Moving forward with Industrial 4.0

Front row, fourth from left: Dato’ Peter Halm, Prof Chuah, Dr Ong, Koong and Prof Cheng with participants

The Centre for Extension Education and Sungai Long Department of Student Affairs organised a dialogue session titled “Dialogue on Industry 4.0 Policy and Budget 2019” at Sungai Long Campus on 10 November 2018. Present were Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Dr Ong Kian Ming, Infineon Technologies (Kulim) Sdn Bhd Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Dato’ Peter Halm and Malaysia Institute of Accountants Charted Accountant Koong Lin Loong.

Prof Chuah

In his opening remark, UTAR President Ir Prof Academician Dato’ Dr Chuah Hean Teik welcomed the speakers and said, “Students should utilise this time to pick up a new technology and understand what to expect from the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Instead of calling it the Fourth Industrial Revolution, I would rather call it the Digital Revolution, so that we will not forget the first revolution which is the Agricultural Revolution.”

Dr Ong explaining industry 4.0 policy and budget 2019

Dr Ong highlighted the purpose of the dialogue and focused on how the government sees the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the industry 4.0 policy and the budget initiative behind industry 4.0 which was announced by the finance minister. “It is important to set the overall microframework which is the Fourth Industrial Revolution. From the government’s perspective, every single ministry and agency in the government was affected by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Each Ministry has been tasked with the responsibility to come up with their own strategies on how to approach the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Industry 4.0 is MITI’s responsibility and it focuses on manufacturing and manufacturing services. We had to come up with a framework that will not only guide the country in the manufacturing and manufacturing services but also find a collaborative framework to work with the team players,” said Dr Ong.

He then continued, “There were two announcements made; the first announcement was about the allocation of RM210million for industry 4.0 initiative; the second announcement was about the Readiness Assessment framework. This will be carried out by the Malaysian Productivity Corporation, one of the agencies under MITI. Five hundred SMEs will do the readiness assessment to identify gaps and provide recommendations.”

Dato’ Peter Halm sharing about digitalisation

Dato’ Peter Halm shared about Infineon, a semiconductor company from Germany and said, “Industrial 4.0 is about the integration of environment, integration of data and integration of what you want to do in order to receive products from the manufacturing line. Industrial 4.0 is also about the big data and analytics. It is also about the digital working life. Everything is controlled by electronic devices and the working hour is no longer standard but flexible. Lastly, Industrial 4.0 is about Automation 4.0, where robots, machines and devices become smarter and more collaborative,” said Dato’ Peter Halm.

Koong explaining the importance of understanding the functions of all government agencies

Koong, on the other hand said, “It is important to understand the functions of all the government agencies when you are involved in setting up a business. It is important to understand the types of services that the government provides and what does the policy mean to us.”  At the same time, he also gave some real-life examples and shared the importance of industrial 4.0.

The event then proceeded with a dialogue session. Institute of Management and Leadership Development Director-cum-Belt and Road Strategic Research Centre Chairperson Prof Dr Cheng Ming Yu was the moderator. The event also saw an interactive Q&A session between participants and speakers and a token of appreciation was presented by Prof Chuah to the speakers before the event ended.

Prof Chuah (left) presenting a token of appreciation to Dr Ong

Prof Chuah (right) presenting a token of appreciation to Dato’ Peter Halm

Prof Chuah (left) presenting a token of appreciation to Koong

In the mid of dialogue session, from left: Prof Cheng, Dato’ Peter Halm, Dr Ong and Koong

Some of the participants during the Q&A session