Fewer hands, evolving jobs: Competing in the next era of manufacturing

Digital Manufacturing Ireland is applying new technologies and its strong industry expertise to solve real world manufacturing challenges. Pictured are IDA Ireland chair, Feargal O'Rourke, with DMI’s chair, Lionel Alexander, fellow DMI board member Rachel Shelly, and DMI’s CEO Domhnall Carroll.

    Automation will change manufacturing jobs in Ireland. Some roles will disappear. Others will require very different skills.

But for Domhnall Carroll, CEO of Digital Manufacturing Ireland (DMI), that is not the same as saying the people currently working in manufacturing will disappear with them.

As factories become increasingly automated, he believes one of the central challenges for manufacturers will be separating two questions: whether a particular job will continue to exist and whether the employee doing it today can move into a different role.

“The jobs will definitely be different,” he says.

The greater the shift towards automation, the greater the need for upskilling.