Malaysia’s ‘kitchen cabinet’ of international science advisors, meeting in India, counsels emerging economy nations to prepare for game-changing shifts in manufacturing processes
NEW DELHI, April 3 (Bernama) — Symbolized by the robot, the merger of manufacturing, automation and computing is creating a profound shift in the production methods and promises greater wealth for companies and countries around the world.
However, as “smart factories” take shape and higher profits beckon, significant social and security risks need to be understood with open eyes and safeguards installed, experts say.
How a emerging economy country like Malaysia addresses this worldwide industrial trend is front and centre at a meeting today of Malaysia’s Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council, a group of distinguished national and international leaders in economics, business, science and technology guiding Malaysia’s route to developed country status in an environmentally sustainable way.
Under the chairmanship of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the 7th GSIAC meeting is held April 3 in New Delhi, during the Prime Minister’s state visit to India.
Discussions centre on “Industry 4.0,” a term coined in Germany five years ago to describe the new industrial world, one undergoing a transformation through the accelerating fusion of mechanized tools of production, devices such as computers and sensors, the Internet, and more to create smart new technological systems.
In Germany, the US and other developed countries, businesses are creating truly smart systems that can, for example, aggregate and analyze raw data in real time during production to create new insights and inform decisions, or to anticipate and self-diagnose problems, perhaps making decisions and triggering needed adjustments on their own.
The impressive impact of recent technological breakthroughs on production and profit has many examples, including:
– Data captured by sensors at an African gold mine produced a new understanding that led to a change in a key process, increasing yield by almost 4% — resulting in a $20 million annual bonus for shareholders
– An auto maker using advanced analytics compared which optional vehicle features customers were considering online and actual global sales data, helping executives determine what extras people are most likely to buy. With that knowledge, the company slashed its number of available options — along with its production and development costs
– Using 3D printing and online crowd-sourced designs, another car maker is able to build new vehicle models in a single year, a fraction of the six-year industry average
-In Asia, DNA technology is detecting durian fruit mislabelled “product of Malaysia,” where the most highly prized and valuable durian in the international market is grown
The convergence of information technologies, devices and automation represents the next step in a process that began with steam-driven machines in the 1800s, followed by the advent of electricity, the assembly line and mass production, then the computer.
Industrial robots are the most obvious manifestation of this latest progression, used most commonly in the electronics, automotive, metal products, plastics and chemical industries, performing tasks like welding, painting and packaging.
From 1993 to 2007, the US added one new industrial robot for every thousand workers — mostly in the Midwest, South and East — and Western Europe added 1.6. In a study of the issue, economists estimated that for every robot added per thousand workers, up to six US workers lost their jobs and wages generally fell by as much as 0.75%. Between 1990 and 2007, robots replaced 670,000 US manufacturing jobs, with forecasts that robots in that country will quadruple in number.
In the near future, economists predict, not only factory processes but entire supply chains will be linked through smart technologies, improving quality and output, reducing costs and downtime, and increasing market share and profit.
Those compelling benefits come with significant costs and risks, however, led by cybersecurity issues — the vulnerability of manufacturing processes and “the Internet of Things” to hackers, for example — protecting proprietary knowhow, the potential instability and unreliability of machine-to-machine communication, and the loss of jobs, especially those of lower educated workers.
“How our factories work and our country competes will be deeply challenged by these powerful new technological and economic forces,” says Zakri Abdul Hamid, Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia and Secretary of the GSIAC. “It isn’t a question of if this revolution is coming, the questions are how soon, and how a nation like ours prepares for this new industrial age.”
“To avoid being left behind in tomorrow’s economy, these issues need to be thoroughly understood and embraced by Malaysians, with all that entails for our national economic and educational strategies.”
“Last year, Malaysia was 25th among 138 countries in a global ranking of competitiveness. Maintaining such a high status will require training and keeping the best talent we have to structure and manage companies of the future, and to safeguard Malaysia’s cybersecurity. We will also need to call on the brightest brains to help plan for inevitable disruptions that come with change.”
“In all these respects, we are grateful to have the expertise of the GSIAC to light our path,” Prof. Zakri says.
