Industrial robots fall short of workers

China's industrial robot industry may not be hampered by a lack of demand, but by unexpected factors such as companies that buy industrial robots but cannot find qualified operators and maintenance staff.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, China's operational inventory of industrial robots exceeded 940,000 units in 2020 and will exceed 1 million units in 2021.

Installed at the same time, China's industrial robots are still in a rapid increase, when new crown the most serious epidemic in 2020, China's industrial robot installed capacity of 168000 units, up 20%, 44% share of global shipments, this is the highest value on record individual countries, also led to the global sales of new robot slightly increased by 0.5%.

Number has more than one million units, and also in the rapid growth of industrial robots, need operation and maintenance of personnel are also increased dramatically, however, because industry started late, the robot industry in our country have not ready, related and there is a large demand, and there is a widening trend, if not reverse this situation, There may soon be a situation where industrial robots are easy to get and hard to find.

Current situation of basic staff shortage in robot industry

In recent years, the shortage of people in China's manufacturing industry is becoming more and more severe, so is the industrial robot industry. "Guide to Manufacturing Talent Development Planning" points out that the ratio of talent supply and demand in China's robot industry is only 1:10, among which the talent gap in industrial robot related fields has reached about 3 million, and is expected to reach 4.5 million in 2025.

This year people club department released the latest data also show that in 100 "the most short of workers" list, manufacturing workers missing situation continues, there are 43 career belongs to the manufacturing related personnel, intelligent manufacturing engineering degrees deficiency increase at the same time, the industrial robot system operator "and other professional qualifying rise, lack of engineering degrees.

According to the Report on the Development of New Vocational Online Learning Platform released by China Employment Training Technical Guidance Center of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and Alibaba Dingding, the demand for new vocational talents in the next five years is huge, and it is estimated that industrial robot system operators and operation and maintenance personnel will reach 1.25 million.

For any industry, the lack of people is the most fatal, only talent supply and industry development match, the healthiest development state, but in the next few years, we simply can not meet the talent demand of about 2.5 million.

This is also because of our late training of relevant talents. It was not until 2015 that China had a highly efficient and approved major in "robot engineering". In terms of vocational education, preparation is also inadequate. Training qualified industrial robot operators and maintenance personnel need relevant hardware and software facilities, and our vocational high schools and technical schools simply do not have enough resources; Finally, enterprises train relevant employees, and only a few state-owned enterprises have this strength, which can be described as a drop in the bucket.

Operators of industrial robot systems are now in hot demand because of the scarcity. A survey shows that operators of industrial robot systems are generally paid more than the local average, with 45 percent earning twice the local average. Relevant practitioners said that there are relatively few graduates of industrial robot system operation and maintenance, and the talent demand gap is relatively large. After reaching a certain level, the monthly salary of more than 10,000 is very easy.

It's never too late to mend

In recognition of the gradually expanding talent gap of industrial robots, the country also launched a lot of measures in time to deal with, on the one hand, issued documents to regulate professional standards, on the other hand, set up relevant majors in colleges and universities, at the same time to promote the training of relevant talents.

In April 2019, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Bureau of Statistics released 13 new occupations, which are the first batch of new occupations since the promulgation of the Occupational Classification Code of the People's Republic of China (2015 edition), including industrial robot system operator and industrial robot system operation and maintenance personnel.

At the same time, corresponding definitions are also made for the two positions, so that people have a clearer and accurate understanding:

Industrial robot system operator: personnel who assemble, program, debug, change process parameters, change fixture and other auxiliary operations of industrial robots, industrial robot workstations or systems by using human-computer interaction equipment such as teaching device and operation panel and related mechanical tools.

Operation and maintenance personnel of industrial robot system: personnel who use tools, measuring tools, testing instruments and equipment to conduct data collection, condition monitoring, fault analysis and diagnosis, maintenance and preventive maintenance of industrial robots, industrial robot workstations or systems.

Recently, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released information about new jobs to the public again, including robot engineering and technical personnel, which means to gradually solve the problem of talent shortage with the development of the robot industry.

On the other hand, since 2015, China has been vigorously promoting the opening of robotics major. According to the Notice of the Ministry of Education on the Filing and Approval Results of Undergraduate Majors in Colleges and Universities in 2021 released this year, only one university was approved as the major of "robot engineering" in 2015, but the number increased to 25 in 2016. There are 60 in 2017 and 101 in 2018. From 2015 to 2021, 323 universities in China have successfully applied for the major of "robot Engineering".

Public information, "the robot project" professional training target for industrial robot technology essential knowledge, technology, has the strong practical ability and innovative spirit, and is mainly engaged in robot workstation design, adjustment and transformation, robot automatic production line design, application and operation management and so on related work, High quality applied professionals with strong comprehensive professional ability.

After graduation, this major can be engaged in robot workstation design, installation and transformation, robot automatic production line design, application and operation management and other technical or management positions in robot design and research units, manufacturing enterprises and integrated application companies.

With such a large number of universities offering robotics engineering major, it can undoubtedly relieve talent anxiety to a certain extent. Meanwhile, the Guidelines on Promoting the High-quality Development of Modern Vocational Education, issued in October last year, encourage listed companies and leading enterprises to hold vocational education, and encourage all kinds of enterprises to participate in holding vocational education in accordance with the law.

In fact, by robot enterprises to carry out vocational training, it is has been proved effective, such as ABB, fanuc, kuka, yaskawa leading manufacturers such as robot in dozens of countries around the world, every year for many robots courses, professor range from provide basic programming for the first time user to the complex robot system debugging, includes many aspects, Make sure you learn enough skills.

Germany with the academy of sciences, Alexander bangka said, "by the international robot manufacturers set up a training plan, can provide the key skills for future industrial workplace, workers in college certificate of robots on a global scale, are eligible for a wonderful new career opportunities, this is not limited to automotive industry robot and automation of the classic enterprise use, It also applies to small and medium-sized companies with various branches."