Day 6 - ABB Robotics and Institute of Shipping Analysis 2011 Executive Meeting

The day started out with a trip to Professor Shield's former employer- ABB Robotics, which is the robotics division of the Swiss-Swedish multinational corporation, ABB. ABB is not only one of the largest engineering companies in the world, but also one of the largest conglomerates in the world with 117,000 employees in around 100 countries. Divisions include power products, power systems, discrete automation and motion, low voltage products, and process automation, leading to roughly $31.5 billion in revenue for 2009.

ABB Robotics has installed over 175,000 state of the art robots worldwide.  A few of these companies include: IKEA, Ford, Honda, Audi, BMW, Sony, Dell, Apple, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Astro Zeneca, Cadbury, Nestle, and Foxconn. These robots assist in manufacturing, and can be broken into two divisions: Hard Automation (programmed to operate independently) and Flexible Automation (operated by humans).  These incredible pieces of machinery range from lifting 3kg to 650 kg, and can perform operations such as arc welding, spot welding, painting/coating, cutting, press tending, finishing, material handling, machine tending.

We were also very lucky to be able to attend the 2011 Executive Meeting of the Institute of Shipping Analysis through the University of Gothenburg.  It is a conference for big players in international shipping; there we're CEOs, owners of commercial shipping fleets, economists,  and government officials and policymakers.

The first lecture was on global hot spots and geopolitical meltdowns; while the world is a much safer place as a whole today compared to a few decades ago, there is still violence.  This violence is mostly contained to the Middle East and Africa, and can greatly affect global trading and transport.  In the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan are considered the major conflict zones.  The session discussed possible end scenarios for the conflict in Iraq, the differing perspectives in regards to Iran, and a brief summary of current operations and strategies in Afghanistan.

The second seminary, Piracy; Orchestrating the Response, followed up on the previous topic by discussing violence and threats to shipping around Africa. Here are some staggering figures on piracy in 2010:

•  90% of all pirate attacks were off the Horn of Africa
• 728 hostages were taken throughout the year
• 445 attacks occurred, leading to 53 hijacks
• 1186 people were endangered
• 8 people were murdered

This issue can devastate individuals and their families and friends, corporations, and international trade; an organized global response is crucial to resolve a matter that can afflict any and all nations. This seminar also examined how corporations should react if they are a victim of a pirate attack.