Electricity + Control July 2018

COMMENT

ON THE COVER

Industrial revolution, learning evolution

I t is hard not to become despondent now and then when we look at the economy we’re engaged in, and are trying to build. So many indicators seem upbeat ... and then we drag ourselves down again. Obviously, no one expects reviving in- dustry to be an easy task. But one does anticipate that law-makers will make the time and effort to craft a policy environ- ment that brings stability and confidence to all involved. It is their job, is it not? I also find myself wondering about the way we perceive the future – whether it is a perception of slow progress, slow decline, or a revolution about a revolution (which is certainly one of the options on the table). Experiences of my own have brought a few things into sharp focus of late. The first I have become conscious of relates to our inherent tendency to see extremes, rather than the middle ground. For example, we hear about violent crime all over the world. The most recent report I heard was of an incident in Sweden. Yet, when I was in Sweden, I wondered if any- thing happened there at all – ever. You get the point. The exception is newsworthy, it is scary, and it gets our at- tention. It also confuses our world view, and leads us very easily to believe the end is nigh. The fact is that violent crime, per capita , has – on average – been decreasing for decades. But that seems invisible. (Of course it has not been decreasing every- where, which remains a major concern.) Similarly, there are many examples of progress in our own country that we tend to hide with examples of dramatic excep- tions, such as extreme natural disaster, poverty, road accidents, heists, and the like. Yet, most of this is getting better. This does not mean we should be accepting of horrible situations. Of course not. But we should be mindful that things may not be quite as bad as we tend to think. Allied to this is the realisation that In-

dustry 4.0 is a nice way of packaging ‘stuff’ that, in our industry, has been happening for a long time. It seems that society, more broadly, is now cottoning on to it too and, these days, what we have done for dec- ades has a name and is now pervasive. Industry 4.0 is not a subtle creep. It is a massive tidal wave, probably best thought of as one tidal wave after another – in rap- id succession driven by an ever-changing world. This is not the time to be mulling over getting ready for it. It is inevitable, and it is a revolution. Call it the Fourth Industrial Revolution if you like – and we all know that folk get hurt in times of revolution. And they get scared. However, counter-revolution is futile, and way too late. The future is upon us. Our options are limited, but one aspect of the future that emerges clearly is the need for agility. Dare we think of agility as being more important that an ability to plan over a period of time? Does it ne- gate the need for that much-sought-after stable policy environment? Not really. It is the one thing that can be stable, while technology and human behaviour demand agility in other spheres. The other, and more important aspect of a stable policy environment is that it creates the opportunity for industry to grow, flourish and become competitive. The world is one huge village, and unless we firmly entrench ourselves as part of it, we will just become a rather little suburb ... and possibly not too well off.

FEATURES: · Control valves+ electric actuators · Energymanagement+ environmental engineering · IIoT+ Industry4.0 · Drives,motors+ switchgear · Flowmeasurement+ instrumentation

EC JULY2018.indd 1 6/25/2018 8:36:27AM www.electricityandcontrolmagazine.co.za

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