The role of diversity and inclusion in NDE 4.0

Many of you will have heard of Industry 4.0, the Fourth Industrial Revolution: the digitisation of our world and evolution of cyber-physical systems. This ‘revolution’ is bringing many new technologies: robotics and autonomous systems, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, new and smart materials and sensors, plus many more. We are already seeing many of these being adopted and applied in industry and impacting the way we work in non-destructive testing (NDT), condition monitoring (CM), structural health monitoring (SHM) and the associated disciplines; for us, this is known as Non-Destructive Evaluation 4.0 (NDE 4.0). BINDT’s NDE 4.0 Group, chaired by Dr Nick Brierley, is leading on this and working nationally and internationally with our fellow NDT colleagues around the world to ensure a coherent way forward.

While the change required to adopt the NDE 4.0 technologies may be daunting, there is a great opportunity ahead. NDE 4.0 will bring greater innovation, new developments, new learning, new experiences and new ways of working for us all. As we all know, many of us have already had to adapt to new ways of working during the pandemic, including working from home when we can, working remotely from site/plant and, in the absence of face-to-face meetings and interactions, having to adapt to the virtual world of ‘Zoom’ calls.

So, what is the role of diversity and inclusion in NDE 4.0? Diversity celebrates the similarities and differences in people. Different people from different backgrounds and experiences will bring different ideas and strengths, promoting innovation and creativity, which is exactly what is needed to take NDE 4.0 forward. If there is a more diverse group of people collaborating and working together in our industry then this will enable everyone to feel included, valued and respected.

Statistics show that only about 12% of engineers and technicians working in engineering are women, only about 8% of engineering workers are from ethnic minority groups and, in some engineering sectors, the age profile is not evenly distributed through the ages. NDE 4.0 will bring new opportunities for people in our industry and offer great careers and work for those not traditionally attracted to a career in NDT/NDE, CM, SHM or engineering.

The adoption of NDE 4.0 will no doubt bring many challenges along the way, but working in a diverse and inclusive environment will enable the potential of NDE 4.0 to be taken forward.

Diversity and inclusion should be seen as a solution, just like NDT, and will support the development and adoption of NDE 4.0 technologies – the future is exciting!

If you have any thoughts or ideas, or are interested in joining the D&I Advisory Group, please get in touch: diversity@bindt.org