Great challenges for automation (AI) in the Mexican industry

Undoubtedly, the incorporation of automation, interconnectivity and globalization is the present and the future of the industry worldwide, since it favors the development of integral production processes that link organizations, people and resources in terms of the increase in value added to productivity.

The Mexican industrial sector is the product of the influence of the production processes of large international companies, which dictate the trends regarding the implementation of technologies.

At the interview we talked with Alfonso Sesma, Director of the Industrial Automation business unit at Transom Group, who shared his experience about the challenges facing the mexican industrial sector on its way to automation.

Transom Group (TG). We appreciate your time for this interview Alfonso. We are sure that your expertise in AI management will broaden our readers’ vision of the automation trends for the Mexican industry.

Alfonso Sesma (AS). It´s a pleasure to participate in this interview, transmitting a message from the experience in various projects that we developed at Transom Group in terms of automation of industrial processes.

The first great challenge facing the mexican industry in terms of automation is financing and access to resources to invest in technology and in the consequent training of its users.

The idea that automation is expensive and implies a strong change process for your daily production processes. However, it is important to insist that it is an investment that generates an integral transformation of its processes, where certainly the necessary improvements are costly; But by not investing in these, companies are involved in a vicious circle, where there are no improvements in their processes, and therefore cannot compete, since automation allows them to generate higher levels of competitiveness.

Understanding the benefits that automation provides to mexican industry leads us to talk about the second great challenge: the implementation of the appropriate culture to participate in Industry 4.0 trends.

In this sense, what is observed is that the concepts of Industry 4.0 and automation are complex to understand and incorporate for the mexican workforce. Because it is difficult for people to understand the benefits that they imply and what they have to do to incorporate the technologies. In this sense, specialists in culture are required to generate these adequate communication channels for their comprehensive understanding.

Hand in hand with understanding the concepts of Industry 4.0, it is worth mentioning that these trends are of european origin and one of their great precepts is global integration to develop collaborative processes with people from different countries.

In this sense, the third great challenge of automation in mexican industry is the linguistic gap that national engineers and specialists present in the development of communication skills in english, considered a global language in the sector.

In Mexico there is a great area of opportunity in the practice of the language, since many high-level mexican engineers cannot take advantage of the opportunities that Industry 4.0 offers. In addition, the importance of the productive force being one hundred percent bilingual in the country is unknown.

TG. Excellent analysis Alfonso, in Mexico we have great pending tasks for the mexican industry to participate in the trends offered by Industry 4.0.

AS. At Transom Group we offer a comprehensive service with a portfolio of qualified personnel to face the challenges that international companies face, so that the client has the confidence of knowing that we are prepared in every way.

In the first instance, we recommend that you overcome the resistance of thinking ahead, that you locate the benefits that a digital transformation can bring you.

In the second instance, we suggest that you take the opportunity to carry out a real analysis of your needs so that you can make an informed decision. Third, we advise that as part of your analysis, you spot clear areas of focus, and don’t hesitate to invest in them. By allocating resources to the key areas, attending to them will make their way into Industry 4.0, because digitization, more than a concrete action, is a journey, which implies the construction of a new vision.

Finally, we recommend that you look for a partner you trust, who will provide you with comprehensive support to make an informed decision on the procedure to follow. In addition, it is important that they approach more than one option, so that they can evaluate the best path for their needs.