Sumitomo Demag
Nigel Flowers, Managing Director at Sumitomo Demag
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to impact many facets of our lives. Here we discuss AI with British Plastics Federation (BPF) President Nigel Flowers and how it might impact the plastics industry.
Tell us about your role at the BPF and its relevance to AI?
My day job is as managing director of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery but for a long time I have been involved with the Education and Skills Committee at the BPF, and in recent years have chaired the Productivity Committee, which aims to identify areas in which the industry can improve its efficiency, therefore also reducing environmental impacts and taking real-world strides towards achieving net zero. The Productivity Committee has begun a project intended to allow decision makers to adopt more efficient working practices and signpost them to state-of-the-art production methods to help build a more competitive UK plastics industry. This summer, I was also unanimously elected to be BPF president, so am relatively near the start of my term in that role – but I intend for my term as president to continue to foster positive change for the industry.
Do you think AI will have a major impact on the plastics industry?
No matter what we feel about AI in our lives, it is already making an impact in one way or another. In some ways, it is a logical step forwards, building upon the data-centric learnings made from the pursuit of Industry 4.0. In terms of manufacturing, it has the capacity to optimise processes in truly exciting ways, if the economic and legislative environment allow it to flourish. AI can also help us produce far more accurate models of production processes, so-called ‘digital twins’, so can aid decision making on many levels – hopefully helping to avoid any potentially costly mistakes. The deployment of AI onto the factory will allow manufacturing machinery to adjust parameters autonomously, ensuring production is always running at its optimum.
It’s fair to say that there is some fear towards the development of AI. Do you think that is justified?
This is a good question, and something that was addressed in a statement made by the prime minister at the end of October when he discussed the government’s take on AI and how he saw it as part of an innovative economy. While he felt that the technology would aid economic growth and productivity, he understood the risks to the labour market. But he added that AI can be applied in a way that it reduces the mundane tasks in productivity and relieves the workforce to focus on other valuable tasks. I am aware, for example, how the related area of automation has allowed firms to keep workers – not lose them – and to get more value from them, in the process providing better conditions for them in which to operate. That said, appropriate care is needed when developing some forms of AI, so governments need to get the balance right when it comes to oversight and legislation.
A key element of AI deployment is the sharing of information, between machines, across sites and globally, so we should not forget the cybersecurity implications of opening our factory floors to the internet.
We also need to consider, when information is shared between multiple partners or suppliers, who owns the information that is produced? If a machine optimises a process via AI, who owns the IP: the moulder or the machine vendor?
With that in mind, if we view AI as a tool, if it is used efficiently, intelligently and we are in control of it, there is no need to see anything other than a benefit for the plastics industry. This is especially true when it comes to the environment. AI can help manufacturers be more efficient; can improve the sorting of plastic waste, improving recycling in the process; and it can help us track waste far more efficiently, even helping us to understand the fate of plastic that has been disposed of incorrectly and unfortunately ended up in the environment.
Are there any other ways you think it may impact the industry?
A lot of companies are looking at this through the prism of their business, so it is quite possible that a ‘killer’ application is yet to reveal itself. But I suspect, regardless, it will help to improve many aspects of our industry to varying degrees. For example, it has the potential to help us better understand market behaviour; influence material selection and reduce failure rates by refining computer-aided design (CAD); enhance the abilities of machinery, robotics, and automation; and it may even be able to assist with increasing the compatibility between systems in a factory. It can also help to optimise the quantity of material used in a product, further increasing the resource efficiency.
If companies are interested in learning about AI, what do you advise?
There’s a lot being written about AI now, so that is an obvious place to start. Participating in groups like the Productivity Committee at the BPF may also help, as it is a topic in our discussions. The project I mentioned will be touching on this subject, and the more we learn, the more we will be adding to our guidance.
It would also be remiss of me not to mention that I am chairing an event called ‘Plastics and AI’ on 17 November, which will be looking at various aspects of this technology. We at the BPF thought it would be interesting to create an event highlighting the various ways AI can positively influence industry throughout the life of a plastic product, from optimising manufacturing through to improving waste management and recycling – providing an overview of the technology as it currently stands.
I think the real risk from AI is to ignore it. If competitors in other countries are adopting new technologies while we are still scratching our chins, the UK can very easily be left behind.
The plastics industry needs to continue the positive momentum it has gained while continuing to work towards minimising the environmental impact of the various industrial processes that society requires of us. There’s a lot that can be done for any business within our industry – and we should keep it up. But the intelligent use of AI may just be able to help you achieve those goals.