Population is aging. Paradoxically, this is an opportunity for companies
Europe is facing a demographic crisis. People born in the early 1960s are now retiring, approximately 165-200 thousand workers per year. And they are replaced by "weak" vintage from the beginning of the millennium. The decrease in the economically active population in the last two years has been compensated by migration, but this cannot be relied on indefinitely. Companies must prepare for the fact that people are not and will not be on the labor market. The solution for them can be the digitization and automation of processes.
Problem of the whole western world
One does not have to be a statistician or a demographer to see from a cursory glance at the number of births over the last 65 years that the economically active population in our country is decreasing year by year. So far, the decline is rather creeping, the biggest impact will come in 10-15 years, when the strong population vintage of the 70s is going to start to retire. At that time, tens of thousands of workers will disappear from the labor market every year.
Of course, migration can be the solution, the problem is that the entire developed world is facing an aging population. The critical situation in Japan or South Korea is notorious, but countries whose workers we often rely on - Ukraine, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Poland - are also facing aging and extinction. And in the case of Ukraine and Russia, the losses from the ongoing war have not yet been fully recorded in the statistics.
Experts recommend: invest in technology
If there are no people and companies still want to grow, they must replace human labor with machines. The revolution called Industry 4.0 is nothing new, a certain degree of digitization or automation of work permeates companies across industries today.
However, many business owners or directors are afraid of automation/digitization, often because they imagine it to be something very complex, robust and expensive. At the same time, there are many solutions on the market that cost only only a few hundred euros, but can replace the work of several people.
A typical example is administration. Large companies often employ several people who deal with invoices, orders and other documents all day long. For example, invoicers, buyers, accountants and others. At the same time, a large part of the work of these people - especially that with the lowest added value - can be conveniently automated. For example, with EDI, which automates the exchange and flow of all electronic documents in the company, or at least with solutions for automating the receipt of invoices, often referred to as extraction services.
Warehouse WMS solutions - such as our LOKiA WMS – allow companies to handle much more work without having to hire new warehouse workers. The system streamlines and speeds up the storage and removal of goods, the process of returns or stocktaking. The next phase may be the partial robotization of the warehouse, which directly requires the introduction of a WMS (or a similar warehouse solution).
One could find many such examples. Today, automation or digitization is not just about keeping up with the times, but a critically important thing to stay competitive and not pay for labor shortages in the market.
If you feel that there is potential to save jobs in your company through digitization or automation, please contact us. We will be happy to invite you for a coffee and find out if we can help your company in this direction.
