Hydrocarbon Processing - June 2022 - 9

K. FINNAN, Yokogawa, Hartford, Connecticut
Business Trends
The acceleration of industrial autonomy
and its impact on sustainable manufacturing
In 2020, the author's company pubbiopharma-20%
lished
the results of a survey that highlighted
a significant shift to industrial
autonomy, with as many as 89% of companies
planning to increase the level of
autonomy in their operations.
Building on the valuable insights
of this research, the author's company
commissioned a further study in 2021 to
gain an in-depth industry perspective on
how major manufacturing companies are
implementing industrial autonomy. This
article summarizes the key findings and
insights from that survey.
Survey scope. The survey Global Enduser
Survey on the Implementation of Industrial
Autonomy was conducted in September
2021. The survey received 534
respondents from 390 companies across
seven global markets and seven different
industry sectors. A total of 20 questions
examined insights in the following areas:
* The impact of industrial autonomy
* Levels of deployment
* Readiness of technologies
* Decision-making
* The impact on employment
* Challenges.
Respondents were all in management
roles within different areas of companies,
including corporate; operations, project
and plant levels; and information technology
(IT). Of the resondents, 62%
were manufacturers or process operations,
20% were systems integrators and
18% were original equipment manufacturers.
Company sizes ranged from
medium to large, with workforces ranging
from 1,000 to more than 100,000. A
breakdown on industry sectors of the respondents
included the following:
* Chemicals and
petrochemicals-15%
* Pharmaceuticals and
* Oil and gas-39%
* Power generation (traditional/
fossil fuel)-12%
* Renewable energy-14%.
Key findings. The 2021 survey shed
light on several findings that have
changed since the 2020 survey. As expected,
industrial autonomy deployment
has accelerated. The biggest surprise was
that environmental sustainability has
emerged as an area in which industrial
autonomy is expected to make a significant
positive impact.
The 2020 survey revealed that 30% of
process industry companies had implemented
autonomous operations and 30%
planned to begin them in the next 3 yr.
This trend appears to be accelerating,
with 51% of manufacturers surveyed in
the 2021 study now scaling deployment
of industrial autonomy across multiple
facilities and business functions, and another
19% having deployed it in at least
one facility or business function.
Further confirmation of this acceleration
can be seen in the companies that
are not engaging in industrial autonomy.
In the 2020 survey, 7% reported that
they had no plans to implement autonomous
or semi-autonomous operations,
whereas all the manufacturing companies
surveyed in 2021 are now actively
considering industrial autonomy of
some kind (FIG. 1).
Aligned with a global focus on the
greening of industry and a drive towards
more sustainable manufacturing
processes and operations, the survey revealed
that 45% of respondents expect
industrial autonomy to have a significant
impact on environmental sustainability
improvements in the plant. Only 6%
expect industrial autonomy to have no
impact on environmental sustainability.
When asked specifically about sustainability,
respondents indicated that
high levels of positive impact are expected
across energy management, worker
safety, greenhouse gas reduction and
waste reduction.
These findings reveal the developing
industry recognition of industrial
autonomy as a way to achieve environmental
impact reductions and sustainability
goals.
Due to the expected positive impacts
of industrial autonomy, more than a third
(37%) of respondents have already implemented
multisite industrial autonomy
projects, and 31% have implemented
single-site projects, specifically for environmental
sustainability, encompassing
dynamic energy optimization, water
management and emissions reduction.
FIG. 1. Companies are starting to deliver on their intentions to deploy industrial autonomy,
driving an increase in adoption and implementation, although considerable scope remains
for broader deployment.
Hydrocarbon Processing | JUNE 2022 9

Hydrocarbon Processing - June 2022

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