Sustainability Focus: Rockwell Executive on Shifting Manufacturing Priorities

Boston, Dec 5 (PTI) Manufacturers are increasingly focusing on sustainability while looking at solutions, in a departure from the past, where their driving factor was productivity gains, a senior official from Rockwell Automation has said.

In comments that come at a time when industries are increasingly being blamed for climate change, Scott Wooldridge, Rockwell Automation president for the Asia Pacific, said client conversations have dramatically changed in the last decade, and sustainability has become a core in every discussion now.

“If I went back 10 years ago, the conversations were all around the technology, the speed of the technology, the application at a manufacturing shop, or the layout. Although it is relevant, the conversation has completely changed to sustainability. There is a balancing of the strategy and technology to manage sort of two areas simultaneously—productivity and sustainability,” he told visiting reporters on the sidelines of the company's flagship event here recently.

“There is a lot more focus on sustainability, not just productivity within manufacturing, but how do you drive more output while driving it sustainably, whether it's Net Zero, whether it's recyclable, packaging material, whether it's limiting waste in terms of water waste, or other effluent waste, among others,” he said.

When asked about the reasons behind it, Wooldridge said sustainability “makes perfect economic sense” for most customers. For some companies, the core priority is net zero or recycling, or waste management. It is also about understanding what that priority is and making sure that we are not trying to push an agenda that is not aligned with their core areas of focus, he said.

“It is very rare, almost never now, I have a customer that does not have some sustainability initiative,” he added.

It can be noted that the issue of sustainability, and specifically the role played by the private sector, has been under a lot of discussion at the COP28 conference being held in the United Arab Emirates at present. Even India has declared its targets on reducing emissions over a long period of time without compromising its aspirations for growth.

Speaking about how Rockwell is trying to fit in with companies having a varied range of expectations about sustainability, he said, “I think it is hard for me to see any company that is not becoming aware of sustainability, and not receiving pressure to be more sustainable.

"I have seen that trend accelerate dramatically in the last five years. And when we talk sustainability, we talk about issues related to the environment, social and governance”.

“It varies from industry to industry, what the drivers are, among others. If we work in food and beverage, it might be about recyclable packaging, as a key driver; if we work in mining or oil and gas and might net zero is a key, how do they prove that they have a right to operate and can operate net zero?

"Or it could be something in effluent management and wastewater management. So it is understanding what is driving that industry, and making sure that we are working with the customer in their right priorities,” he said.

Commenting on questions related to the skill sets that would be required in this changed scenario, he said the education system has to impart an ability to relearn and transform in a student, and added that some AI technologies were not so well known as recently as three or four years ago or there was limited exposure to it.

“…we need to continue to invest in the people. We must upskill; people will not come out of university with all the necessary skills. And they need to be tailored for the type of applications and solutions that are needed in the manufacturing shop for if you look at an event like this, a lot of the sessions that are held are around education,” he said.

He said even when Rockwell hires an employee, it looks at an ability to learn and be agile continually.