JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #139 - March/April 2021 - 45

" Robotics skills meet high demand in post-Corona recovery "

Which governments are doing it best?

M. G.: According to the " automation read-

iness index " published by The Economist
Intelligence Unit (EIU), only four countries
have already established mature education
policies to deal with the challenges of an automated economy. South Korea is the category leader, followed by Estonia, Singapore
and Germany. Countries like Japan, the US
and France are developed and China was
ranked as emerging. The EIU summed up
the order of the day for governments: more

study, multi-stakeholder dialogue and international knowledge sharing.

SMEs supporting investments in digital technologies and in qualification of their staff.

Are there any governments that have used
the pandemic as a catalyst for putting new
and innovative policies in place?

What are companies doing?

M. G.: Until now politics is still in a crisis

mode. In this phase, measures are mainly directed to softening the immediate effects of
the pandemic on the economy with short
term measures. It is highly important for the
long-term recovery that policies fostering the
use of innovative advanced technologies like
robots come next. We already see first signs
policies that support the digitalization not
only of the services sector, but also of the
manufacturing industry. Germany, for example, has launched a funding program for

M. G.: Robotics companies have proved
a lot of creativity when it comes to finding
solutions for problems imposed through
the Covid-19 pandemic. This rages from
welding robots used for the quicker manufacturing of urgently needed ICU hospital
beds in Italy, the speeding up of the production of Covid-19 test kit in the US, through
the automated manufacturing of face shields
and respiratory masks to the robotization of
medical laboratory work, to name just a few
examples.

tinue a trend in many countries of focusing,
through dialogue with the private sector, on
training for skills for which demand is forecast and in industries in which the country or
region demonstrates competitive advantage.

Prof. Hubert Jäger

Robotics and artificial intelligence
can help to counterbalance
the increasing lack of workforce

gineering and, increasingly important, civil
engineering.

tonomous assembly, additive manufacturing
or digital leadership, to name a few key areas.

Robotics and artificial intelligence are not
only key technologies for the coming decade.
They also show us the way to climate-neutral
production in 2050 via the potential increases
in material
and energy
Jäger's plea geared to the
political authorities: " Let us show
efficiency.
a stronger commitment towards
This applies
innovation based on a genuine
in particular
market analysis with all relevant
to the most
facts and figures "
important
industries
" Structural change is by far too
in which
slow in Germany, there is time to
f i b e r
speed up innovation and pave the
composite
way for more collaboration - Let
technolus go for it now "
ogies and
multi-material lightweight construction play a role.
Major areas are the aerospace industry, the
entire area of ground-based mobility, wind
energy, but also mechanical and plant en-

A large number of jobs across Europe are
affected by these key technologies, especially
in the construction sector and in mechanical and plant engineering. Against the
background of the European age pyramid,
consistent research and targeted implementation of the research results in these key
technologies will not lead to an increase in
the unemployment rate. On the contrary.
The demographically induced decline in
the working population in Europe must be
compensated as quickly as possible through
the widespread introduction of robotics,
especially in the sectors mentioned. This not
only in order to be able to replace the increasing lack of workforce, but also to keep Europe
competitive on the production level through
innovation in technology and at the same
time to create a pioneering role for climate
neutrality. We can achieve this through the
use of simulation techniques in combination
with AI, human-machine collaboration, au-

The goal of climate-neutral production in Europe cannot be achieved
with the existing production lines.
The use of robotics and AI must not only
lead to the necessary improvement in the
effectiveness of existing production lines.
The technological effort to produce at competitive and cost-covering prices in Europe is
getting higher and more expensive. As a result, the delta between industrial labor costs
in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region can no
longer be balanced. In a global comparison,
production jobs in Europe will no longer be
competitive in the medium term if we only
focus on improving the previous production
method. The goal of climate-neutral production in Europe cannot be achieved with the
existing production lines.

Corona is accelerating
structural change
Even before the pandemic, a migration of

N°139 March - April 2021

/ jec composites magazine

Feature Composites in industry

- Chair of Lightweight Systems Engineering and Multi Material Design, TU Dresden, Germany and Chairman of the
Board at Composites United e.V.
- Composites United e.V. supports its members in the selection of materials and suitable processing processes with
the preparation of market analyses and practically in over 40 thematically oriented working groups.

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #139 - March/April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #139 - March/April 2021