Comments
“In addition to manufacturing, the efficiency and operations of Malaysia’s plantations — the cornerstones of our bio-economy — are beginning to benefit from smart technologies. And soon we may see the arrival of self-driving cars, delivery drones, and other marvels expected to change modern life at the street level, especially in the world’s urban centres. We need to be ready for these changes, and for all of the implications they hold for Malaysia’s competitiveness and society.”
– Yusoff Sulaiman, President and CEO of the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), which hosts the GSIAC Secretariat
“Even employment sectors such as insurance, finance, and healthcare will be transformed by technologies, including artificial intelligence, and automation. This has led several observers to the view that many new jobs of tomorrow will be in the realms of creativity, such as entertainment or design, or caring for people, education, sports and recreation, et cetera — areas in which the human element adds value and gives people satisfaction. Observers, including Bill Gates, contend that for this world to work there will be pressure for an annual income supplement paid from the wealth created by Industry 4.0. That, of course, is a big jump from the work-based cultures that dominate the world today.”
– Hon. Jerry Hultin, Chairman, Board of Directors, and Co-Founder, Global Futures Group; former US Under Secretary of the Navy; President Emeritus, Polytechnic Institute of NY University; Member, GSIAC.
Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (www.might.org.my)
The Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee under the purview of the Prime Minister of Malaysia. MIGHT is an organization built on the strength of public-private partnership with more than 100 members, both local and international, from industry, government and academia. As an organization MIGHT is dedicated to providing a platform for industry-government consensus building in the drive to advance high technology competency in Malaysia.
MIGHT hosts the secretariat of the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council, a group of distinguished national and international leaders in economics, business, science and technology guiding Malaysia’s route to developed country status in an environmentally sustainable way.
GSIAC participants, April 2017:
The Hon. Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia (Chair)
Prof. Tan Sri Zakri Abdul Hamid, Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia (Secretary)
International members
Prof. Abdallah S. Daar, Professor of Public Health Sciences and of Surgery, University of Toronto
Bobby Gafur Umar, President Director and Chief Executive Officer, PT Bakrie & Brothers
The Hon. Deborah L. Wince-Smith, President, Global Federation of Competitiveness Council
Prof. Dr Hayat Sindi, Founder and CEO, Institute for Imagination and Ingenuity
Prof. Mohamed H.A. Hassan, Executive Director of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)
Hon. Jerry Hultin, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Co-Founder of the Global Futures Group
Dr. Roger Wyse, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Spruce Capital Partners
International invitees
Abraham Liu Kang, CEO, Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive, NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), Government of India
Dr. Anantha K Duraiappah, Director, UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP)
Dr. Balakrishna Pisupati, Vice-Chancellor, TransDiciplinary University
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, SMART FACTORIES, AND THE ROBOT REVOLUTION
Malaysia’s ‘kitchen cabinet’ of international science advisors, meeting in India, counsels emerging economy nations to prepare for game-changing shifts in manufacturing processes
NEW DELHI, April 3 (Bernama) — Symbolized by the robot, the merger of manufacturing, automation and computing is creating a profound shift in the production methods and promises greater wealth for companies and countries around the world.
However, as “smart factories” take shape and higher profits beckon, significant social and security risks need to be understood with open eyes and safeguards installed, experts say.
How a emerging economy country like Malaysia addresses this worldwide industrial trend is front and centre at a meeting today of Malaysia’s Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council, a group of distinguished national and international leaders in economics, business, science and technology guiding Malaysia’s route to developed country status in an environmentally sustainable way.
Under the chairmanship of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the 7th GSIAC meeting is held April 3 in New Delhi, during the Prime Minister’s state visit to India.
Discussions centre on “Industry 4.0,” a term coined in Germany five years ago to describe the new industrial world, one undergoing a transformation through the accelerating fusion of mechanized tools of production, devices such as computers and sensors, the Internet, and more to create smart new technological systems.
In Germany, the US and other developed countries, businesses are creating truly smart systems that can, for example, aggregate and analyze raw data in real time during production to create new insights and inform decisions, or to anticipate and self-diagnose problems, perhaps making decisions and triggering needed adjustments on their own.
