The human side of automation #IWD2024
Swisslog’s Sally Renwick sees exciting careers for more women in STEM and automation
Swisslog Senior Solution Architect, Sally Renwick, is fascinated by “the side of industry many never see” – the high achieving world of automation that is opening up a broad range of satisfying careers for women entering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and automation fields.
The numbers may show that women are outnumbered by men in STEM industries, with the Australian Academy of Science reporting that “only 16% of Australia’s STEM-skilled workforce are women, whereas the broader Australian workforce has close to 50% female participation,” but Sally says women shouldn’t be daunted when seeing these statistics.
“Despite what the numbers say, I see lots of high achieving women in warehouse automation, and the numbers are increasing every year. It’s an exciting field, so people who overcome their initial hesitation often find highly rewarding careers,” she says.
Seeing the exciting side of automation
Sally believes the exciting side of working in automation may not be obvious from the outside, and encourages more women to look deeper as they explore STEM career options.
“This industry is changing all the time – just look at what happened with e-commerce in response to the pandemic. There’s never a dull day, and you’re learning new things all the time,” she says.
“From the outside, it might look like you are just writing code – which some people enjoy – but when you look at what that code achieves, or the problem solving involved in designing solutions, it becomes a much more fascinating job.”
To nurture and grow your career, Sally’s advice is to speak up and be clear about the direction you’d like to move into.
“It’s important to ask for help and guidance to achieve your career aspirations. Swisslog has been very supportive in this way, and any company with a healthy culture will want to see its employees grow and develop. If you’re new, it’s a great idea to find a mentor who you can learn from as you develop into your role,” she adds.
Inspiring inclusion
The 2024 theme for International Women’s Day is “inspire inclusion” which Sally says in a work context, is all about making workplaces safer and more welcoming spaces for women to thrive.
Sally started with intralogistics leader, Swisslog, in 1997 as a software engineer, where her first site visit was to a Jaguar automotive facility where automation was storing and retrieving painted car bodies ready for the production line.
“I was intrigued by this side of the industry that you never see. You can extend this to things like supermarkets too. We all add products to our trolleys, but the journey it took to get there – and the technology that enabled it – is remarkable,” she adds.
As a solution architect with Swisslog, Sally now sits between sales and realisation, and is responsible for translating customer requirements into technical solutions that the software development team can implement.
Finding the right solution
As automation evolves, solutions are becoming more complex, with greater numbers of different configurations possible for each technology. This provides greater benefits to the customer, but also creates additional challenges for a solution architect like Sally.
“One particular challenge I faced recently was a customer site that had two different Swisslog warehouse automation systems in place, of different ages, and running different software systems. Initially we wanted to migrate the whole site to run as one system, but there were complex factors that made the customer reluctant to take that option,” she explains.
“It was such a large and customised site that I could see the customer’s concerns in migrating to a unified system, and instead worked on a solution that would optimise replenishment, while still having the two systems operating separately. I designed a high level solution to keep the systems operating separately, but with Swisslog’s latest SynQ software still replenishing the older system, to gain the benefits of the newer software.”
“It was a powerful, cost-effective solution that the customer was happy with, and that was a very satisfying moment in my career.”
And while Sally is especially proud of achievements like this one, she adds that the satisfaction of writing software code and watching a pallet move in a warehouse was equally satisfying in the beginning of her career.
“Right from the start, knowing that my input made that technology move – I knew I was in the right industry to build my career.”
Swisslog is a sponsor of this year’s Supply Chain and Logistics Association of Australia (SCLAA) International Women’s Day breakfast, which focuses on how corporations and individuals can embrace equity to foster sustainable growth. The breakfast links well with Swisslog’s policies that focus on upskilling for future career growth.
