level, Boyes explained. Companies, he said, are changing the way they work in terms of how they’re treating their employees. The transition from viewing people as simply replaceable resources to valuable assets is well under way in the industry. Companies are starting to offer more benefits and perks similar to what occurred in the 1950s, Boyes said.
“There are trends that are converging in the next decade or so that are utterly changing the way process automation is done,” Boyes said. “And as automation professionals, we need to understand these trends. And if you do understand these trends, you can prosper in your career, and the companies you work for can prosper as well.”
In addition to Boyes’ presentation, several technical papers will be presented throughout the symposium by a host of authorities from across the country. Their presentations will cover a wide array of topics, including metering flow in utilities, compressed air and steam; using engineering automation software to document safety instrumented systems; and advanced flow diagnostics.
The symposium also will feature approximately 50 exhibits of an educational nature, which will be showcased by the leading firms in the instrumentation and control systems field. Exhibits display new and educational instrumentation equipment and are of interest to managers, operators and instrumentation personnel.
Various workshops ranging from a discussion of ethics to flow devices and liquid level/ measurement will be offered each day of the event, for which continuing education units (CEUs) will be awarded upon completion. CEUs are the nationally recognized units designed to provide a record of an individual’s continuing education achievements.
“We hope we are able to fulfill the expectations of all of the professionals and students who are attending this symposium, through our speakers, presentations, exhibits and workshops, said symposium chairman and senior lecturer Jerry Bradshaw.
