WCA September 2019

Industry news

Bridging the cable industry’s skills gap IN 1982, the total number of jobs in UK manufacturing was nearly a quarter of the working population. Fast forward to 2002 and this figure dropped to 12 per cent. Recent statistics show that the figure has now dropped to eight per cent. This is not unique to the UK – all industrialised countries, with the exception of Brazil, have seen manufacturing jobs decline since the 1990s.

Over the last 20 years in particular, factories have automated many tasks on the production line, which have to some extent replaced jobs. Compared to the 1980s, there are three million fewer jobs in manufacturing in the UK. Government focus turned to industries which were seeing an increase in the value of GDP output. As a result, funding for and interest in STEM education dropped. This perfect storm led to only one outcome – the creation of a workforce with a stronger interest in other sectors. In recent years, there has been a renewed recognition of the importance of STEM to the national economy. The government’s industrial strategy has at its core a number of policies to help manufacturing ‘build a Britain fit for the future’. At the same time, the Industry 4.0 revolution has led to an evolution of employment in manufacturing.

Hilger Groß is the new business development and area sales manager at Sikora AG in Bremen, Germany. He is in charge of the plastics business unit. A highly experienced manager, Mr Groß is responsible for the worldwide sale of Sikora’s inspection, sorting and analysis systems for plastic pellets. “We are happy to win an outstanding sales expert with Hilger Groß, who perfectly knows the plastics market,” said Holger Lieder, sales director. “With his long-standing experience in compounding and inspection of plastic material, he will distribute the benefits of our systems to the industry and further develop the plastics area.” In recent years, Mr Groß has worked in managing positions in sales and as QM auditor. His focus was on quality, process optimisation and efficiency enhancement for the production and processing of plastics. “Mr Groß has extensive knowledge especially in the field of pellets sorting and, therefore, possesses the necessary skills for his role at Sikora,” explained Mr Lieder. Sikora AG – Germany Website : www.sikora.net These highly skilled professionals can then get back to designing cutting-edge cable and wire. Similarly, CableMES’s manufacturing execution dashboards and reporting demand greater levels of judgement from operators. Cimteq Ltd – UK Website : www.cimteq.com New sales manager at Sikora The Industry 4.0 workforce will increasingly focus on managing new operations, as well as managing, programming and maintaining robotics. The automation offered by Cimteq’s CableBuilder cable design software means fewer repetitive, tedious tasks for design engineers and more tasks that require greater levels of judgement. ❍ Cimteq designs software to help bridge the skills gap

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2019