Colombia. According to Yesid Yermanos, vice president of strategic planning at ISA Colombia, the first challenge of the industry in the country refers to the knowledge of the benefits generated by automation with respect to saving capital and raw materials, both in large and medium and small companies.
"Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs are not aware of the immense benefit that automation can bring to their companies in productivity and in reducing risks and times. Nor do they know the economic benefits that the market has for them" He argued that today it is cheaper to automate processes in an industry than what was invested in the 90s. "People think it's very expensive, but it's not real."
The second challenge facing the country and the industry has to do with security in the digital age, as Joseph Weiss, CEO of ISA in his document "What Executives Need to Know About Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity" explains.
"A company's executive and management policies must continue and, meticulously, identify, categorize, and mitigate risks to the organization's achievements that result from cyberattacks. In many cases the greatest risks to the well-being of your company, workers, processes and profits come from the compromise of your industrial control system, not from an information gap," Weiss said.
In that sense, the role of academia is fundamental for the creation of an informed, conscious culture adapted to the new needs of the industry. Therefore, the third challenge is aimed at having qualified professionals who contribute to industrial modernization.
Maximillian Kon, director of Wise Plant WiseCourses and WiseSecurity, an Argentine expert who will give a lecture at Automatisa, said that in countries such as Colombia, "the lack of knowledge and professionals in this area can cause resources to be poorly invested, when spending on inadequate systems, which opens security gaps and generates problems."
Diego Zuluaga, an information security specialist who has been working with the country's energy sector for nearly 15 years, said that this phenomenon is seen in Colombia due to the lack of academic programs that address this concept in full. "Universities lack basic chairs of information protection. Academia doesn't directly impact the general culture of cybersecurity."
The fourth challenge for the industry concerns the stability of workers. An automated plant, Weiss said, creates more paying and safer jobs, while reducing occupational risks in the short, medium and long term. This is related to technological advances that, for example, make it possible to measure the risks of electric discharge at some point in the plants.
Finally, Yermanos said that the fifth challenge is to recognize and internalize the benefits generated by industrial automation from the economic, social, environmental and labor point of view. "We want Colombia to advance in raising awareness of energy savings, resources and in the optimization that brings all machinery to operate properly."
Automatisa 2017, an event organized by ISA Colombia and Corferias, from June 14 to 16, will be attended by experts in this field willing to approach entrepreneurs and guide them in the best way to obtain the greatest benefit; it is also the opportunity for plants that are already in the process of automation to be updated with the latest news.
