It is indeed true to point out the deficiency in Automation professionals. India is slowly gearing towards the manufacturing IT landscape, which has till now witnessed the software industry boom only. Many technologies and related expertise are fast picking up and we expect the scene to change very soon. Rather, when this shift starts, the rate of change might be higher than what we could foresee. Those who opt for manufacturing IT will definitely pick up after the downturn is completely over. Also, once the rush to IT jobs stabilizes, more qualified/talented people will take automation jobs.

Large Automation companies spend a lot of time and invest in infrastructure for training freshers, while small companies who cannot afford this outsource their training requirements to mould candidates as per their requirement. Slowly this trend is changing and academic institutions have realized that their curriculum needs to be more industry-focused. Over the period, several new and related subjects, tools & techniques, have been added to the syllabus to take the course content towards current automation technology. However, there is still a need to make space for the issues that address the current automation technology, terminologies, and the practices followed by the industry. Change in the curriculum or introducing the latest in IA technology progressively in the undergraduate programs can drastically save cost and efforts in IA industry to readily deploy freshers on the job. This has to be jointly addressed by the academia and the industry fraternity and such efforts are already underway. We will be able to reap the benefits during the course of time.

The welcome change is that there is an increase in the adoption of IA + IT in manufacturing industries compared to the 90’s. Hence the major technical component in IA is IT. Any firm who has delivered intelligent IA solutions and those who have adopted clearly knows that IA projects are a different game to play. Generic IT firms entering the IA scope of work is due to the immense potential that it offers. India is recognized as the most happening manufacturing destination and that immediately translates to cutting-edge solutions and its needs. Due to demand forecast, many IT firms are entering the IA domain, which is a promising factor. However, how much of success can be experienced by them, is something which we have to wait and watch as this domain requires a hybrid of domain specialists and technology expertise. If IT firms work towards understanding IA domain, they can succeed.

Scope change is bound to happen as IA implementation affects final output from the manufacturing plant. This scenario might change once Automation is more widely accepted than it is now, as organizations will understand the implications of technologies and be adept at implementing them as well.

This was long overdue and it is heartwarming to see that finally IA professionals are earning their worth. Very soon, a career in IA will be as attractive as IT jobs, especially in India. Let us hope that the situation changes when the demand for IT engineers stabilizes.