SYNOPSIS
THANK YOU for joining us in the Voice of the Market: Malaysia I4.0 Forum. Here's the recap of the session for you!
Most Asked Questions:
AI enabled supply chain technologies are mostly used on warehousing solutions and last mile delivery systems. There are some use cases in demand forecasting used by production planners as well. All these use cases require enterprises to be (end-to-end) digitally enabled first. It also require certain level of integration between suppliers and customers which complicates the data aggregation and deployment of AI significantly.
Ho Yew Wee, Director - Advanced Manufacturing and Precision Engineering Industry Cluster, Enterprise Division, A*STAR
The key area to focus on, to answer this question is Consumer Insights. If an entity does not have sufficient resources to address this with agencies, they can gather a group of baby boomers that represents their target market profile. From there, conduct an internal focus group to ask them questions you want answer to e.g. which communication touch points attract them to your brand or industry, what are the key barriers for them to come onboard? From here you can find answers to how you can develop your communications strategy and even innovation etc.
Alleena Abdullah, Founder, Yellow Tree
Various funds and assistance are provided by the government to help local industries to embrace technology and enhance their efficiency leading to the ability to compete in the global market. Local industries are advised to work closely with industry associations to get updates on government assistance.
Datin Zainon Bakar, Deputy-Director General, Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC)
Silicon Valley has set the gold standard as a tech and innovation hub. To emulate this model, countries need to continue generating new sources towards economic growth while ensuring the existing investment projects move up the value chain. Simultaneously, aggressive efforts are needed to address multiple angles in elevating the ecosystem, i.e. from the talent and innovation pipeline, market environment and connected ecosystem, agile policies & regulations and funding from the Government and private sectors.Malaysia has made great strides in building a robust ecosystem that enables innovation and development of new technologies. This includes putting the right infrastructures in place, energizing the startup ecosystem, building a pipeline of home-grown talent to fuel the tech sector’s growth and attracting global partnerships. With many countries trying to foster the blueprint of Silicon Valley, we believe with the right instruments in place, Malaysia can emulate this model locally.
Jaffri Ibrahim, CEO, Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science and Technology (CREST)
+ How can a big factory with old devices mixed with modern devices carry out digital transformation?
First is to identify the business processes that could be improved using the right Industry 4.0 technologies. The first step is to get the people's mindset ready, and the right leadership to steer the effort.
Ir. Dr. Shahreen Madros, Adjunct Prof, UKM Graduate School of Business
Agile management is key in the future platforms. The close connection of DevOps require agile process and management to enable continual improvements and quick deploy-learn-improve loop. I do not see how future platforms can do without agile management.
Ho Yew Wee, Director - Advanced Manufacturing and Precision Engineering Industry Cluster, Enterprise Division, A*STAR
We recommend starting with a project by reviewing your present state of maturity and identify areas where your team can improve efforts. This lays the foundation for successful adoption throughout your organization and will make it easier for the implementation to flow. We also suggest laying out the strategy by breaking the first project into discrete, manageable blocks.
Normally the implementation should start small with scalable Industry 4.0 Tools before moving to the next pain point and next. Each new system involves a period of continuous improvement, therefore you should aim to demonstrate consistent progress towards your final goal, rather than expecting an instantaneous solution.
But misjudging your first project can waste time and money and lead you to draw the wrong conclusions about what new technology can and cannot do for you. There is no short cut to success. You will need to find a reliable partner who will work with you through the planning, implementation and development of your Industry 4.0 strategy. Following the implementation of IR4.0, your organization will create a manufacturing ecosystem wherein the physical and the digital elements of your business communicate.
Low Hong Kian, Field Product Marketing Manager, Cognex Singapore
POC is very common for most customers to get a sense for the proposed system. Normally the suppliers in Asian countries will provide a simple POC or onsite demo first to their customers. However, the scale of POC must be acceptable by both suppliers and customers because there might be some costs involved or agreement to be made. The best way to do this is by identifying and understanding their pain points to define the most important needs for the project first. The supplier side must align with the customer side to make sure the goal is achievable. To move the project forward, we can defer additional work to later phases after the POC stage.
Low Hong Kian, Field Product Marketing Manager, Cognex Singapore
The world today exists in a global supply chain matrix. Every component within a product is a result of manufacturing processes done all over the world. The indigeneous element to consider is not in the base product itself but the application development. What this means is that Malaysian-made technology or solutions can co-exist with components of foreign technology. The focus should be on application-centric value creation which leverages on available technology whilst making space for Malaysian technology components to be embedded within them. Instead of competing, companies should be encouraged to pursue a co-existing ecosystem of technologies that will benefit all.
Jaffri Ibrahim, CEO, Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science and Technology (CREST)
In the most recent example, Singapore used automation to speed up COVID testing. watch the video in https://www.a-star.edu.sg/News-and-Events/a-star-news/news/covid-19/stronghold-diagnostics-lab-boosts-national-capacity-for-covid-19-testing will show you a digital twin of the testing lab operation and the robotics automation.
Ho Yew Wee, Director - Advanced Manufacturing and Precision Engineering Industry Cluster, Enterprise Division, A*STAR
The common ground here lies in how to achieve a problem/solution fit. Integrate the end users from the beginning, get feedback, and improve based on evidences. Start with the jobs to get done by the end users, and their pain points, to build a strong pipeline of ideas. You think about key customer journeys and generate ideas linked to the gaps in their user experience. You assess use cases/ideas against the pain points rather than technologies. The end users get a solution that they need when you can relieve their pains. Further, the suppliers can develop something we call an experienceable “Minimum Viable Product” or proof of concept, show it to the end users, and ask for feedback. Build, measure, learn, and repeat until you get something that is worth implementing. What could be interesting is to identify if there is any shift in the value proposition, for example, from product to recurring service, from low tech to high tech, or from sales to platform.
Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr,-Ing, Low Cheng Yee, Lab Lead & Co-Founder, innovationlabs.my
Every change in a company needs solid financing. This is also and especially true for the digital transformation process. You cannot digitalize all business areas and processes at the same time. Analyze which areas and processes are the most relevant for digital transformation in your company. Focus on the most promising ones first, and proceed step by step. Priority should be based on assessment and the digital strategy. Look at the most promising areas where would bring the most benefits for the company and a return on investment as soon as possible. Developing a digitization roadmap will help you do this. Depending on the project, agility is important. Small and medium-sized companies in particular often find it difficult to sufficiently finance such processes. That's why the federal and state governments should provide a range of funding options.
Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr,-Ing, Low Cheng Yee, Lab Lead & Co-Founder, innovationlabs.my