The impressive impact of recent technological breakthroughs on production and profit has many examples, including:
– Data captured by sensors at an African gold mine produced a new understanding that led to a change in a key process, increasing yield by almost 4% — resulting in a $20 million annual bonus for shareholders
– An auto maker using advanced analytics compared which optional vehicle features customers were considering online and actual global sales data, helping executives determine what extras people are most likely to buy. With that knowledge, the company slashed its number of available options — along with its production and development costs
– Using 3D printing and online crowd-sourced designs, another car maker is able to build new vehicle models in a single year, a fraction of the six-year industry average
-In Asia, DNA technology is detecting durian fruit mislabelled “product of Malaysia,” where the most highly prized and valuable durian in the international market is grown
The convergence of information technologies, devices and automation represents the next step in a process that began with steam-driven machines in the 1800s, followed by the advent of electricity, the assembly line and mass production, then the computer.
Industrial robots are the most obvious manifestation of this latest progression, used most commonly in the electronics, automotive, metal products, plastics and chemical industries, performing tasks like welding, painting and packaging.
From 1993 to 2007, the US added one new industrial robot for every thousand workers — mostly in the Midwest, South and East — and Western Europe added 1.6. In a study of the issue, economists estimated that for every robot added per thousand workers, up to six US workers lost their jobs and wages generally fell by as much as 0.75%. Between 1990 and 2007, robots replaced 670,000 US manufacturing jobs, with forecasts that robots in that country will quadruple in number.
In the near future, economists predict, not only factory processes but entire supply chains will be linked through smart technologies, improving quality and output, reducing costs and downtime, and increasing market share and profit.
Those compelling benefits come with significant costs and risks, however, led by cybersecurity issues — the vulnerability of manufacturing processes and “the Internet of Things” to hackers, for example — protecting proprietary knowhow, the potential instability and unreliability of machine-to-machine communication, and the loss of jobs, especially those of lower educated workers.
“How our factories work and our country competes will be deeply challenged by these powerful new technological and economic forces,” says Zakri Abdul Hamid, Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia and Secretary of the GSIAC. “It isn’t a question of if this revolution is coming, the questions are how soon, and how a nation like ours prepares for this new industrial age.”
“To avoid being left behind in tomorrow’s economy, these issues need to be thoroughly understood and embraced by Malaysians, with all that entails for our national economic and educational strategies.”
“Last year, Malaysia was 25th among 138 countries in a global ranking of competitiveness. Maintaining such a high status will require training and keeping the best talent we have to structure and manage companies of the future, and to safeguard Malaysia’s cybersecurity. We will also need to call on the brightest brains to help plan for inevitable disruptions that come with change.”
“In all these respects, we are grateful to have the expertise of the GSIAC to light our path,” Prof. Zakri says.
Comments
“In addition to manufacturing, the efficiency and operations of Malaysia’s plantations — the cornerstones of our bio-economy — are beginning to benefit from smart technologies. And soon we may see the arrival of self-driving cars, delivery drones, and other marvels expected to change modern life at the street level, especially in the world’s urban centres. We need to be ready for these changes, and for all of the implications they hold for Malaysia’s competitiveness and society.”
– Yusoff Sulaiman, President and CEO of the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), which hosts the GSIAC Secretariat
“Even employment sectors such as insurance, finance, and healthcare will be transformed by technologies, including artificial intelligence, and automation. This has led several observers to the view that many new jobs of tomorrow will be in the realms of creativity, such as entertainment or design, or caring for people, education, sports and recreation, et cetera — areas in which the human element adds value and gives people satisfaction. Observers, including Bill Gates, contend that for this world to work there will be pressure for an annual income supplement paid from the wealth created by Industry 4.0. That, of course, is a big jump from the work-based cultures that dominate the world today.”
– Hon. Jerry Hultin, Chairman, Board of Directors, and Co-Founder, Global Futures Group; former US Under Secretary of the Navy; President Emeritus, Polytechnic Institute of NY University; Member, GSIAC.
Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (www.might.org.my)
The Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee under the purview of the Prime Minister of Malaysia. MIGHT is an organization built on the strength of public-private partnership with more than 100 members, both local and international, from industry, government and academia. As an organization MIGHT is dedicated to providing a platform for industry-government consensus building in the drive to advance high technology competency in Malaysia.
MIGHT hosts the secretariat of the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council, a group of distinguished national and international leaders in economics, business, science and technology guiding Malaysia’s route to developed country status in an environmentally sustainable way.
GSIAC participants, April 2017:
The Hon. Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia (Chair)
Prof. Tan Sri Zakri Abdul Hamid, Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia (Secretary)
International members
Prof. Abdallah S. Daar, Professor of Public Health Sciences and of Surgery, University of Toronto
Bobby Gafur Umar, President Director and Chief Executive Officer, PT Bakrie & Brothers
The Hon. Deborah L. Wince-Smith, President, Global Federation of Competitiveness Council
Prof. Dr Hayat Sindi, Founder and CEO, Institute for Imagination and Ingenuity
Prof. Mohamed H.A. Hassan, Executive Director of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)
Hon. Jerry Hultin, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Co-Founder of the Global Futures Group
Dr. Roger Wyse, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Spruce Capital Partners
International invitees
Abraham Liu Kang, CEO, Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive, NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), Government of India
Dr. Anantha K Duraiappah, Director, UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP)
Dr. Balakrishna Pisupati, Vice-Chancellor, TransDiciplinary University
Binod Hampapur, Executive Vice President, Infosys Limited
Briand Greer, President, Honeywell ASEAN
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson & Managing Director, Biocon Limited
Rohit K. Shukla, Founder and CEO, Larta Institute
Srikanth Velamakanni, Group Chief Executive & Executive Vice-Chairman, Fractal Analytics Pvt. Ltd
Sunder Raju, Founder & Managing Director, Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT) Pvt. Ltd.
Harjiv Singh, Founder & CEO, Gutenberg Communications
National members
Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry
Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Madius Tangau, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI)
Dato’ Seri Haji Idris Bin Jusoh, Minister of Higher Education
Tan Sri Dato’ Azman bin Hj. Mokhtar, Managing Director, Khazanah Nasional Berhad
Tan Sri Dr. Ir Ahmad Tajuddin Ali, FASc, Joint Chairman, MIGHT
Prof. Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail FACs, President, Academic Sciences Malaysia
Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah, AO, Founder and Chairman, Sunway Group
Datuk Seri Ir. Azman Mohd, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tenaga Nasional Berhad
Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin, President and Chief Executive Officer, PETRONAS
Prof. Dato’ Seri Dr. Noor Azlan Ghazali, Vice Chancellor, UKM
Datuk Dr. Mohd Yusoff Sulaiman, President & CEO, MIGHT / GSIAC Head Secretariat
Datuk Franki Anthony Dass, Managing Director, Plantation Division at Sime Darby (Representing Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Mohd Bakke Salleh)
Dato’ Ir. Lee Yee Cheong, Honorary Chairman, International Science, Technology and Innovation Centre (ISTIC)
Aireen Omar, Chief Executive Officer, AirAsia Berhad (Malaysia)
Ex-Officio members
Dato’ Kamel bin Mohamad, Deputy Secretary General, Ministry of Higher Education (representing Tan Sri Dr. Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur)
Dato’ Yasmin Mahmood, Chief Executive Officer, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
Datuk Mark Rozario, Chief Executive Officer, Malaysia Innovation Agency
Prof. Datuk Dr. Raduan Haji Che Rose, Chief Executive Officer, National Professor Council
Syed Agil Syed Hashim, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Bioeconomy Corporation
Dr. Raslan Ahmad, Senior Vice President, MIGHT
SOURCE : Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT)
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND INTERVIEW PLEASE CONTACT:
Name : Terry Collins
Tel : +1-416-878-8712
Email : [email protected]
Name : Zeti Akmar Tajudin
Tel : +60-18-287-7752
Email : [email protected]
–BERNAMA
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